The Axe Apollo Space Academy® global space program has started its work this January. They await youngsters from all over the world, who see themselves brave enough to be an astronaut. The Central European centre of the global space program will be at Sziget Festival. Thousands of Hungarian, Czech, Slovakian, Croatian, Slovenian, Bosnian youngsters have applied to become an astronaut, from whom 51 will have the opportunity to take part in the final contest

Bertalan Farkas supports the training

The work of the Hungarian aspirants of Space Academy will be supported by Bertalan Farkas, the one and only Hungarian astronaut. He has been assisting the program from the very start, so we can assure that the most skilled Hungarian person will be chosen for this adventure. He also added: „It is an old dream of mine to help a fellow Hungarian to get to space. Now the time has come and I hope that the training will be a success”.

RAVEN and other tests

The Hungarian final of the AASA will not be an easy ride, as the contestants will taste the training of the astronauts. The health check will be done by the doctors of the Hospital of the Hungarian Army from Kecskemét. Anita Carra, Marketing Director of Unilever (starter of the global campaign of Axe) said: „There will be dental and visual tests, blood-pressure check, standard EKG, vestibular chair test, neurological examination, test of processing information, RAVEN-test, etc.” Mental skills are also going to be tested: the knowledge on space, astronomy and astro-physics.

As the simulation of the spaceship, the youth can experience the take-off with the help of the Axe catapult. Also the Sziget audience can try this out at the festival, so one can experience the challenges of the future astronauts. In the last step of choosing the winners, the organizers will test the physical skills of the AXEtronauts by their stamina, how quick they are and how smart they are.

The final happenings can be followed on the spot, but also with the help of a Facebook application, so those can be also part of the challenge, who cannot come to the festival. Afterwards the points will be counted and we will have the ranking for each country, so we will know the competition winners for the region. Those 6 people will represent their country in December at the Axe Apollo Global Space Camp in Orlando.

Straight to Orlando!

Anita Carra also added that on a global level, more than 500 thousand registrations arrived from 62 countries. Those applying from Hungary were around 5.000. She also stated:”The most skilled contestants will be trained in Orlando, where they will fly with fighter aircrafts and they will try out zero-gravity!” All contestants from all over the world will be part of this contest, in numbers 110 AXEtronauts. Finally the 23 best contestant will be able to leave to space and come back as a hero.

The space trip is an unforgettable and probably once in a lifetime experience for the winners. They can check out our planet from 103 kilometer high, while experiencing zero-gravity. Thanks to the training series the 4,5G energy will be normal when landing. Finally the marketing director has added the financial part of the project: the training is worth 15.000 Euros and the space trip is 100,000$ per person.

Source: Sziget Festival