NASA’s Langley Research Center is set to recognize its high school participants during an annual program aimed to help astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

The 2018 HUNCH Program Recognition Ceremony will be held Wednesday, May 24, at 6 p.m. at the York High School auditorium, 9300 George Washington Memorial Highway, Yorktown, Virginia.

In its 15th year, HUNCH, or High school students United with NASA to Create Hardware, develops high school students in many ways by highlighting their talents in order to contribute to the missions of NASA. The program provides students hands-on experience with the space agency – such as building NASA-designed parts for use by agency personnel or food for astronauts to enjoy.

Teams of students from Virginia and North Carolina participated in HUNCH events at Langley in March, which included a culinary competition and a critical technology design review. As finalists, their entrée and engineering projects were sent to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for judging by panels of astronauts, agency researchers, the space station program office and private industry professionals.

The teams of students from high schools that took part at Langley for HUNCH that will be recognized May 24 are Gloucester High School of Gloucester, Virginia (videography production); Phoebus High School of Hampton, Virginia, and New Horizons Woodside of Newport News, Virginia (culinary); New Horizons Woodside and Denbigh Aviation Academy of Newport News (ISS Program space flight hardware); and Grafton High School and York High School in York County, Virginia, Poquoson High School in Poquoson, Virginia, and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, North Carolina (ISS design and prototype concepts).

In this year’s completion, Gloucester High won the HUNCH Video Challenge with an infomercial-style production about the program. The team’s video can be viewed at:

https://youtu.be/SvzZg9gpZwc.

Phoebus High is no stranger to have their creations make it to space. In 2015, a culinary team from Phoebus won the HUNCH Culinary Challenge and had their entrée, Jamaican rice and beans with coconut milk, included in an astronaut cookbook for preflight preparation to the ISS. Read more on their success at:

http://go.nasa.gov/2lMluzB.

For more information, contact Eric Gillard at 757-864-7423 or eric.s.gillard@nasa.gov. For more information about NASA’s HUNCH program, visit:

https://www.nasahunch.com.