Innovative secondary school students have flown out to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in the USA for an international competition.

The four Sutton-based teenagers arrived in Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday for three days of sightseeing prior to the contest.

Priya Pereira, Francine Tran and Surika Sooriyathasan who are all 18 and attend Nonsuch High School for Girls, will be joined by 17-year-old Jithu Subhash who goes to Wallington County Grammar School.

Louis Lyle, Matthew Eagling, Miles Cook and Sebastian Elliott who go to Trinity School in Croydon were also selected for the trip.

The Sutton and Croydon students will be joined by four pupils from secondary schools in Hertfordshire and North London.

The twelve teeangers won the UK Space Design Competition, where they had to draw up plans for space-based infrastructure.

On Friday, July 25, they will join students from China, Australia, Latin America and the USA, to take part in the International Space Settlement Design Competition. 

The students will form a multinational team of 48 members, which will compete against 144 teenagers from all over the world.

Over four days they will design another space-based settlement, before giving a presentation on the final day of the competition.

Jithu Subhash said: "I am really looking forward to taking part.

"I cannot wait because it is going to be a truly memorable experience."

The contest finishes on Monday, July 28, when the winning team will be announced.

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Jithu Subhash