Post by : Mariam
Al-Faris
Photo: Oman News Agency
An Omani team, chosen for NASA’s Space Apps Challenge “Ibra 2024”, visited the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida as part of their six-day science tour in the United States.
During the visit, the team met with retired US astronaut Colonel Woody Spring. He talked about his time in space, the tough training astronauts go through, and the spacewalks he did during his missions.
Dr Fatma al Harthy, Deputy Chair of the NASA Space Apps Challenge in Ibra, shared that young Omanis still have a chance to join this exciting experience in the next hackathon, which will take place on October 4–5, 2025, at the university branch in Ibra.
She said that NASA’s challenge helps turn creative ideas into real solutions that can help people. It also gives Omani youth a chance to show their skills on the world stage and follow their dreams in the space field.
As part of the tour, the team took part in hands-on science activities at the Gateway: Deep Space Launch Complex. They went on virtual space missions to places like Mars, Saturn, and the TRAPPIST-1 system using interactive sound and video.
They also watched IMAX films that showed images from the James Webb Space Telescope, helping them learn more about how the universe began and if life could exist elsewhere. The tour ended with a virtual reality session called HYPERDECK, where they experienced moon landings and explored minerals in a life-like setting.
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