Pupils at Chippenham's Hardenhuish School are helping NASA prepare the next satellite to be launched by the Space Shuttle.
The US space agency dispatched a package to the school last week, with an invitation for students to prepare one of the satellite's vital space mirrors.
The satellite will be used around the world by scientists who can track its orbit by telescope because it will be covered with nearly 900 small aluminium mirrors.
These have been machined by technology students in Utah and will be polished by tens of thousands of students all over the world, including those at Hardenhuish
The school was approached through a link established on the Internet.
The satellite will sometimes be visible to the naked eye and will travel in its orbit 200 miles above Chippenham next year.
"It has been really exciting to prepare a part of a real satellite and we are all waiting for the moment it is launched and we can begin to track its progress in space," said science teacher Geoff Hardman.
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