Jules Verne From the Earth to the Moon

Well its not quite KS2 but I just finished reading From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne, written in 1865. It has numerous astounding insights into the practicalities of space travel (cold, oxygen, carbon dioxide, take off/landing etc).

This text occurs just as the 3 passengers of the simple space craft are flying past the moon, not knowing if they are flying out into the depths of space, crashing into the surface or orbiting it forever.

Imagination loses itself in this sublime Infinity, amid which the projectile was gravitating, like a new star created by the hand of man. From a natural cause, these constellations shone with a soft luster; they did not twinkle, for there was no atmosphere which, by the intervention of its layers unequally dense and of different degrees of humidity, produces this scintillation. These stars were soft eyes, looking out into the dark night, amid the silence of absolute space.

Jules Verne 1965,

More at wikipedia