THE JOY of Christmas Day will be truly out of this World for youngsters at a Vale School for more than the usual reason!

Youngsters from Badsey First School will be casting their eyes to the heavens in wonder.

But as well as looking for an old man dressed in red they will be on look out for the planet Saturn.

Eight years ago, pupils at the school designed a card, which was transferred to CD and put on the Cassini space ship.

Launched in October 1997, Cassini has now reached the beautiful ringed planet Saturn.

On Christmas Day, a small landing craft called Huygens, carrying the work of Badsey School, will leave the mother ship to land on Titan - the biggest of Saturn's moons.

It will be the furthest from the Earth that a space probe has ever landed.

Back in the Spring of 1996 the children at the school designed a card showing where Evesham is on a map of the World and including the names of all 240 pupils in school at the time.

"It is amazing to think that work by children at this school has been taken thousands of millions of miles to the outer reaches of our solar system," said Elizabeth Spencer, Head Teacher.

"The spaceship has really captured the imagination of our children and they are really excited about following its progress.

"We shall all be keeping our fingers crossed and hoping the probe makes a safe landing."

Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system and well known for its beautiful system of rings.

The planet has 31 moons and takes nearly 30 years to orbit the Sun.

Information sent back to Earth from the Cassini space ship takes two-and-a-half-hours to arrive.

Saturn is currently in the constellation of Gemini and can be seen high in the Southern sky in the late evening.

Marcus Chown, a former Vale resident, science author and cosmology consultant for New Scientist Magazine, said Cassini is a hugely important mission.

"Titan is like the Earth in a deep freeze. It has a thick atmosphere and all the ingredients for life. What is becoming clear is how organisms can survive in very harsh conditions and so it is a long shot but there just might be primitive life."