AL WORDEN dropped in to see pupils at Long Wittenham Primary School where he declared blast-off on their star-themed term.

The retired NASA spaceman spoke to youngsters at the school near Didcot in a special assembly during a flying visit.

Mr Worden, 83, was command module pilot for the Apollo 15 lunar mission in 1971 and is one of only 24 people to go to the moon.

Pupil Oliver Gouldby, 11, said: “It was fun and he had a lot of interesting facts.

“You can even have a bowl of tomato soup in space without it going everywhere.”

Anna Crosskey, 11, said: “It was amazing. He was very modest and only talked about his friends who went on the moon.

“Mr Worden was more normal than I thought he would be.”