Czech Republic 2004

World Space Week 2004 Report

The Czech Republic participated in World Space Week for the third time. As in the previous years, the Czech Space Office (www.czechspace.cz) was the main organizer of the Czech participation. Involvement of professional as well as individual organizations was managed and coordinated by Mr. Milan Halousek, editor of KOSMOS–NEWS astronautics bulletin.

Various astronomical observatories planned and organized programs and lectures for the general public during the World Space Week period and we appreciate the effort of all organizations and individual persons contributing into the list of events which all were interesting and acknowledged by hundreds of participants.

One special event organized by the British Council in Prague. The "Café Scientifique" program consisted of a videoconference between Czech students and British specialists from the National Space Centre in Leicester. The second special event was AEROSPACE 2004 – International philatelic exhibition. Models of planes and spaceships, collections of astronauts' signatures, meeting and talks with Czech astronaut-candidate, Oldřich Pelčák (Soyuz 28, 1978) complemented this exhibition. Another important event supporting publicity of the space activities was public meeting with Eugene Cernan, a former American astronaut of Czech/Slovak origin who had signed the Czech edition of his book "The Last Man on the Moon". These events were attractive also for people who are not so much interested in space research and technology.

World Space Week has been celebrated by a lot of propagators, individuals and enthusiasts, who are keen on astronautics and who are actively involved in promoting space activities. E. Hally Amateur Astronomical Observatory organized a workshop on astronautics and two exhibitions of space ships and launchers kits for children from primary schools.

Information and announcements about the World Space Week appeared on a large number of web pages, especially on the Czech Astronomical Society www.astro.cz and KOSMO www.kosmo.cz, the Czech Space Portal. Astronomical observatories in Uhersky Brod and Valašské Meziříčí announced WSW information on their web pages too. Czech Astronomical Society published the official press release distributed to all media in the Czech Republic.

The number of events was similar to the previous year, 2003. In total, more than 2000 participants attended all lectures visited especially young people from primary and high schools and their interest is encouraging response for the future. It is the intention of the organizers to increase general WSW awareness not only among enthusiasts and people being interested in space but also in the other fields, which there are not directly connected with space research and technology.

For information on the Czech World Space Week events, please visit:

http://web.quick.cz/SKT/index.htm and KOSMOS-NEWS
http://kosmos-news.kosmo.cz

Some other Czech WSW events are listed below:

Lecture: Graceful Journey all over Red Planet – Adventure of Spirit and Opportunity Rovers
Children competition: Astronauts
Lecture: How is possible to live in space
Lecture: 10 Tragedies or Disasters in Astronautics
Lecture: Astronautical Chronicles
Lecture: People on the Moon
Lecture: Interesting Observation of the Sun and their Signification
Lecture: Saturn Probes
Lecture: Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn
3D Panel: Mars Exploration
Night Astronomical Observations, Flames of Iridiums
Talking about Astronautics
Exhibition: We are Flying through Space
Lecture series: Nuclear Energy in Space Exploration, Titans at the Start, Apollo 11 and Saturn-so near and yet so far
Lecture: MSG-Meteosat Second Generation
Exhibition: American Astronomy and Astronautics
Exhibition of Space Technology Models
Exhibition of Paper Space Technology Models
Lecture: Readable Mystery of the Moon
Lecture: Truth and Myth of Landing on the Moon

Please click below for Word documents that contain images from the celebration of World Space Week in the Czech Republic in 2004: