Astronaut Don lands in Walsall

After taking inspiration from the likes of Neil Armstrong as a youngster, Mr Thomas started his professional career as a senior member of the technical staff at the Bell Laboratory's Engineering Research Center in Princeton, New Jersey.

From there he joined Lockheed Sciences and Engineering in Houston, TX as an engineer working on the Space Shuttle program, before being selected as a mission specialist astronaut in NASA’s 13th group of astronauts in 1990.

He is a veteran of four Space Shuttle missions, three aboard Columbia and one aboard Discovery.

Mr Thomas, who was born in Cleveland, Ohio, has spent 44 days in space completing nearly 700 orbits of the Earth and traveling 17.6 million miles in the process

An event organised by Walsall Rotary Club, held at Calderfields Golf Club on Aldridge Road, saw him land in Walsall to give a talk to the next generation of scientists, engineers and explorers detailing his life and work.

He now works as the director of the Hackerman Academy of Mathematics and Science at Towson University and travels around the world to encourage and inspire young students to follow in his footsteps.

The event in Walsall was packed with inquisitive minds young and old who had gathered to hear the incredible tale that only Mr Thomas himself can tell.

Elisha Swindon, events manager at Calderfields Golf Club, said: "It was a pleasure to welcome Mr Thomas to our venue, the popularity of his event was clear to see from how many people came through our doors."

Mr Thomas is the author of Orbit of Discovery, written about his STS-70 mission aboard space shuttle Discovery.

A week before the launch of Discovery, a single woodpecker made 205 holes in the soft foam insulation covering the huge external fuel tank of the Shuttle