Two Dutch students to NASA via Thales-sponsored ‘Countdown to Houston'!

The University of Twente (UT) and United Space School organised this year's educational project Countdown to Houston: a space camp competition for upper secondary school students in Overijssel. As sponsors of the event, Thales joined the competition jury. Darya Leushuis (6 vwo) from the Bonhoeffer College Bruggertstraat in Enschede and Ajia Niazi (4 vwo) from het Erasmus in Almelo were named the two grand winners on Friday, February 9. Winning the project ensures them a spot in the United Space School's Summer School Program!

This summer, Darya and Ajia will be invited to go behind the scenes for two weeks at the NASA space agency in Houston, United States. Together with a total of 50 participants from 25 countries, they will participate in the United Space School's Summer School program, which includes workshops, presentations and a group assignment. The participants will gain a lot from this fairly prestigious project; it will look great on their CV, and they will go home with important international connections.

Bored on the way to Mars

From a large group of students who applied throughout Twente, only eight students became finalists after a selection process where they had to complete various assignments. As a final assignment, they were given the question: "How can boredom be prevented in astronauts during a long mission to Mars?". In a video pitch in English, the students presented their creative ideas, after which they were questioned by an expert jury. Among them was Thales colleague Martine Kortekaas, manager of various projects at the department Applications Engineering: "It was hard for the judges to choose, they all worked so hard and they were so enthusiastic!".

The final selection round was organised by the University of Twente's Pre-University program (Pre-U) in collaboration with United Space School, and was made possible by Thales, Demcon & Twente Board. As a high-tech company, we are the best ambassadors of our industry; we strive to show all new generations how versatile and great working in high-tech can be!

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It all started in the 80’s

Countdown to Houston started in the 80’s. The director of the university of Houston worked together with NASA to set up a program for students to get them excited about space. The Netherlands decided to join the party in 2012, with only one school: the Bonhoeffer College. Now, more and more schools decide to join the program every year!