The space race had a new and unlikely entry last month - with NASA, Russia and China joined by a school student from Llanfyllin.

And the likes of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson might well be on the phone to Ben Benson, as unlike the Virgin entrepreneur, his ballooning and space exploration exploits have been an unqualified success.

The year 13 Ysgol Llanfyllin student from Llandrinio successfully launched a high altitude balloon to the edge of outer space - and the attached cameras sent back some truly remarkable images of the planet from above.

In a slightly more humble affair than you might find at Cape Canaveral, Ben launched the balloon from his back garden in Montgomeryshire.

The balloon took a month to build, but was in the air for just three hours and although it fell a little short of the Karman Line used by scientists to determine where the earth's atmosphere ends and outer space begins, his design reached altitudes of over 30,000m and travelled over 100km in total.