Teenagers with an interest in science are encouraged to apply to for an all-expenses paid trip to Houston, Texas to represent Western Canada at the FISE United Space School.

For more than 20 years, The Hangar Flight Museum has been selecting a Canadian student to join 49 other delegates, representing 25 countries, in Texas for two weeks of training at the United Space School at the University of Clear Lake.

“It’s so exciting every year to send a student who’s right at that ripe age where they’re trying to decide what to do with their life,” said Lauren Maillet of The Hangar Flight Museum.

During their time in Houston, the students are instructed by astronauts, engineers, scientist and leaders in the aerospace industry.

Despite the fact the museum has been offering United Space School placement for decades, only a handful of students apply each year. Maillet says the museum normally fields between three and 15 applications in a given year.

“Every time I talk about it to an adult, they want to go,” said Maillet. “We’re trying to get a hold of the 15-year-olds, the 16-year-olds, the 17 year olds and make sure that they know.”

The deadline for applications for this year’s trip is Monday, January 22, 2018.

Elizabeth Drew represented Western Canada at the space school in the summer of 2017 ahead of the start of Grade 12. The Calgary teenager, who is currently applying to universities, says her experience at the United Space School exceed her expectations.

“I learned so much and I still don’t even realize how much I learned in two weeks but I just keep recalling information all the time,” said Drew. “Once I went there and I saw all these cool projects they were working on, I knew I wanted to actually do application not research.”

Drew, who says she became obsessed with space after seeing the Milky Way at the age of 14, hopes to be accepted into the mechatronics engineering program at the University of Waterloo. The teenager says she would jump at the opportunity to become an astronaut.

The Hangar Flight Museum is currently without a sponsor for the funding of the Western Canadian delegate program but the museum has reached out to its members to help with contributions.

“Our mission is to inspire dreams of flight and how better to inspire dreams than to potentially create a career for a new astronaut,” said Maillet.

For additional information, including details regarding the application process for the program, visit The Hangar Flight Museum – United Space School.

With files from CTV’s Kevin Fleming