Tags:
Journalism of Courage
MY school, Tagore Bal Niketan, Karnal is really a school where dreams come true. Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian as well as the first Asian woman to go to space, passed out from Tagore Bal Niketan. And as a gesture of gratitude towards her alma mater, the International Space School has invited my school the only school from India to send two students every year to participate in the International Space School Campaign at Johnson Space Centre, Houston, Texas, USA.
This year, my classmate Neetika Goyal and I got the golden opportunity to attend the campaign and represent India. We flew for America on July 22 and returned on August 10. The wonderful experiences of those 20 days, will always remain fresh in our hearts and minds.
42 students from 16 countries around the world participated in this campaign. We had daily classes on subjects like Space Sciences and Space Exploration at NASA Johnson Space and Space Centre, Houston.
And do you know where I lived? Make a wild guess. Those 20 days, I was staying with Kalpana Chawla at her residence. Isn8217;t it amazing? Everyday, we had four to five astronauts come to our class to have breakfast with us and to share their experiences.
John Young the only living astronaut of the Apollo Mission came to our classroom and shared with us the experiences of his mission.
Kalpana Chawla took me for a ride in her two-seater airplane and I actually flew a little as I controlled the turning and up-down movement of the plane. We went to the Mission Control Centre and saw the landing of STS-93 Columbia Mission. Next day we went to Elongaton Field to meet the crew of STS-93 where we also met the Vice President of USA.
It was an incredible and unbelievable experience to be there. It was a dream come true and all the credit and thanks goes to Kalpana Chawla and Vimla Rahya, Director, Tagore Bal Niketan, Karnal.
