Pioneering space students honoured at National Space Centre
THE country’s first ever post-16 Space Engineering course has honoured the achievements of Loughborough College students completing the programme at a major event held at the National Space Centre.
The pioneering course, established by Loughborough College in association with the National Space Academy, provides a host of opportunities - students recently met Princess Anne to discuss opportunities for female engineers and have talked to British astronaut Tim Peake during the first live broadcast from his mission on the International Space Station.
Dr Zoe Washington, who leads and teaches on the Space Engineering programme at Loughborough College, said: “The Awards Ceremony is a formal recognition and celebration of the success and commitment of all our students. It also gives us the opportunity to reflect on this outstanding course and the exciting enrichment activities these exceptional students have immersed themselves in.”
Presenting the Space Engineering Ambassador Award, Dr Washington paid tribute to nominees James Brown, Tyler Laffar and Nathan Marsh, praising their promotion of the programme and how they had shared their experiences and “their passion for Space Engineering”, including at an event meeting astronaut Al Worden.
On announcing winner Tyler Laffar, Dr Washington said his enthusiasm for the course “simply cannot be quelled” and he had been “the model of commitment,” leading by example.
James Brown and Nathan Marsh joined the nominee list once again for the coveted George Fraser Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement, with Tom Doughty and Jacob Kellock. Presenting the award was John Holt from the Space Research Centre at the University of Leicester, who described the winner James Brown’s “desire to look beyond purely getting the correct answer” as setting him apart. Not only could he always be relied upon to complete his work above and beyond expectations but he was “always willing to help others in the class with their understanding, showing a mastery of the topics and a real love of learning and explaining physics and technical subjects.”