SCHOOLCHILDREN have been treated to a visit by a NASA astronaut who has travelled more than 14 million miles during his time in space.

James Reilly visited Ropley Church of England Primary School on Tuesday (March 17) to give a presentation on what life is like away from Earth.

He then presented eight-year-old Molly Sansom with her very own NASA jump suit.

The youngster won a competition by Attraction Tickets Direct on behalf of her peers. The school was chosen at random out of almost 1,000 entries across the country.

Clare Molyneaux, headteacher, said: “We were both amazed and delighted to find out that our school had won this competition and are grateful to Molly and her mum for entering this competition for us.

“The visit was so useful for our children and everyone has been excited for weeks waiting for this to happen. To think that a man who has completed five spacewalks has also set foot in our school is just incredible and certainly not something I ever thought I’d be able to say!”

The astronaut has also completed three space shuttle missions and multiple visits to the International Space Station in more than 850 hours.

During the missions he orbited the earth around 550 times.

Chief executive of Attraction Tickets Direct, Oliver Brendon, said: “This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to do something really special in the UK.”