PUPILS at Knighton Primary school had a very special visitor this week.

NASA Astronaut Don Thomas came to visit the school on his first ever visit to Wales and only his second visit to the UK.

He was greeted to the school by the children singing a song called 'Space' and many of the younger children in the school were dressed as astronauts, aliens or buzz lightyears.

He told the children he was delighted to visit their school and had never seen so many aliens in his life.

Don then talked to the children about his four space shuttle missions the last was eighteen years ago and showed them samples of food and drinks that were taken into space.

He also showed the older children photographs of him in space, the inside of the space shuttle and stunning pictures of the Earth taken from space. Children asked him lots of questions these included 'How long does it take to get to space'

He surprised the children by answering eight and a half minutes, Have you ever found danger in space? His answer was the main danger was floating debris, Are there Aliens on the moon? Don replied we have not seen any signs of life on the moon but because the universe is so big I think there must be other life forms out there.

One child asked why he became an astronaut, he replied I always wanted to be an astronaut from when I was a small boy, he continued by telling the children that if any of them wanted to go into space in the future they needed to work hard especially in science and maths and one day one of them might become an astronaut.

Another child asked what he did in his spare time in space? Don said there wasn't a lot of spare time but if there was he would look out through the window and watch the world go by and sometimes astronauts would play catch with one astronaut rolling into a ball and the others pushing him from one to another. There were lots of other questions about the space shuttle, space suits, sleeping and washing in space and exercise.

Don told the children space was a very fun environment with everything floating around and how everything had Velcro strips on to secure things down. Lastly he told them all that it took about an hour to get back to Earth and when they landed his body felt very heavy and took a few days before he was back to normal. Nine year old Amber Fowler who broke her leg recently got a special treat after she became the first child in the UK to get her cast signed by Don. Before he left he told the children "This is he best school I have visited and I will never forget my first visit to Wales and your school".