THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 27, 1996 TAG: 9604270483
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
A visiting Russian delegation has proposed an ambitious program that would create a new generation of high-tech specialists savvy in the science, culture and language of both the United States and Russia.
Speaking to NASA officials and scientists at Langley Research Center Thursday, Alexey Cheremnykh , vice mayor of the city of Kaliningrad, said future experts should be recruited in elementary school and supported financially through college.
Funding for the venture would come from the Russian and American governments. Administrative oversight would be provided by a board made up of representatives of an international alliance of cities near the world's centers of aerospace research.
``The space industry cannot be monopolized or localized in one country,'' Cheremnykh said, speaking through interpreter Egor Perov. ``The idea is to unify the cities that have a big share of the aerospace business, like Hampton. One very important issue is technology transfer. Our purpose would be to update educational programs and to support small- and medium-size business.''
Cheremnykh said that closer ties are crucial now that his country and the United States are partners in a variety of projects. Russia and America will cooperate, for example, to build the world's first international space station, a venture slated to begin next year.
One joint NASA Langley-Russian project involves the design, construction and 1998 launch of an environment-monitoring satellite from a U.S. space shuttle.
Despite such efforts, political tensions remain. The best way to defuse them, Cheremnykh claimed, is to develop even stronger bonds.
Cheremnykh said that Kaliningrad, his city of 200,000 located several miles northwest of Moscow and home to the Russian Space Agency's Mission Control Center, hopes to host a fall gathering to formalize the Russian proposal. NASA Langley officials and representatives from Hampton will be invited. by CNB