ONE of the first black astronauts told a school assembly how he wept as he stared down at the Earth from space and saw a world without borders, writes Tom Foot.

Charles J Bolden Jr, who was born in the deep south of the US during the days of segregation, has been a marine, commanded the Space Shuttle and is currently a senior boss of NASA.

Speaking to UCL Academy students about his time in orbit during the 1980s, he said: “I looked down and saw an island, which was Great Britain. And over the horizon, another, bigger island which was Africa. My forebears were from Africa, and I had memorised the map so I could identify all the countries – Ghana, Nigeria and so on. But I looked down, and I saw that from space there were no lines, no borders. And I wept, and thought about all the divisions among people.”

He told students: “You can do anything you want to,” adding that there was nothing about women’s brains that says science and engineering should be left to the men.

UCL Academy GCSE student Edvin Hedzic, who is studying astronomy, said: “He engaged with the audience, he wasn’t just giving facts. It was really inspirational.”

Questions from students were about whether there was any Wi-Fi on the International Space Station and “how do you go to the toilet in space?”. 

Mr Bolden Jr later toured the new school with the vice president and spoke to students and staff. Fifteen masters students from UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory were also at the event.