Year 5 had a visit from an actual rocket scientist! Dr James Beck has worked in the space industry for 20 years, first trying to land a probe on Mars, and then trying to help with the space debris problem. Currently, he works on burning bits of spacecraft in big wind tunnels to help people design things to burn up in re-entry, rather than survive and become a risk to people on the ground.
The children really enjoyed learning all about the problem of space debris and what James and space agencies around the world are doing to solve the problem. Lots of the children in Year 5 are now really interested in working somewhere in the field of space, particularly when they were reminded that you don't need to be working in America to work in the field of space, and that James only lives 30 miles from here!