School's Twitter shout out in outer space

Dr Kevin Fong, who worked for NASA for 10 years, read out a Tweet from Abbot’s Hill School in Bunkers Lane, Hemel Hempstead live before British astronaut Tim Peake began his Cosmic Classroom session.

To prepare them for the live link to the International Space Station, Dr Fong – who was speaking from the World Museum in Liverpool – asked the children to do some experiments that they then asked Tim to repeat in space.

The pupils touched their toes, crouched down and spun around. When Tim was beamed back to Earth, he then repeated the experiments.

Mr Peake, who is currently aboard the International Space Station, spun head over heels and played ping pong with a fizzy vitamin tablet to demonstrate zero gravity.

The session was beamed to 300,000 children in 7,000 schools across the UK via a live satellite link.

Julie Wilkinson, marketing and development manager at Abbot’s Hill, said: “The children found it very amusing that when he turned around, he just kept on spinning, and found out that when you touch your toes in space, you will roll right over!

“The girls were delighted with the opportunity to tune in to a live event with Tim, and to think about the technology that enabled it all to happen.

“It was a fantastic opportunity to engage children with science all over the world, and as Kevin concluded, if they work hard at science, it could well be them in space in the future!”