HYDERABAD: Two city-based school children, one among them a girl, added a feather in the State’s cap when they won a trip to NASA on Sunday.

Shouvanik Chakrabarti, a Class VII student of Gitanjali Senior School and Sneha Reddy Kudugunta, a student of Class VI from Oakridge International School were among the chosen 10 from across the country who will visit the international space agency in May.

The students were chosen by Learnsmart India, an educational assessment services provider, through the ‘Destination NASA’ knowledge challenge on its website 24X7guru.com.

The challenge which had 49,000 registrations from across 13 cities ran from November 28, 2007 and the qualifying rounds were conducted in two phases, a press note from Learn smart India said on Wednesday.

The aim of the competition was to encourage the students, help them take more interest in their studies and enhance their online skills, said the press note.

The other winning students were from Mumbai, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Rajkot, Pune, Delhi and Jaipur.

They will be allowed to take one parent and a teacher each on their flight to NASA.

They will also have an opportunity to meet Bollywood actor-director Aamir Khan. 120 runners up in the contest will be awarded gifts ranging from computers to ipods, the press release added.

URL: http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/21/stories/2008022157890200.htm