Aspiring astronauts have blasted off to America to take part in a competition organized by space agency NASA.

Andrew von Maydell, of Brookmans Park, headed over to Florida on Tuesday to compete in the International Space Settlement Design Competition at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre.

He will be taking on the challenge with Finchley students David Dubinsky, Daniil Slavin and Eugene Lin, all aged 16. Their team of 48 includes teenagers from China, Australia and Latin America. 

Team leader Andrew, 16, and his 47 teammates will be tasked with designing a city in space for more than 10,000 people using their creativity, technical and management skills.

He said: “Working with such talented people will be a great experience, as well as lots of fun. I think that with enough determination, we can go far.”

The competition begins today (Friday, July 25) and the students will have four days to design their space colonies.

As part of the project, they will complete against 144 other students from around the world.

He took part in a series of UK Space Design Competition events in 2013 to earn a place at the UK finals held in London in March.