SCHOOLCHILDREN had a very special delivery - it arrived amid high security and came from light years away.

Pupils at George Street Primary School, Wainfelin got to grips with a stella slice of history when lunar samples collected by NASA made their way from the moon to Pontypool.

The moon rock, lunar dust and meteorite pieces formed part of a week-long journey into the unknown for Year three students' science lessons.

All the samples were provided by the UK's Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) and were collected during NASA's manned space missions to the Moon in the late 1960's and early 1970's.

During these missions the Apollo astronauts brought back to Earth 382 kilograms of lunar material. Most of this material is used by scientists to study the Moon, but NASA decided to use a small proportion of the rock and soil to develop lunar and planetary sciences educational packages.

PPARC Chief Executive, Professor Keith Mason said "It's incredible to think that when you hold a meteorite, you are handling something that may have travelled millions of miles to fall on the Earth.

"Meteorites can tell us a great deal about the places they originated from." He added "It's amazing that almost forty years after the lunar samples were collected, scientists are still not sure how the Moon formed! All this year, UK scientists will be studying the Moon to see what it is made of as part of Smart-1, Europe's first robotic mission to the Moon."

As the rocks are irreplaceable George Street school had to meet stringent security measures before being sent the unusual cargo.

Gari Lockwood, Year 3 teacher at the school, said: "The kids loved it especially as we have been doing space in their lessons. We have been able to show them footage of the Apollo mission and then they were able to touch the actual rocks that those astronauts brought back.

"The students learnt the famous words of Neil Armstrong, which some of them had never heard before. We are in a gap now, where some people do not know about the Apollo missions and it was wonderful to be able to see them realise what an amazing thing it was.

"It was also great for the teachers to be able to hold a bit of history in their hands," he added.