By Lekan Adejuwon
The Ikere Ekiti-born 9 year-old child prodigy, David Balogun made history recently, when he graduated from an eyebrow college in the US sending local and foreign media into frenzy.
The 9 year-old college graduate aspires to be an astrophysicist!
Surprising enough, David, appeared closer to his dream career as he was invited to National Aeronautics and Space Administration, (NASA) by James Webb Space Telescope Science Institute located in Baltimore, Maryland.
The NASA operation center it was gathered, was an institute where kids are usually not invited to visit
But the rule was broken for David Balogun as he had scientists ‘buzzing with excitement’ during a private tour as he toured the James Webb Space Telescope Mission Operations Center in Maryland.
Scientists at the center “learned more than one thing from David,” a spokesperson told Insider.
A child prodigy made headlines last month when he graduated high school at just nine years old and told Insider his ambitions of becoming an astrophysicist to study black holes and supernovas.
Now, kid genius David Balogun got a little closer to that dream.
When news got around to NASA and one of its contractors — the Maryland-based Space Telescope Science Institute, or STScI — they invited Balogun to visit the agency’s James Webb Space Telescope Mission Operations Center, which has been based at the institute since it launchedin late 2021.
Said Hanna Braun, spokesperson of the Institute; “I had actually seen David’s story all over social media, and thought ‘Wow I’d bet he’d find a trip to Webb’s Mission Operations Center exciting!’
“Everyone was super thrilled to see his enthusiasm and drive,” she continued.
David and his mom, in a separate interview said they were excited by the invitation — giving David a chance to get closer to his dream as the family sorts out which college the prodigy will attend.
David opted to wear his orange NASA space suit, which the employees at the center thought was “very cool,” he stated
The institute doesn’t have the infrastructure to host regular tours, Braun said, so David’s family got a private tour, where employees said they learned from him as much as he learned from them.
“Everyone was quite impressed with David and all of his knowledge,” Braun added
She said the team was “really buzzing with excitement” before he arrived.
“We don’t have children visit [the center] really, besides families of employees on occasion, so the crew didn’t quite know what to expect with David,” she said.
During the tour, David was shown the Flight Control Room, which is basically the heart of the Webb telescope where teams communicate with the telescope and monitor the general health of the observatory.
It was gathered that when David spoke with the scientists, it was quite clear that David’s knowledge was extensive.
“That one’s super fun,” David said reiterating that it was just a simulation and he didn’t actually speak with an astronaut.
“I wasn’t going to actually go and say, ‘Oh, I’m a 9-year-old operations controller.”
Ronya Balogun, David’s mother added that at one point during the visit, her son was describing Super Saturn, which the employees present in the room hadn’t heard of before.
Braun explains; “We were all discussing the different types of exoplanets (planets that orbit stars other than our sun) that Webb studies and will study in the future. David then mentioned how cool Super Saturn is, and we said, “what’s that?” So then we got to googling,” Braun told Insider. “So everyone who spends all day around these sorts of things definitely learned more than one thing from David during his visit.”
David, who lives with his family in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, began his hunt for colleges earlier this year with the help of his parents. He said that he had not made a decision yet but is continuing to explore different scientific areas of interest.
In the future, David said he hopes to collaborate with NASA and other aerospace companies while also working to improve the education system for gifted children like himself.
“I’ll work with NASA, but I’ll have my own company,. My goal is to become an astrophysicist and reform the education system.”
CULLED FROM INSIDER
