Queen's Manor School to Receive Seeds from Space Station

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Seeds pictured floating alongside Tim Peake brought back to Earth by fellow astronauts

The school in Lysia Street has been chosen to take part in the Royal Horticultural Society’s Rocket Science project.

The school will be receiving two packs of seeds – one of which is pictured above with British astronaut Major Tim Peake aboard the International Space Station, orbiting 220 miles above the planet.

The seeds were brought back to Earth by Commander Scott Kelly of NASA and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos, who landed safely back on earth in Central Asia on March 2.

The 2kg packets of rocket seeds had completed their six month mission stored in the Columbus laboratory on board the ISS after being sent up on September 2.

Over 8,000 schools applied for a pack of these seeds to grow alongside seeds that have remained on Earth for project Rocket Science, a nationwide experiment launched by the Royal Horticultural Society in partnership with the UK Space Agency.

The space seeds will be sent out to schools including Queen's Manor in April and pupils will then grow both sets of seeds under the same conditions, without knowing which seeds have been in space.

The data will then be input, along with that from other schools in the project, into a national database that will contribute to our knowledge of growing food in space.

“We are delighted that our application to be part of the RHS Rocket Science project has been successful," says Headteacher Mrs Sonja Harrison.

You can follow the project on Twitter @RHSSchools.

NASA's picture of the astronauts returning to Earth with the seeds

Tim Peake is still on board the ISS and is due to return to Earth on June 5..

March 25, 2016