At eight years old, Montreal’s Sahana Khatri is already thinking of a potential career as a future astronaut—and is reaching out to the federal government for help.
She decided to write a letter to Minister of Innovation Navdeep Singh Bains to apply to the Canadian Space Agency.
“I started reading books and then I saw the planets and I started learning stuff from that,” Khatri said. “Then it was close to Christmas so then I got my telescope.”
The letter took her about a week to write. With her mom’s help, she explained why she wants to be an astronaut.
“I asked her a few questions and then she structured her letter on the computer and then looked at her spelling and stuff and then she went off and transcribed it,” Jasmine Sharma said.
That’s not the only help she’s received along the way.
Khatri presented the handwritten letter to Vaudreuil-Soulanges Member of Parliament Peter Schiefke.
“Any time you have young people get interested in space and in science I think it’s amazing,” Schiefke said. “The fact that she showed up at my office with this long letter that she was ready to read in addition to a diagram of our solar system—it was just amazing.”
Schiefke said he is going to present the letter to Bains in person.
However, that wasn’t necessary for Bains to take notice, who posted an inspirational video on his Twitter and Facebook page.
Khatri’s aspiration also bodes well for the future of space.
“It’s great that you have people that are looking at space as a very interesting career,” director of astronauts, life sciences and space medicine at the Canadian Space Agency Hugues Gilbert said.
Regardless of the attention she’s getting, Khatri is just focusing on making it to outer space.
“I’m thinking about me in a spaceship and I go in space and I go and meet new planets,” Khatri said.
Comments