A total of 23 Maldivian students have completed Canada's Junior Astronaut Programme.
The Junior Astronaut Programme was conducted by the Institute for Global Success (IGS) of the Canadian Space Agency. It is the first time Maldivian students have participated in such a programme.
IGS will provide students who completed the programme to seek additional training at The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 2023. The certificate of the Canadian Space Agency for students who completed the programme was presented by the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IGS Riffath Mohamed.
The training programme held in Male' City and Kulhudhuffushi City were taught in three main modules. The modules included how to maintain space fitness, how to work together with space science and technology, and astronauts as a team as well as how meals are taken in space.
IGS is the only institution working to promote space science in the Maldives. IGS has launched the country's first space programme and commenced work on the country's first prototype satellite. The satellite is an opportunity to detect global warming and climate change. The space programme of IGS is being conducted with the technical assistance of the Space Foundation of the US.
The organisation works with scholars and experts from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and renowned space company SpaceX.