NASA selects painting by 12-year-old student from Tamil Nadu for their 2019 space calendar

A 12-year-old boy from Tamil Nadu's Dindigul district made the country proud after a painting by him was selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for its 2019 calendar. One of the millions of school students who sent in their entries for the calendar, N Thenmukilan sent the agency a painting by him with 'Space Food' as the theme. The painting urges astronauts to grow vegetables in space which will add nutrition content to their diet, Thenmukilan told media outlets. The son of a headmaster and a government school teacher, Thenmukilan is the second boy from the same school to have his work selected for NASA's annual calendar NASA's.

commercial crew released the calendar on December 19 for which they selected 12 entries from around the world. Each of the entries will be used for 12 months a year, out of which Thenmukilan's painting was taken for the month of November. Members of the crew said that copies of these calendars will be transmitted to astronauts in the space station.

(The painting by N Thenmukilan)

A statement issued by NASA read, "The artwork contest is designed to get our youth excited on science, technology, engineering, and math an to inspire our future scientists, engineers, and explorers."

(India's 35th communication satellite Gsat-7A onboard the GSLV-F11 launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on December 19)

The year 2018 turned out to be a monumental leap for India's space program after the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) acquired approval from the union government to prepare for the launch of India's largest manned space mission yet, Gaganyaan. ISRO Chairman K Sivan told media agencies that the agency's heaviest rocket, GSLV Mk III has become operational. In addition, Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) was quoted as saying that all technological issues relating to Chandrayaan-2 were sorted out this past year.