West Lafayette student wins SpaceKids national competition

After winning the SpaceKids Global 2024 Press Squad competition, 11-year-old Anahita Rai of West Lafayette will get to travel to Orlando, Florida.

Rai, a seventh-grader at West Lafayette Jr./Sr. High School is one of eight students in the country to be a part of the Press Squad that will report on Blue Origin’s upcoming space launch.

Over 1,100 students across the U.S. applied to the contest. Of those, 24 students were selected randomly and had to submit a 60-second video explaining how they would interview someone if they were a journalist.

The best eight submissions were chosen for the squad, co-sponsored by SpaceKids Global and the nonprofit, Blue Origin Club for the Future.

The winners will travel to Florida for two days and get the opportunity to visit Blue Origin’s rocket factory and the Kennedy Space Center, according to a press release from SpaceKids Global.

“I was really surprised and excited,” Rai said, upon discovering her admittance into the program.

Rai filmed her video in front of the Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering on Purdue’s campus.

She talked about her interest in robotics and the coding language Python as reasons to apply, as her goal is to become an astronaut someday.

“I’m originally from India, and I heard about this astronaut, Kalpana Chawla,” Rai said. “I looked her up and she really inspires me.”

SpaceKids Global was founded in 2015 by Sharon Hagle to support elementary STEM education, particularly among girls. This is the first Press Squad the organization has put together.

“The whole purpose of the program is to give kids insight on the space industry and what it takes to launch, but they’re also there to report on our launch,” Hagle said, who will be returning to space with her husband, Purdue alum Marc Hagle, on the Blue Origin flight.

Sharon and her husband are the lead donors to Hagle Hall.

Rai’s father, Purdue alum Malay Rai, is very excited for his daughter, who has never been to Florida.

“She’s always inquisitive about science, technology and space stuff,” he said. “I just want her to become whatever she wants, and I will support her.”