A SCHOOLBOY became the envy of all his friends when his dad made him a giant rocket while learning about astronaut Tim Peake’s adventures in space.

Five-year-old William Hall became fascinated by Britain’s first official astronaut and his travels to the International Space Station while learning about it in class at Darwen’s Avondale Primary School.

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Ahead of Major Peake’s first spacewalk today, William’s dad Ashley Hall, dropped off the giant rocket so the youngster could show his friends.

Mr Hall, who works at R.Briggs Fabrications in Clayton-le-Moors, said: “We were walking through the school with the rocket and there were kids coming out of classes with shocked faces saying ‘wow, you’ve got a rocket’.

“The class have been making their own rockets out of materials like tissue paper.

“We’ve made a rocket before for a primary school so I thought it would be good to do it again.

“It took us a full day to make and it’s just great they’re having so much fun with it.

“I hope it sticks around in the classroom for years to come.”

Mr Hall, a sheet metal fabricator, enlisted help from his apprentice John-Robbie Sanderson to complete the impressive metal rocket, which now sits in William’s Year One class.

Mjr Peake’s spacewalk has been officially called the 35th NASA Extra-Vehicular Activity and is scheduled to being at 12.55am today lasting around six hours.

The 43-year-old from Chichester was assisted in a spacewalk on December 21 but stayed inside the ISS and this will be his first time outside.

Ashley, who has worked at R.Briggs for 10 years, said that William had been blown away by what Major Peake was doing since he arrived at the ISS on December 15.

He said: “William has not stopped talking about it since I made it and he’s constantly been asking different questions about what Peake’s been getting up to in space and what goes on out there.

“I’m really pleased with what we’ve done and I know they will have fun with it for ages.”