STUDENTS and teachers were left in awe whan a half million pound space roicket landed in Darwen in 2009.

Darwen Vale High School was one of the first schools in the country to welcome the one-man Nova Starchaser rocket.

Year seven and eight pupils took a break from lessons to quiz the rocket’s maker Steve Bennett.

They also took part in space based workshops in cosmic chemistry and propulsion to celebrate its arrival.

In a drive to get children interested into science, pupils and teachers fired questions at Starchaser’s managing director — and now some pupils hope one day to fly in space.

Mr Bennett gave up building rocket parts for a company to set up Starchaser in 1992 as an experimental rocket test programme.

After nearly a decade of work and other rocket launches, the company started developing Nova in 2001.

It claimed to be the world’s first privately-built reusable rocket and aims to heights of 20,000ft.

Starchaser aimed to one day develop a rocket to enable ordinary members of the public to take affordable trips into space.