Fake flights and hyped Zoomed meetings are all parents are left with as they try to claw back tens of thousands of dollars from failed space study programme Actura.
The Aussie-based company went into liquidation on Friday, leaving behind a trail of angry parents on both sides of the Tasman.
Dinner with an astronaut was just one of the once-in-a-lifetime promises made to high school students both here and in Australia for a two-week trip to a space school that's not cleared for lift-off. All that parents are now left with are empty wallets and devastated children.
Actura, the Aussie-based company running the trip, is now in liquidation.
Operating since 2014, Actura boasted a 90 percent approval rating from students attending the company's programmes.
"We were all positive about it a month ago and even to the last payment there was nothing that said to us it's going pear-shaped," said Sydney-based parent Gary Kessanis.
Its reputation with parents like Kessanis - who has paid Actura around $13,000 - is now in tatters.
"Absolute fraudulent, irresponsible. They've obviously taken the money to put it elsewhere into their own funds rather than putting it aside," said Kessanis.
"It wasn't their money to spend for their own use - absolutely criminal."
Parents say initial contact with Actura was through their children's school, from there, their dealings with Actura were through an online portal.
Back here, a Wellington family has paid four instalments of $3000, which started in April last year. Today they received confirmation from Air New Zealand that the domestic flights booked for their 12-year-old child don't exist.
They've gone back to their daughter's school which they say endorsed the Actura trip, and received an email from Chilton Saint James principal Caroline Robertson apologising for the disappointment.
Actura said more than 3000 students have participated in the space school expeditions. Newshub hasn't made contact with anyone who's gone on previous camps.
Many parents had purchased travel insurance.
"We've got no information on the travel insurance to even try and make the claim," said Kessanis.
To try and get thousands of dollars back for a space camp that may as well have been to another planet.
