According to a news report by the Washington Examiner, the Biden administration is spending tens of thousands of dollars on a new Space Camp programme bringing teenagers from Libya to the United States of America (USA) for an astronaut experience. This initiative, organised through the USA’s Embassy to Libya, will enable approximately 20 students from the North African country to participate in a one-week Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, scheduled for August. 

For over 30 years, the USA Space and Rocket Center has hosted Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, the most populous city in the Cotton State, also home to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Marshall Space Flight Center. At the camp, students are immersed in astronaut training techniques using equipment adapted from NASA’s astronaut programme, work as a team and confront mission scenarios that require dynamic problem-solving and critical thinking. To implement this programme, the State Department has granted USD 135,267 to Amideast, a Washington, D.C.-based charity focused on fostering life-changing opportunities for education and cultural exchanges between the United States and foreign nations.

“The objectives of this programme are consistent with the department’s budget request to Congress and Congress’s resulting appropriation to the department. The opportunity will provide talented students with valuable cross-cultural exposure,” stated Hamalawy, a former longtime producer for the Qatari-owned Al Jazeera Media Network, 

‘’Applicants for the Space Camp should be between 15 and 17 years old, proficient in English, attending high school in Libya, interested in science, and have no prior study or travel experience to the U.S. They also have to answer essay questions such as why do you want to attend space camp and what are your future goals after graduating high school?”, stated the State Department.