Pupils at Sandringham School in St Albans were some of the first people to speak to British astronaut Tim Peake aboard the International Space Station.

During an amateur radio call on Friday, January 8, pupils were given the opportunity to speak directly to Mr Peake, asking him series of questions which were then streamed live on the web by the UK Space Agency.

ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) is working with the UK Space Agency to give a number of UK schools this opportunity.

Sandringham School was privileged to be the first of 10 UK schools to make contact with Mr Peake and was assisted by ARISS and Verulam Amateur Radio Club, who trained and helped license several pupils to perform the link up.

Year 10 pupil Jessica Leigh, who recently passed her radio exams, initiated the call to Tim Peake and operated the radio to allow other pupils to ask Tim questions and hear his reply.

After the call she said the contact had been “an amazing experience”.

The Radio Society of Great Britain is supporting the initiative and will be working with the selected schools in the run-up to the contacts.

Radio Society of Great Britain President John Gould said: “It was a historic moment hearing a British school pupil speaking via amateur radio to a British ESA astronaut on the International Space Station.

“I hope that seeing this will have inspired other young people to get involved with amateur radio and find out what a fun and practical way it is of understanding and developing science, engineering and technical skills.”

The pupils that weren’t able to ask their questions before the contact was lost, heard answers instead from Libby Jackson, the UK Space Agency’s Astronaut Flight Education Programme Manager for Tim Peake’s mission.

Prior to the contact, Ms Jackson and other panellists from the space industries answered questions from the audience and encouraged pupils to be inspired and aim for successful careers in the science and technology industries – even as an astronaut.

Mr Peake rang the Sandringham Headteacher Alan Gray later in the morning to thank everyone involved in the contact The contact forms the centrepiece for the school’s Space Festival, which includes a rocket workshop for students, an indoor planetarium from the University of Hertfordshire and visits from a number of space experts.

The next school contact with Tim Peake will be between 8 and 14 February this year at the Royal Masonic School for Girls in Rickmansworth.