ZP students from Pune to embark on NASA visit from Nov 15

Pune, Nov 14 (PTI) Twenty-five Pune Zilla Parishad school students are all set to visit US-based National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The students, who will visit NASA as part of an initiative by Zilla Parishad in collaboration with Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), will depart from Mumbai on November 15.

On Friday, Divisional Commissioner Chandrakant Pulkundwar felicitated the students and said the tour will help boost confidence and communication skills among rural youth.

"Out of 15,000 students, around 235 were shortlisted through written and oral interviews, and finally 75 were selected. Of them, 25 would visit NASA, while the remaining 50 will tour ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) facilities in India," a ZP official said.

"Another 160 students will be exposed to other institutions like planetariums, IUCAA, GMRT (Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope), and Rashtrapati Bhavan and Parliament, within India. The Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics helped identify the students through a stringent assessment process involving two written tests and one personal interview," said Pune ZP CEO Gajanan Patil.

During this educational tour, students will visit NASA's Kennedy Space Centre, the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, NASA's Earth Information Centre and major technology companies in San Francisco.

Pulkundwar urged them to strictly follow discipline and decorum, avoid touching unfamiliar objects, support each other as a team, heed the teachers' instructions and take care of their health.

He added that such tours should serve the purpose of strengthening the nation and expressed hope that similar overseas visits will become more frequent. PTI SPK BNM