内容摘要：Some students told the BBC that the confusion has even left them wishing they had applied to schools outside the US.

Some students told the BBC that the confusion has even left them wishing they had applied to schools outside the US.

There was concern when the postbox topper disappeared this week, but its creator Reet Prendergast said it was being repaired after being damaged for a second time on Wednesday.Passers-by spotted the woolly figures of Smithy and Nessa had vanished, leaving just the two posts where they once stood and Nessa's catchphrase, "oh, what's occurring", embroidered below.

"I came up one day and someone had snapped Nessa's legs. So I took her home to fix her and then put it back on again and then Smithy was broken as well, very sad, so I've taken them off home," Ms Prendergast said.She added that she tried to make a new topper every month, and in the 18 months she has been doing it, this was the first time one had been damaged.Ms Prendergast, however, said Smithy and Nessa would be back on back on top of the post box next week.

She also revealed that Smithy's head had been based on one previously used for Queen Camilla "with a bit of stubble" added.One member of the public, Katie Packman, said: "I'm horrified. I can't believe anybody would steal Gavin & Stacey [characters]."

Hay-on-Wye, which sits on the Powys-Herefordshire border, has become synonymous with books and its literary festival has been running since 1988.

Jones and Corden's book When Gavin met Stacey and Everything in Between: A Story of Love and Friendship, is due out in October.Dr McDowell also predicted "more failures".

"There is a whole new generation of space technology on this rocket," he also noted, "so it does not really surprise me that they're having problems"."I do think they'll get it working eventually," he added.

Mr Musk and his company have grand designs that the rocket system will one day take humans to Mars.Nasa wants to use Starship as part of its Artemis programme, which aims to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon.