The world’s deepest and largest indoor pool is being built in Cornwall to train astronauts.
Blue Abyss, a £150 million facility, will be the world’s leading extreme environment research - and is backed by Tim Peake.
It will be a test and training centre serving the offshore energy, marine, defence and space sectors.
The facility will be the world’s biggest and deepest pool for testing the latest underwater technology such as helping advance subsea robotics and even training astronauts.
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The centrepiece of Blue Abyss is an aquatic centre featuring a 50m by 40m stepped pool with a 50m deep shaft.
The pool holds over 42,000 cubic metres of water – the equivalent of 17 Olympic size swimming pools or 168 million cups of tea – making it the largest and deepest indoor pool in the world.
Blue Abyss is the brainchild of ex-forces diving instructor and management consultant, John Vickers, and has the support of British astronaut Major Tim Peake, who sits on the Blue Abyss Advisory Board.
Tim Peake said: "I am proud to be part of the Blue Abyss team and I am delighted to see the project take such an important step forward with today’s announcement.
“This project will join Goonhilly Earth Station and Spaceport Cornwall as significant national assets, creating a deep sea and space research, training and test facility, as well as fantastic educational resource, helping to widen our knowledge of how humans and technology can function in extreme environments, for the benefit of people and the planet."
It is planned for the Aerohub Enterprise Zone at Cornwall Airport Newquay, and is expected to create 160 jobs, pump £50m of build costs into Cornwall during its 18-month construction and generate £8m annually for the local economy.
