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Space tourist inpires QEII students
INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKER: Mark Shuttleworth is pictured talking to the students about his trip to space. PHOTO: John Maddrell JM120928 (75).
SPACE TOURIST Mark Shuttleworth was a quest speaker at Queen Elizabeth II High School.
The students were treated to a talk by Mark, who became the first African in space in April 2002, when he flew as a cosmonaut member of the crew of Soyuz mission TM34 to the International Space Centre.
He began his talk by telling the students by telling them ‘You can do anything in life’ and he encouraged them to ‘always strive to be great at what you do’.
The students listened with fascination as Mr Shuttleworth described the time he spent in Russia, going through two weeks of medical tests getting probed and prodded before spending a further eight months of training.
This covered everything from being weightless, getting used to the water inside his ears moving around and making him sick and how to get out of a capsule if it landed in the sea.
Mr Shuttleworth also described the difficulties he faced while living in Russia, the lengthy time that the negotiations took and having to learn to speak Russian just to get by day to day.
Head teacher, Sue Moore, said: ‘Students were spellbound by Mr Shuttleworth such that when the bell went for the end of School, they wanted to stay on to hear more. Some students were able to remain a further half an hour and Mr Shuttleworth was generous with his time, sharing his experiences.
‘He answered every question asked and gave us a real flavour of what it was like to be in space.
‘His overall message was to decide what you want to do and go for it!’
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Friday 24 May 2013
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