IT MAY not have been Cape Canaveral, but it was one giant step for a group of teenagers.

Five home-made rockets, built by pupils at schools in Bolton and Bury, were all put to the test when they were launched into the sky above Lincolnshire.

The teams of six had each spent eight months painstakingly building their rockets and they were delighted when they saw them roar upwards from the private airfield.

They travelled thousands of feet -- at speeds of up to 600 mph.

The school that is judged to be the best of the rocket builders wins the chance to be the first British team to take part in the Space Olympics -- a major rocket-science competition in Russia.

Charlotte Chadwick, director of the Bolton and Bury Education Business Partnership, which helped to organise the competition, said: "All the 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."

The young rocket builders were from Rivington and Blackrod High School in Horwich, Mount St Joseph's in Farnworth, Westhoughton High School and Derby High School and Elmsbank Special School, both in Bury.

The teams put together their own rockets from special packs and each school put its own special payload into the rocket. One school loaded their invention with an instrument which measured the air quality, while another distributed bird seed over the land.

After an overnight stay in Lincoln, the pupils enjoyed a day out at the National Space Centre in Lincoln.

They dressed up in astronaut suits and were able to act out a scenario where a space craft had a close encounter with a comet. One team was at "mission control" directing another group that was in outer space.

Mrs Chadwick said judging of the rocket building competition 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.

Westhoughton High School pupil Emma Griffin, aged 15, said: "We started last summer and put a lot of thought into it. Our payload is an air collector, which will take samples of the air at different altitudes and measure its quality.

"We have learnt a lot of skills during the project and about working together as a team."

Derby High School pupil, Martin Dodd, aged 15, said: "It's all very exciting. We have had such fun doing it."

The trip to Russia is being sponsored by company Double R Controls -- and the winning school is to be announced later this month.