Thaindian News

By Meena Kar
Nov 19, (THAINDIAN NEWS) After several astronauts, guess whose turn was it to make a visit to the space? It was none other than Santa Clause, to make his first space trip, thanks to the sixty students of Landscove CofE Primary School, in Ashburton, Devon.

This toy space ship made by the children in a UK village between the age of seven and ten, was elevated to a height of 17 miles, reaching 90,000ft with the help of a helium weather balloon. It was launched from a nearby car parking area and it floated for 140 minutes until the balloon was burst and it landed on the ground with the help of a parachute, about 140 miles away in Hampshire. This space ship named Spudnik2, had a Santa Clause sitting in the cockpit. The Santa Clause was however made out of potato! The space ship was made of reminiscent of plastic soft drinks bottles. The best part was, there was a camera installed in this space ship, that captured beautiful landscapes from the sky. The entire experience came up as a delight to the teachers and the students who created it.

School Teacher Hilary Gibbard said that the images were spectacular and the sixty students who created it were delighted to see their potato Santa Cause and the spaceship hitting up to the sky. Headmaster Robin Smith said that it was a mad idea. However, he appreciated this class assignment saying that children love doing unusual things, and these kind of assignments not only engage them but also teach them about the technicalities of space craft designing in an interesting way.