A group of private school students from Assam will get the opportunity to undergo an astronaut training experience at NASA.
The private NPS International School in Guwahati arranged for 21 meritorious students, including a rural student to visit NASA in the United States in the second week of September.
NPS International School first sent students to NASA in 2011.
Last year, students visited NASA’s John F Kennedy Space Center, the gateway to exploring, discovering and understanding the universe.
The International School’s director, Jitendra Nath Das, said every year NPS sends a team of students to NASA to explore, discover and understand the universe.
“This year, we have decided to send a student with rural background, who was among the top five rank holders in the recently declared HSLC Examination conducted by the SEBA. We have already formulated a clear-cut strategy to decide the student who will accompany 20 other students from NPS International School in their trip to NASA. The selection criteria in this regard will be totally on merit,” Das said.
Urging eligible students to apply as soon as possible for this opportunity, the director said students may apply on the school website www.npsis.in.
“Our prime objective is to provide international exposure to students of the region. Even though we follow CBSE and CBSE(I) curriculam, but we also want to contribute for betterment of students in the rural areas of the state as well. We will keep on increasing the number of such meritorious Assam students with rural background to NASA in years to come,” Das said.
Das said the NPS International School is the first school from Northeast region to visit NASA and receive astronomy training there.
“Altogether 37 NPS students went for a three-day astronaut training experience (ATX) in NASA whose mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research,” Jitendra Nath Das said.
These 37 students visited the US Astronaut Hall of Fame to experience firsthand what astronauts see and feel on a real mission.
They began the Journey just like an astronaut experiencing the sights and sounds of a vertical launch in the Space Shuttle.
They felt the pull of 4gs in the G – Force Simulator, sat in a mission control console, touched a Mars rock and landed the space shuttle.
