Mysore/Mysuru: George ‘Gabe’ Gabrielle, former Director of Engineering for the US Air Force’s Special Operations Command as well as an Engineer at the Kennedy Space Centre, NASA, visited Excel Public School here on Oct. 12.

The programme was organised by the K-12 Learning Events Team of Excelsoft Technologies under the Space Tutor initiative of Excel Public School, in connection with the World Space Week celebrations. Gabe’s visit was enabled by Society for Space Education Research and Development (SSERD), Bengaluru.

Gabe, during his interaction, that lasted for more than two hours, shared his life’s journey as well as various aspects of the space exploration programmes run by NASA.

He is a motivational speaker who has visited schools in 16 countries. During his inspiring message of ‘Do your best, enjoy what you do, believe in yourself” he touched upon concepts such as the launch procedure, landing procedures for the rovers on Mars, living conditions on the ISS space station and training facilities of NASA.

He especially encouraged the girls to pursue their goals and not listen to people who tell them that they cannot thrive in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields.

He contrasted the Apollo missions which had no women, to the Artemis missions which will take women to the lunar surface. Coincidentally, the programme was held on Ada Lovelace Day, a day meant to celebrate women and girls in STEM.

The speech was followed by a Q&A session, where students asked many questions on NASA’s missions as well as the path to becoming a NASA Engineer.