Egypt student suggests NASA hold ‘BBQ party’ – it accepts

An Egyptian student has been offered opportunities at NASA Space Agency and several other American companies after proposing that the US aerospace giant use the launch of its rockets to host an enormous barbecue.

Sarah Abouelkhair, a student at the American University in Cairo, contacted NASA on Instagram to suggest that laying meat underneath the fire of rocket launchers would help solve world hunger, save energy, increase employment satisfaction, and help the company against its rival Space X.

Having expected no response from the space agency, Abouelkhair was shocked when she was later contacted by NASA, who said it were genuinely interested in the idea, and offered to fly her to the US to make further plans.

“We think this is a genius idea, and we loved it so much that we decided to invite you to our next launch, and maybe discuss some BBQ logistics,” the message read.

She was further stunned when competing space agency Space X, created by business magnate Elon Musk, contacted her with a rival offer, proposing to invite her to their headquarters in California for a month to develop a prototype.

Abouelkhair was subsequently contacted by media companies and popular personalities, with Buzzfeed News requesting exclusive access to her trip, internet broadcaster Netflix offering to create a documentary on her journey and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres requesting to meet her when she arrived in the US.

Whilst the Egyptian student is yet to announce her decision on which invitation she will accept, her story has been well received on social media, with fellow Arab and tech enthusiasts praising the company’s unorthodox approaches to recruiting new talent.

NASA is well-known for encouraging creativity in students and potential employees. This month, the annual NASA Space Apps Challenge took place in multiple locations around the world, including Cairo. The international event that takes place over two days encourages the youth to use their creativity to think of how technology could help solve global issues, ranging from poverty to pollution.

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