THREE Hampshire teenagers are over the moon after winning a trip to the heart of the US space programme.

The trio from Priestlands School, Lymington, will meet astronauts and tour launch pads during a once-in-a-lifetime visit to Texas and Florida.

Year 9 pupils, pictured from left, Tom Robson, Brendan Toms and Ben Freeman, are among the winners of a national contest called Edge Into Space.

More than 700 schools entered the competition, which aimed to find ways of improving life in space.

The Priestlands team came up with the idea of a space hotel and spent months drawing up plans and devising solutions to the problems posed by living in a gravity-free environment.

Judges included Tomorrow's World presenter Kate Bellingham and scientist Colin Pillinger, who worked on the Beagle 2 project in 2003.

Twenty-four schools took part in the final and the Priestlands trio was one of ten teams selected for the trip to the US.

During their ten-day stay they will visit the Apollo and Saturn V complex at the Kennedy Space Center. They will also tour the Johnson Space Center and view Mission Control, which monitored the Moon landings.

Other highlights will include a chance to take part in astronaut training and an opportunity to build and fire their own rockets.