Space: The ascent of Manx

The wind from the Irish Sea whips across the former airfield at Jurby on the north-western tip of the Isle of Man. It was from this bracing spot during the Second World War that the RAF flew missions to protect the cities of Liverpool and Belfast from the Luftwaffe bombs. The hangars still stand today, although the armed forces left nearly four decades ago. The structures provide a startling symbol of this small island's soaring ambition to one day slip the shackles of the Earth and head for the stars. Next month international journalists, potential investors and local schoolchildren will be invited to Jurby to view two Almaz space stations housed here. The island-based company Excalibur Almaz bought them from the Russian government earlier this year – for what it describes as a "good price". The spacecraft were once part of a top-secret Cold War project for spying on the West. After they have been refurbished, the forbears of the pioneering Salyut and Mir projects will, at some point during the current decade, provide accommodation for space tourists willing to pay up to £20m to realise the dream of civilian space travel.