The experimental rockets will only be shot up to 200m in Oadby so they do not with aircrast at the nearby Leicester aerodrome.

About 200 students are attending the University of Leicester's summer space school to learn about humans in space, the planet Mars and how rockets work.

On Thursday students are to launch rockets with an egg as a "passenger".

The winners will be those whose eggs successfully parachute out of the rocket landing safely on earth without a crack.

It is the 15th anniversary of the school and has been attended by students from as far afield as Oman and Beijing.

Some former students are now working for organisations such as Nasa and the European Space Agency.