Warwickshire News Mine

Through the school’s science club, Imagineering, they have the unique opportunity to speak to spaceman Richard Garriott on the space station orbiting 300 miles above the earth.

Pupils have written questions and planned an experiment for the astronauts to conduct in space during the ten minute space call scheduled for the end of next week.

The chance to become one of a select band of British schools ever to go into space came about through ten-year-old pupil Matthew Morgan’s interest in amateur radio.

His father Ciaran works for National Grid and is an amateur radio enthusiast who helps run Budbrooke Primary’s Imagineering science club, which is sponsored by the company.

To mark the school’s 40th anniversary, Budbrooke applied to ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) to speak to the space station and a competition was held with all of the pupils in the school being asked to come up with interesting questions to ask the astronauts. The space station chose the best fifteen questions which will be put to Richard and the space crew by pupils aged five to 11.

Headteacher Carol Taylor said: “The children have been very enthusiastic about the study of space and they have completed many stimulating projects on this subject in the past year.

“The call to the space station is the culmination of all their work and it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them.

“The work of Ciaran and the Imagineering club has made this a reality and everyone at the school is very excited about the day.”

Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for schools, added: “This is such a landmark event to coincide with Budbrooke Primary School’s 40th anniversary. The pupils are literally reaching for the stars and I am extremely proud of the work they have put into this project.

“This space call certainly puts the school – and Warwickshire – on the international map. In fact, they will now be known across the universe.”

In addition to answering the questions from the children, it is hoped that Richard Garriott will conduct an experiment designed by the pupils while on the space station and describe the results to them during amateur radio contact.

Only four schools in the world will have the chance to speak to the International Space Station during this mission. The other schools are in Malaysia and the United States.

Budbrooke Primary pupils have been busy with a number of academic projects with a space theme over the past year.

They have dressed up as astronauts, carried out experiments, created interactive displays and working cross-curricular and cross-phase.

Richard Garriott is a video game pioneer from Cambridge whose father Owen was an astronaut who himself used amateur radio.  Richard has had many adventures including expeditions to Antarctica and fulfilled his lifetime ambition in October when he become’s the world’s sixth private space explorer.

The International Space Station is a research facility in low earth orbit and on occasions can be seen from earth by the naked eye. It is travelling at more than 17,000 miles per hour and orbits the earth 15 times a day.

Link to WCC