ASPIRING astronauts were left feeling out of this world after NASA bosses praised their space research project.

The primary four class at St Andrew's Primary, who have been studying about the latest mission to Mars.

Inspirational teacher Sean Marrone who has a passion for space exploration, asked the class to design their own version of the Mars Rover Perseverance vehicle.

He was so impressed by their enthusiasm and hard work he that tagged Nasa in pictures posted online of two of his pupils, Joseph McKenna and Chloe Harkness, showing off their designs.

Mr Marrone was astounded when the post was retweeted by NASA.

Sean said: "I couldn't believe it.

"I absolutely love space and have done since I was a wee boy.

"I told the class that I had something very important to share with them - that a VIP had retweeted about our project.

"They were so excited.

"A group of children have even told me they want to be astronauts."

The class space topic, which covered the historic moon landing in 1969 to the current Mars Mission, has fired the imagination.

Sean said he asked his pupils to come up with ideas in their designs which could overcome the difficulties caused by the surface and atmosphere on Mars.

The NASA tweet in reply showed a graphic of an astronaut clapping with the message: 'Way to go! Now, which one of them will be the first to visit @NASAPersevere in the future?'

Sean went away and created NASA certificates from the tweet.

The class also created a stir when they were doing a previous research project about Antarctica while learning remotely.

Sean posted online about that and caught the attention of a research scientist who had worked at the South Pole.

The pupils then sent a series of questions to him and he did a presentation talking about his job and all the different animals he encountered on his expeditions.

Sean said: "Science is so exciting and topics like these show the pupils all the different jobs they can get into.

"When the Covid restrictions ease we might go out to the planetarium at Glasgow Science Centre.

"But who knows, maybe one day some of the children will visit the Kennedy Space Center."