THREE students from Callington Community College have returned from the USA after a once-in-a-lifetime trip with Space Education Adventures.

Dan Mitchell, Sam Mitchell and Scott Renfree-Tuck are all Year 13 students who earned places on the trip following a year-long selection process.

The trip itself took the boys and 12 other students from five different schools to an elementary and high school, NASA and Lockheed Martin functional laboratories and centres, and to several NASA space museums and historic sites.

The students were lucky enough to have special access to personnel and areas not accessible to the general public, getting a truly behind-the-scenes experience that would be unavailable in any other situation.

Some of the locations included the site of historic mission control, the Sonny Carter Neutral Buoyancy Lab, a Saturn V rocket, a mock-up of the International Space Station (within which astronauts actually train) and the space shuttle Atlantis.

During their time away the students had the chance to interact and dine with a number of people, from a SWAT team member, technicians and engineers from NASA and its contractors, to actual astronaut and previous commander of the International Space Station Doug Wheelock, as well as former director of Johnson Space Centre George Abbey.

Dan said: 'The trip was truly amazing. I struggle to put the experience into words.

'I still can't believe where we went, what we saw and the people we met.

'The trip is honestly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity from which I have gained so much more knowledge about NASA and the people who work with them.'

Scott said: 'The trip really was a once in a lifetime experience which taught me so much. Meeting so many influential people and going to so many breath-taking places in such a short space of time was unbeatable!'

Sam said: 'I still find it difficult to process everything that we got to see and do.

'The sense of wonder I felt upon seeing the Saturn V rocket for the first time at Johnson Space Centre will stay with me for the rest of my life. I can't imagine another time in my life when I will get an opportunity like this again.

'It was awe-inspiring to speak one on one with astronaut Doug Wheelock, hearing about his time off of the planet.

'I advise the Year 12s currently undergoing the selection process to put in as much effort as possible, there will never be another experience like this one.'