Jamshedpur, March 6: The space shuttle may not have been grounded, but it isn’t ready for take-off yet.

The talented 26 from Jharkhand, who earned a trip to Nasa by qualifying a scholarship test in June 2009 and even coughed up Rs 25,000 as security money, will fly to the US but only when paperwork is complete and accurate, Times Business School, a premier New Delhi-based education cradle, has said. Besides, parents have sought greater transparency in the mission, which is over a year behind schedule.

Rahul Beri, the founder of Times Business School that announced its fortnight-long trip — Destination Nasa — in January 2009 as a part of its corporate social responsibility, said the show was still on and selected students only needed to get documents verified and apply for visa.

He reasoned that the trip — meant for 46 students selected from Bihar and Jharkhand — had been delayed for various issues such as logistics, co-ordination, document verification and visa.

“The trip is very much on from our side and we shall sponsor selected students. All they need to do is apply for the visa and adhere to the terms and conditions of the US embassy. We are just providing the visa charges and cannot be held responsible for delay in formalities. The delay is procedural since the group is diversified and from two states,” Beri said in an email to The Telegraph yesterday.

He claimed there were many students who had overshot deadlines for documents and others who had requested dates to be postponed because of board examinations. He also clarified that rejected students had been returned the security deposit of Rs 25,000.

Of the 26 shortlisted from Jharkhand, eight are from Jamshedpur. These students have not been able to proceed with their visa applications because of disparity in the demand draft amount sent by Times Academy to parents and the visa fee (because of fluctuating dollar rates) sought by the US embassy.

Hassled parents said if the education firm was interested in making the trip happen, it would have to give everything in writing, including details of the visa fee.

“The organisers have to give us in writing whether they are keen on the project. If they are, then each and every process should be methodical and properly documented. Besides, they need to plan a schedule mentioning the date and place of departure from the state and the date of arrival in the US,” said Dhananjay Kumar, father of Aman Priyadarshi who has been selected from Loyola School.

S.N. Chanda, father of Soumya Rup Chanda who recently passed out from Jamshedpur Public School, said: “We have submitted more than 90 documents and have undergone both mental and physical stress, which cannot be compensated. Had the organisers not been incommunicado for so long, we would not have been so anxious.”

A section of disgruntled parents from the city have decided to write and apprise Beri of their demands. The letter will give and seek details on the applicant and the sponsor.

“Since arranging necessary documents have taken a lot of time and money, we will appreciate no further delay. We will give them a week to respond,” Kumar said.