The European Space Agency (ESA) has shortlisted Spaceport Cornwall in Newquay as a suitable testing location for its “landmark programme”.<\/p>\n
Machrihanish in Scotland has also been shortlisted for the programme Invictus, which the ESA said would put the UK at the forefront of next-generation aerospace and space access.<\/p>\n
It said Invictus was set to deliver a “hypersonic flight test capability unlike anything currently available in Europe” and enable technologies that make future reusable spaceplanes possible.<\/p>\n
Head of engagement at Spaceport Cornwall, Ross Halbert told BBC Radio Cornwall “nearly everything that they would require is already here.”<\/p>\n
ESA says its Invictus programme is designed to accelerate “Europe’s progress toward aircraft-like access to space” through de-risking innovations including advanced propulsion by testing them in “real-world conditions”.<\/p>\n
Mr Halbert said Spaceport Cornwall had the necessary capacity with a 2,744-meter-long runway, adding the “operational environment is here naturally” describing it as “far superior”.<\/p>\n
He said: “If they chose another site they would have to invest tens of millions of pounds getting it to the point we are already at in Cornwall…<\/p>\n
“It’s a globally unique environment.”<\/p>\n
The Labour MP for St Austell and Newquay, Noah Law said: “Invictus would be an immensely welcome, long-term partner… the kind that such a fine aerospace asset as Spaceport Cornwall… deserves.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Space Agency (ESA) has shortlisted Spaceport Cornwall in Newquay as a suitable testing location for its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":{"0":"post-319741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}