In the early days of Cornwall's bid to build a spaceport, they were laughed at.
Pasties and cream teas were sent into space in the past, but here we are.
Eight years after it was considered as a potential spaceport site, Cornwall Airport Newquay is set to host the UK's first orbital space launch on Monday.
The jumbo jet will take off with a rocket underneath it.
The rocket will fly up to 35,000ft, where it will blast off at high speed and put nine satellites into space.
The longer we wait the more excited I get about it.
When it does happen, it will feel great for me and my team.
"All the way through there has been a fair amount of skepticism," said the CornwallCouncillor with responsibility for the project.
The spaceport project has been funded by the council and central government.
The investment in the spaceport has not just been for launching rockets into space. We have invested in a lot of industries.
He said there are now 150 jobs in Cornwall that have been created by the spaceport.
We think that will increase over the next five years. As a result of the spaceport, businesses are interested in moving to Cornwall.
The spaceport is expected to employ 50 people in the next three years and 250 businesses showed up at an open day event.
The average job on the spaceport is over half a million dollars a year.
The doubters wondered if it was a good place to be in the space industry.
It has a proud history of technological innovation.
In 1901, Guglielmo Marconi sent the first trans-Atlantic wireless signal.
The first messages to be sent to and from India were allowed after a cable was brought to the shore.
We forgot that Cornwall was a world leader in science and innovation for almost 200 years.
More than 70 businesses are connected to the space sector in Cornwall.
The Goonhilly Earth Station has been at the forefront of the satellite communications industry for more than 50 years.
It has been involved with the spaceport from the beginning and recently had a role in the Artemis moon mission.
A passenger plane for 14 years.
A total of 8,265 flights were completed.
The vehicle was used as an airborne launch vehicle.
First successful launch of a rocket.
There is a portable operations cabin designed and built by the team there that will be on the apron of the runway on Monday.
Goonhilly helped prepare the IOD-3 that will be used to monitor marine activities such as illegal fishing and piracy.
There are companies in Cornwall that supply hardware for space flight and other uses.
The Centre for Space Technologies is being developed by the spaceport and will provide research and development for space technology.
The UK Space Agency said the sector is worth over $16 billion a year.
The proximity of facilities like Goonhilly is what makes Cornwall a good location according to a space expert.
Spaceport Cornwall is located in the South West, which has a lively space cluster.
It's full of businesses and research centers.
If there was a launch failure, you wouldn't want people near there because you don't want to be connected to a lot of people.
One of the longest runways in the UK is located at Cornwall Airport Newquay.
It is one of the few runways in the country that can handle aircraft like Cosmic Girl and head straight out to sea.
There is a rocket.
70 feet is 21 meters.
The max speed is 17,500 mph.
5 seconds between the release and the start of the car.
There is a limit on the amount of stone that can be put into the bag.
The average altitude is 500 km.
Ian Annett is the deputy chief executive of the UK Space Agency.
"Cornwall was on the right side of the street." They invested the money.
Eight years ago, Cornwall started investing and creating the infrastructure for a spaceport. They were the ones who got there.
The existence of a UK spaceport is ground-breaking, but with more coming in remote parts of Scotland and Wales, the Cornish team wants to build on the momentum.
It wants to be the world's first net zero spaceport and will have up to 12 launches a year over the next five years.
It was important to build on the momentum.
All the amazing businesses are being attracted to the site.
We are using this as a way to attract other businesses.
The spaceport has a partnership with Virgin Orbit and is looking for other partners as well.
Satellite manufacturers interested in setting up in Cornwall have already been contacted by the council.
Spaceport representatives have visited every school in Cornwall to give opportunities to young people.
For generations, our children have been told that if they want a decent job in science or technology, they have to leave Cornwall.
The spaceport shows our children that that isn't the case anymore.
It is a good news story and non- political.
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