Collapse of space camp company leaves Aussie families devastated

Dozens of Australian families have been affected by the sudden collapse of yet another space camp tour company, leaving parents up to $13,000 out of pocket.

This time, students from Melbourne’s Korowa Anglican Girls’ School have been impacted by the collapse of space camp provider Actura Australia going into liquidation* on June 14.

The 16 students who paid around $13,000 each were due to leave on June 29, with one mother saying her daughter and other students and teachers are “devastated”.

The school’s principal Frances Booth said she was “very upset to hear of the liquidation of Actura late on Friday evening”.

“We are working with our insurers* and other relevant parties to explore all possible avenues of support for our families affected by this.”

At least two other Melbourne schools, Firbank Grammar School in Brighton and Mentone Girls’ Secondary College, have been impacted, with one group of students due to leave in two weeks’ time on the CASE space camp.

Westburn Advisory has been appointed as administrators* and the company has advised it does not have money for parent refunds.

Shocked parents were told on Friday, with one Firbank father saying he had paid $10,000 for his daughter to go on the trip to the United States in July.

“We are pretty shocked by this and had no idea it could happen,” he said. “We have looked up the flights and they have not even been booked even though we paid six months ago.”

The parents are meeting school leaders on Monday night to look at their options. “We are very angry and want to see what the school will do,” he said.

Students on such trips go to the NASA Johnson Space Centre* in Houston, the Ad Astra Rocket Company*, Silicon Valley*, among other destinations. They also have dinner with astronauts.

A number of families in New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania have also been left out of pocket. More than 70 students from one NSW school have lost $5 million in total.

One parent from Sydney said the collapse “has left countless hardworking parents devastated, as all the money paid for this tour has vanished, and on top of that, Actura has declared that there will be no refunds or any form of financial compensation*. The impact of this announcement has been a sudden shock, leaving us parents in utter dismay,” he said.

Chief executive Charles Chung apologised to those impacted in an email over the weekend.

“It is regret and sadness that I must advise that Actura Australia Pty Ltd has with immediate effect gone into liquidation,” he said in a letter sighted by the Herald Sun.

“As a result, all scheduled 2024 and 2025 international study program expeditions are cancelled. This includes CASE Space School, CASE Ocean School and CASE Film & Arts School expeditions.

“Actura has exhausted all possible avenues for recovery of its negative cashflow position. Unfortunately, the financial position is unrecoverable.

It also says the company had “no financial resources to provide customer refunds”.

Parents are advised to contact their credit card companies to see if they can recoup some of the funds.

The closure of the school trip organiser comes three months after Edu School Tours had gone into liquidation, leaving at least 60 private school students $10,000 out of pocket each.

A Department of Education spokeswoman said: “We are identifying and working with impacted schools to determine whether fees paid in advance can be recouped*.”

DORMANT SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE STIRS
Meanwhile, scientists have witnessed a dormant* supermassive black hole* roar back to life. At the centre of the Milky Way galaxy resides a supermassive black hole four million times the mass of our sun called Sagittarius A*, that some scientists have called a gentle giant because of its quiescence*. But some day it could become a beast. Researchers said earlier this week they have observed in real time a dramatic brightening at the heart of another galaxy, apparently caused by a supermassive black hole awakening from dormancy* and beginning to gorge* itself with nearby material. It marks the first time this awakening process has been seen as it happens.

Earth-based and orbiting telescopes* were used to track the events unfolding at the core of a galaxy* called SDSS1335+0728-, located roughly 360 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo*. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).

Black holes are extraordinarily dense objects with gravity* so strong that not even light can escape. They range in size from a mass equivalent to a single star to the behemoths* existing at the core of many galaxies, millions and even billions of times more massive. Galaxy SDSS1335+0728’s supermassive black hole has a mass about one million times the mass of the sun.

GLOSSARY

• liquidation: the process of closing a business, selling its assets, and using the proceeds to pay off creditors
• insurers: companies that provide insurance, offering protection against financial loss
• administrators: professionals appointed to manage the affairs of a company in financial distress, particularly during liquidation or bankruptcy
• NASA Johnson Space Centre: a major centre for human spaceflight activities, including astronaut training and mission control, located in Houston, Texas
• Ad Astra Rocket Company: a private spaceflight company
• compensation: payment or some form to offset a loss
• Silicon Valley: a region in California known for its high concentration of tech companies and innovation in technology and computing
• supermassive black hole: an extremely large black hole, typically found at the centre of galaxies, with a mass millions to billions of times that of the sun
• recoup: to recover or regain money that has been spent or lost
• Sagittarius A: the supermassive black hole located at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy.
• quiescence: a state of inactivity or dormancy
• dormancy: a period in which an organism or phenomenon is inactive or not growing
• orbiting telescopes: telescopes located in space, orbiting the Earth or other celestial bodies, used to observe astronomical objects without the interference of Earth’s atmosphere
• galaxy: a large system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter, bound together by gravity
• constellation Virgo: a group of stars forming a recognisable pattern that is associated with the zodiac sign Virgo
• light-year: the distance that light travels in one year, approximately 5.9 trillion miles or 9.5 trillion kilometres
• behemoths: extremely large and powerful entities
• gravity: the natural force that attracts objects toward one another, particularly the attraction of objects toward the centre of the Earth or any other celestial body
• mass: the quantity of matter in a body
• SDSS1335+0728: galaxy, located approximately 360 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo
• gorge: to consume something in large amounts; often used to describe a black hole consuming nearby material

EXTRA READING

Eerie blue fireball lights the sky

First ‘Aussie’ astronaut reaches for the stars

Atmosphere found on rocky planet

QUICK QUIZ

1. How much money did the parents of students from Melbourne’s Korowa Anglican Girls’ School lose due to the collapse of Actura?
2. Which two other Melbourne schools were affected by the liquidation of the space camp provider?
3. What steps is Korowa Anglican Girls’ School’s principal, Frances Booth, taking to support the affected families?
4. Describe the impact of the company’s collapse on families from New South Wales, Queensland, and Tasmania.
5. What astronomical event involving a supermassive black hole was observed by scientists, and which galaxy did it occur in?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. What happens?
Do you know what happens when a company goes into liquidation? Use information in the story and your research skills to find out. Use the information that you have found to write the five most important facts about this process.

Time: allow at least 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Economics and Business

2. Extension
Do you think that the schools should be responsible for the money that families have lost? Write a paragraph that will convince your reader to agree with your opinion on this question.

Time: allow at least 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social Capability

VCOP ACTIVITY
Wow word recycle
There are plenty of wow words (ambitious pieces of vocabulary) being used in the article. Some are in the glossary, but there might be extra ones from the article that you think are exceptional as well.

Identify all the words in the article that you think are not common words, and particularly good choices for the writer to have chosen.

Select three words you have highlighted to recycle into your own sentences.

If any of the words you identified are not in the glossary, write up your own glossary for them.

Extension
Find a bland sentence from the article to up-level. Can you add more detail and description? Can you replace any base words with more specific synonyms?

Down-level for a younger audience. Find a sentence in the article that is high level. Now rewrite it for a younger audience so they can understand the words without using the glossary.