Section: CAPITAL REGION
Page: F3

Wednesday, April 14, 1999

COSMONAUTS GIVE STUDENTS SPACE LESSON

Russians talk about their experience in the Mir station

 

KATHLEEN DOOLEY Staff writer

 

Saratoga Springs Space camp veterans from Saratoga Springs Junior High School sat enraptured and wide-eyed as they listened to former Russian cosmonauts Alexei Yeliseye and Evgenij Khrunov speak through interpreters during an assembly last Friday.

The space exploration couldn't have been more timely for the junior high schoolers.

Under the tutelage of Charles Kuenzel, chairman of the junior high science department, 90 eighth- and ninth-graders spent March 18-21 at a NASA-sponsored space camp program in Montreal. All took part in space simulations.

Kuenzel described the students' intensive three-day training program as ``absolutely phenomenal.'' At space camp, students trained each day from 8 a.m.-10 p.m. culminating in simulated missions where they flew a full-scale model of the space shuttle Endeavor and staffed a control room resembling NASA facilities.

During the Russians' visit to the schools, the former Soviet cosmonauts were accompanied by Alex Romanovich, vice president of Unified Technologies in Albany, who served as their interpretor. The cosmonauts answered questions about weightlessness, motion sickness, how it felt during the launch and more.

Khrunov explained that the space station Mir has been in orbit for 12 years. Eventually, he said, the government will probably sink it in the ocean. He said there are no female cosmonauts because ``men are more suitable than women'' for space travel. The comment brought many murmers from the crowd.

``It was very interesting,'' said eighth-grader John Christensen, 13. ``He taught me a lot. I didn't know the Russians even dropped out of the space race after we landed a man on the moon.''

Rhonda Craig, 12, said she learned a lot about space. ``It was really better than I thought,'' she said.

Her seatmate Josina Warnow, 15, admitted it was ``pretty good meeting a Russian and hearing them talk about space.''

More than 500 junior and senior high students filled the two respective auditoriums during the cosmonauts visit to Saratoga Springs. They were here to participate in RPI's 175th anniversary celebration and Space Museum at Houston Field House in Troy.

Their visit to the local schools was arranged by Laura Chodos, Albany-Tula Alliance board member and chairwoman of the education and cultural exchanges, a former member of the state Board of Regents and now a resident of Saratoga Springs.