VIDEO: Youngsters have a blast at Tayside space school

A group of space cadets blasted off from Dundee.

Their handcrafted rockets might not have had enough power to make it all the way to orbit, but they certainly impressed everybody involved in running this year’s Tayside space school at Abertay University.

That included former Canadian astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason and NASA space educator Patricia Tribe, who are helping out with the programme.

The space school gives children a chance to see how the things they learn in science lessons are used by astronauts and scientists to explore outer space.

One of its main aims is to inspire them to continue with science subjects when they go on to secondary school.

The cadets have been attending space school once a month since March, and have been learning about spaceships, Neil Armstrong and the moon landings and how life might be detected on other planets.

Their studies have also taken in how changes in pressure and temperature affect the human body and how some techniques that were developed to be used in space have actually been adapted for life on Earth.