Space camp gives schoolkids a taste of the cosmos

“Before, space was too far for me. What we see here makes me understand how it really works and the more I know – the more I want to know. It’s so fascinating!” says the camp’s pupil Alina Volkova.

Alina, together with other children, is spending ten days of her summer vacation at a space camp at the country’s top cosmonaut training centre.

The organizers of the working holiday want to stimulate fascination in the youngsters taking part.

“It is very hard to explain, it’s better to try it once, to feel it once,” explains cosmonaut Aleksandr Lazutkin, “Many children who come are indifferent, but after just a few days, while they may look the same, a spark in their eyes makes them different from before. It’s worth it!”

Mikhail Akmyansky, who passed a young cosmonaut course at the center, says, “I’ve discovered a new world which was absolutely unknown before to me. I thought that cosmonauts, for instance, are closed and hard to reach, but they are very kind and responsive people.”

In addition, space food will also be on the taste buds of these children for quite a while, and while real space may be somewhat weightless, the summer camp on earth seems timeless.

“I've already spent eight days here, or is it nine? No, eight! Oh, sorry I don’t know exactly as the time flows much more quickly here,” says Ilya Milyaev, “I am about to leave, but already I want to return here.”

The camp is not all about entertainment. Since the Soviet Union’s space boom, the popularity of the quest to reach the stars has declined dramatically.

After Gagarin’s legendary flight, becoming a cosmonaut was the dream of every other child in the country. Those times are now over, but there are hopes here that they could be revived.

“When children leave, they often say ‘We couldn't even imagine before how great our country's space achievements are. Now we are very proud of it.’ That means this camp brings them patriotic feelings,” shares Aleksandr Lazutkin.

The sooner the young generation learns to be proud of the country they live in, the cosmonaut says, the easier it’ll be for them to do something that their country will always remember them for in the future.

The organizers of the space camp hope that one day at least one of the kids who attended really will blastoff from Earth.