The High Wind Blows: Part 1

By DAVID HILL

It was big!

I knew NASA and the ESA had decided to spread satellite launches all round the world. I'd seen Ariane rockets on the internet. But this one on its concrete pad in the tussock of New Zealand's South Island, towering as high as a nine-storey building ... Were my eyes really seeing it? Was this actually happening to me?

Who am me? (Who am I, sorry.) I'm Dr Adam Cade, Chief Research Scientist for ESA, and Special Consultant to NASA. For you ignorant types, they're the European Space Agency, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Yeah, that's me. Me in another 30 years, maybe. Nah, I'm just Adam Cade, spending the next 12 days of my school holidays at Mt Dauntless Satellite Launch Station, in Central Otago, New Zealand. I'm here to watch real experts get Polewind into orbit, and I'm excited out of my tiny mind.

Publisher: Puffin

Price: $15.95

Age group: 8-14 years