A GIANT rocket has landed in Southampton city centre as the UK Space Agency tries to turbo-charge interest in a career in space.

The ‘Space for Everyone’ tour pulled into West Bargate for its opening day yesterday, where it will be available to space enthusiasts until Monday, June 5.

The main attraction is the 72ft replica rocket - a life-size model of the Virgin Orbit Launcher One that launched into space from the UK earlier this year - accompanied by a virtual reality experience.

UK reserve astronaut Meganne Christian and Deputy CEO of the UK Space Agency, Ian Annett, were among industry experts on hand to chat to visitors throughout the day on Thursday.

Born in Kent to New Zealand parents, Meganne, 35, moved to Australia at the age of 10 - and last year, she was selected from over 22,500 candidates to represent our country as one of 17 prospective astronauts in the European Space Agency's class of 2022.

Being a reserve astronaut means her application was successful but cannot be recruited currently - but has begun basic training should an opportunity to go to space become available.

Speaking to The Daily Echo, Meganne, who is now based in Italy, said she hoped that children in Southampton would be inspired to achieve a career in space.

She said: “It may seem unattainable, it seemed unattainable to me when I was a child but there are so many different things you can do to work in the space sector.

Daily Echo:

“You don’t have to just be doing science and engineering, you can be working in law, policy development or communication. Even in the future, I think astronauts are going to come from all sorts of backgrounds because once we develop a lunar base for example, we’re going to need people to document that and make it beautiful. I think there are so many opportunities.”

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The 72ft long rocket on show at the travelling exhibition is a life-size model of the Virgin Orbit Launcher One that launched into space from the UK earlier this year, in an ultimately unsuccessful voyage.

Ian said: “In January, we launched from Cornwall with Virgin Orbit. Even though we didn’t quite manage to get the satellites into orbit due to an anomaly, in the second stage we actually entered into space from the UK – the first country to do that from European soil.

“The rocket accelerates up to 17,500 miles an hour, 500km above the earth and it’s the size of two London buses. It is 23 tonnes and it generates 300,000 kilo newtons of thrust.”

The Deputy CEO of the UK Space Agency was also keen to remind visitors that space is a part of our everyday life, as he said: “It touches everything we do.

“I can guarantee that you won’t go 10 minutes without taking data or some form of information that isn’t derived from or communicated through space.”