Hissaa From Amritsar Secures First Rank in International Space Olympiad 2020, Gets Invite From NASA

Amritsar, September 26: Hissaa, a 16-year-old girl from Punjab's Amritsar, has recieved an invite from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for a visit to the John F Kennedy Space Centre in the US. Hissaa has been invited by NASA after she topped the International Space Olympiad (ISO) 2020. She scored 78.75 marks, obtained collectively in the preliminary, intermediate and final test. NASA Offers Rs 7.5 Lakh to Engineering Students to Help Them Harvest Water on Moon and Mars, Here's How to Apply.

A student of class 10 of DAV Public School, Hissaa became the first student from India to secure this position in the senior category. What is surprising is the fact that her accomplishment is not attributed to a coaching class. She secured the first position in the International Space Olympiad (ISO) 2020 with her own hard work. "It was a dream come true when I got the official confirmation," Hissaa, who aspires to become an astrophysicist, told a daily.

In the International Space Olympiad (ISO) 2020, Hissaa competed with students from Singapore and Switzerland, besides different parts of India. "I got myself registered in September 2019, but due to Covid-19 restrictions, the first-round examination was pushed to January, followed by the second phase being conducted in June and the final in August. I am eagerly waiting for the situation to get favourable so that I could visit my dream destination, the NASA centre,” she said. Jeanette Epps, NASA Astronaut, to Become First Black Woman Part of International Space Station Crew.

For her success, Hissaa gives credit to her father Savrajinder Pal Singh, an engineer with the MC, Amritsar, and her mother Kamalpreet Kaur, an English teacher in a government school. She said her father taught her the nuances of science and she learnt the basics of astronomy with the help of her mother.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 26, 2020 10:14 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).