There was great excitement in school today when we were visited by Cady Coleman. Cady is a US astronaut who has flown two Shuttle missions and spent 159 days on the International Space Station.

Her first mission was on the Shuttle Columbia in 1995 and she returned to space, again on the Columbia, in 1999. She spent from December 2010 to May 2011 on the International Space Station. During that time she travelled over 100 million kilometres!

Cady shows us some of her fellow astronauts.

Cady spent a great deal of time showing photos and videos of her trips to space and patiently answered questions afterwards.

Cady with Ms. Jeffers class.

She explained how she had become an astronaut after working as a chemist in the US Air Force. The children and teachers were fascinated by her accounts of her Shuttle missions and, more recently, her long stay on the International Space Station.

We were delighted to welcome Cady to the school and would like to thank her for taking the time to visit us. It’s a visit we will remember for a long time.

Further details of Cady’s illustrious career here.