Cosmonaut regales Utah students

MURRAY — Hurtling into Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 20,000 miles per hour, the front of his spacecraft heating up to 2,000 degrees, cosmonaut Vitali Sevastyanov says he had one thought.

"As long as I can still steer," he told Grant and Viewmont elementary students Wednesday, "I'll be all right."

Sevastyanov, who spoke through interpreter Michael Torbin of Houston, appeared at Grant Elementary as part of the Association of Space Explorers' 19th annual Planetary Congress.

The weeklong session, centered at the Salt Palace, is the second ever held in the United States. It allows for the exchange of experience, research, discussion about the field's future and public outreach, and includes about 60 astronauts and cosmonauts representing 11 countries.

Wednesday, astronauts and cosmonauts visited schools throughout the state to share their experiences and space exploration's history and future.

"Hopefully it will plant a seed in these students' minds that they are capable of doing anything they dream," Glo Merrill, Murray District director of career and technology education and curriculum, said of the visit.

Russian-born Sevastyanov, whose initial flight was in 1970, has logged flights on the Soyuz 9, in which he spent 18 days in space, and the Soyuz 18, which took two months and involved a space station, according to Merrill's introduction. He has been an engineer who helped design spacecraft, and in 1990 he was elected to the Russian parliament.

Sevastyanov said space travel was exciting and that he especially loved to gaze upon the Earth, which he said looked blue and small from the space station. He even ate candy along with his space food-in-a-tube.

But there were difficulties.

Sevastyanov recalls the brutal effects of prolonged weightlessness following his first flight. Not only could he not stand up straight, but it took him a week to learn how to walk again. But by the second flight, scientists created ways to prevent muscular weakness, including exercise.

And in general, Sevastyanov enjoyed space flight.

"It felt good," he said.

The field's future is bright, Sevastyanov added.

"We will go to other planets, we will learn more about the sun, and people will fly to other star systems as well," he said.

When asked by children, Sevastyanov said that he believes "there is life out there somewhere." But he indicated the chances of making contact with star systems thousands of light years away are perhaps slim.

Still, he hopes students will continue their curiosity.

"I wish you to remain as curious as you are now," Sevastyanov told the students. "Pursue knowledge; remain relentless in that pursuit."

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