A bright teenager from a Barry school is heading to the USA for a 'space school' where students from around the world prepare for a potential career in aerospace. Osian Carnie, 18, a sixth form student from Ysgol Gymraeg Bro Morgannwg in Barry, has been selected for the Summer 2023 United Space School in Houston, Texas.
The programme is run by the Foundation for International Space Education and will see Osian and 49 other students devise a fictional mission to Mars and learn from the experts at the heart of the space industry near Nasa's Texas base. Osian said he was "really looking forward to it" having always been interested in space.
"I had lots of space books growing up," he said, adding: "I applied on the last day before the closing date so I wasn’t 100% sure I’d get in. I wrote an essay and handed in my CV then after that I had an interview and they said I was in. My mates have all been telling me: 'Well done.'"
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In Osian's interview he shared his passion for skateboarding with the interviewers, telling them his ideas about zero-gravity skateboarding in space. In the two-week programme students spend time at Nasa's site in Houston, are lectured by experts on life in zero-gravity, propulsion systems, and the laws of space, and run mock missions to space.
Osian's mum Gwenda Carnie said: "Oh my goodness, I’m very proud, obviously. He’s a teenage boy from Barry, goes to school in Welsh – it’s not usually something that’s on their horizons.
"I think it is competitive – students are taken from 25 countries around the world. He’s so young to choose a career so what experiences could we find to give him a taste of what working life is like with maths and physics and this was just one of the ideas."
Osian hasn't ruled out a career as an astronaut but Gwenda said she'd be "terrified" if he went to space, adding: "There’s a whole range of different careers and people involved in planning these missions ,through to the obvious rocket scientists … there’s a range of careers – astronaut, maybe!"
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