An aerial shot taken by drone shows the site of the newly commissioned UK National Space Propulsion Test Facility, developed with ESA support. (Credit: ESA) PARIS (ESA PR) — Today marks the start of final assembly of the UK’s new National Space Propulsion Facility. ESA is providing technical oversight and financial backing for the facility, which is being equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure to test the most powerful engines used to shift the orbits of space missions. The National Space Propulsion Facility is based at Westcott Venture Park in Buckinghamshire, a historic centre for UK rocketry. This new site is intended for the testing of rocket engines for operation in space, so it is designed to simulate the vacuum conditions that the engines must operate in down here on Earth, in order to test the largest class of satellite engines, delivering up to 1300 Newtons of thrust.