Ahmedabad: Seventeen schoolchildren from here will attend NASA's special eight-day space training programme in the US.

The children from HB Kapadia School were to leave from here on Wednesday for the course held under the aegis of NASA's Marshal Space Flight Center at US Rocket Space and Rocket Center Alabama.

The students met Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday on their way to the US.

Modi commended the students for their desire to know and learn more about space and rockets.

The students were regular visitors of Science City here igniting their young minds.

The students, aged between 9 and 18, will undergo an intensive training programme aimed at exposing them to the real world applications of the math, science, engineering and technology concepts that they study at school.

The Space Camp will feature three main tracks - Space Track, Robotics Track and the Aviation Track - involving children's participation in realistic, interactive shuttle missions, rocket construction, astronaut simulators and other problem solving and team building exercises.

At least 1.2 million students from around the world have participated in the space camp. Last year, 200 children from six schools in Bangalore attended the programme. IANS