Major Tim Peake answers schoolchildren’s questions from space

The British astronaut's multimedia ability, and the efforts of volunteers back on Earth, are bringing the excitement of his mission into the classroom

It's a drizzly summer morning down here on planet Earth. Soft is-it-or-isn't-it rain is falling from the sky. The hedgerows are bursting with nettles and cowslips. And the earth is damp and smells of" I take a deep noseful and think about this. It smells of earth. If you were a long, long way away in a cold and alien place, this spot here, Ottery St Mary, near the folded east Devon hills, is the kind of landscape that might come to you in a hallucinatory dream.

It's the essence of the English countryside on a cool early summer morning. And somewhere, high above, in a tin capsule circling planet Earth, is Major Tim. The urge to quote David Bowie lyrics is almost irresistible - is irresistible - because at the King's School in Ottery St Mary, there's a massive antenna in the playground, a temporary space station in the school hall and a small crowd of children and parents waiting patiently. Ground control is literally about to call Major Tim: Tim Peake - our man in space. The first Briton in space for a long time and the first of the modern social-media age, a role that has led to other firsts, including being the first astronaut to appear at the Brit awards and "run" the London marathon and, for one morning only, the first to speak to the students at the King's School, live, from the International Space Station.