ROCKET science helped propel two local high schools to success during the final countdown of an innovative space project.

Proud pupils and staff of Bury's Derby High School and Elms Bank High School, Whitefield, watched in awe as their homemade rockets took to the sky in an exciting climax to a special competition.

Young boffins from five schools in Bury and Bolton travelled to Lincolnshire last weekend for the lift-off. And the winning school, to be announced next week, will be the first to represent Britain in the Space Olympics, a major rocket science competition in Russia.

The project was organised by the Bolton and Bury Education Business Partnership (EBP), which supplied the rocket packs for pupils to put together. Each school also put their own payload into their space machines.

All five rockets were put to the test last Saturday, and passed with flying colours. The individual school teams had spent eight months painstakingly building their rockets and were delighted when they saw them roar into the sky from the private airfield.

Five pupils and two staff from Derby High School attended the launch. Design and technology teacher Miss Lorraine Dixon said: "Our rocket, which we called Satellite, went about 2,500 into the air. It was just brilliant.

"We later recovered a variety of payloads which were based around the performing arts and science, the subjects for which we recently received specialist status for.

A party of six pupils and four staff from Elms Bank High School also travelled to Lincolnshire to witness the launch of their "Sensation Seeker" rocket. The school's team had called themselves "Cosmic Crackers." Pupil Glen Johnson pressed the button to signal lift-off.

Mrs Joanne Emblem, the school's head of department for extended education, said: "Our rocket went up more than a mile into the sky. We were all very excited and the rocket went at a speed of 600mph.

"We had a wonderful view and the weather was perfect. We watched for a few minutes before the rocket came down."

Sophisticated technology meant that those pupils and staff who were unable to attend the launch were able to see an action replay later.

Mrs Emblem explained: "We were able to bring back the sights and sounds of the flights to those pupils with visual and hearing deficiencies. In our payload, we had a small CCTV camera and the sound was also recorded. We also had a satellite on the ground which relayed the pictures to us. When our rocket landed by parachute, it was perfect."

The following day, all the schools enjoyed a day out at Lincoln's National Space Centre.

Charlotte Chadwick, EPB director, said: "All five rockets were big successes. They all went up into the air and flew thousands of feet. They were up as high as some light aircraft."

She said judging was based on a number of factors, including how the rocket looked, the quality of the payload and how well the pupils had worked as a team.