Talk with a Cosmonaut during World Space Week

Media Release

3 October 2011

Talk with a Cosmonaut during World Space Week

New Zealanders have the rare opportunity on Thursday 6th October to participate in a live online video conference with Cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev. He'll be giving a presentation about his time aboard the space station, and taking questions from members of the public.

Thanks to the support of Adobe, anyone can join in this public session using their web browser - simply visit www.worldspaceweek.org.nz for details. The web conference is being held at Thursday 6th October from 7:00pm - 8:30pm.

Organised by KiwiSpace Foundation, this public webinar adds to a series educational video link-ups being held with students around New Zealand.

"The students are really excited about this opportunity - everyone dreams of being an astronaut, but we don't get many opportunities to talk to one in New Zealand and find out what it really takes to work and live in space," says Mark Mackay, Executive Director of KiwiSpace.

The video conferences are being held as part of the United Nations' designated "World Space Week" festival, from 4-10 October. In addition to the live sessions, seven locally recorded interviews with inspirational space personalities and scientists are being made available each day of the festival.

For more information, visit www.worldspaceweek.org.nz.

ABOUT DMITRY KONDRATYEV

Born 25 May 1969 in Irkutsk, Russia, married to Dinara with one son, Vladislav. Dmitry served as a Commander of the International Space Station on Expedition 27, having also served as Flight Engineer on Expedition 26. Dmitry was selected as a test-cosmonaut candidate of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in December 1997, graduating in 2000 and selected for various missions before launching aboard the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft on 15 December 2010.

ABOUT WORLD SPACE WEEK

World Space Week Association is a non-government, non-profit, international organisation founded in 1981 and the proud partner of the United Nations in the global coordination of World Space Week - the largest public space event on Earth. Since 2000, World Space Week has taken place every year on 4-10 October. It celebrates at the international level "the contributions of space science and technology to the betterment of the human condition" (United Nations General Assembly). Currently, the volunteer-led Association works with more than 60 national coordinators. For more information, see www.worldspaceweek.org.

ABOUT KIWISPACE FOUNDATION

KiwiSpace aims to help inspired Kiwis learn more about the education and work opportunities in the international space arena, bringing expert speakers to New Zealand audiences, and providing hands-on participation events such as water rocket competitions to help inspire future generations. For more information, see www.kiwispace.org.nz

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