A person with a great passion for space

Denny Russo

This year, the "Sigmund Jähn" Cosmonaut Centre in Küchwald celebrates its 56th birthday. When the centre was established in the summer of 1964, Chemnitz was still called Karl-Marx-Stadt and Yuri Gagarin was the first person to fly into space. The flight was ultimately also the initial spark for the youth centre. Denny Russo wasn't even born yet. He has been piloting the cosmonaut centre rocket in the city's educational and cultural orbit for 18 months now. He has big plans.

What about the current orbit of the Cosmonaut Centre?
Denny Russo: We have been redesigning the Cosmonaut Centre for 1.5 years. The focus should not only be on the history of space travel, but also on current topics. The aim is to bring the Cosmonaut Centre back into the focus of the people of Chemnitz and to offer a broader range of extracurricular educational activities for children and young people.

Most people in Chemnitz are familiar with the Cosmonaut Centre, but only from the outside. Why is it so difficult to get them into the centre?
Many people remember it from the past. Before reunification, visits were part of the Young and Thälmann Pioneers' social programme. In the meantime, however, the public still often has the impression that visitors can only do tests and a simulated space flight here. That no longer attracts anyone from behind the stove. Yet we now have much more to offer.

What exactly?
We are currently building a low ropes course next to our existing educational high ropes course in the courtyard. We want to use this to expand our range and offer visitors more activities. We have organised the indoor area more clearly. The next step is to establish our status as an adventure education centre in people's minds. We want visitors to realise that they don't just get information here, but can also get involved and try things out for themselves in various ways. For example, we can respond to individual wishes. For example, we not only offer a children's birthday party on the theme of space travel, but have now also put together a programme for an outdoor birthday party.
Our outdoor area can be used independently of our opening hours. Among other things, there is a table tennis table with bats and balls available, none of which have ever been taken away. Visitors appreciate the facilities and use them responsibly. The same applies to the playground and our sports equipment hire centre.
And our visitor magnet - the rocket control room - is also to be modernised. We need federal funding for this. Of course, this is not something that can be done overnight.

Based on the principle of "children for children", the facility of solaris Förderzentrum für Jugend und Umwelt gGmbH Sachsen is dedicated to extracurricular youth education in the scientific and technical fields of space research, space travel, astronomy and meteorology. This special approach, combined with the unusual subject matter, gives the Cosmonaut Centre its unique regional and supra-regional status. Visitors are expertly looked after by the centre's regular crew, the "Stammis" - girls and boys aged between 9 and 18. They can experience the fascination of space travel or carry out cosmonaut tests and balance training on the astrotrainer. "When the current coronavirus situation eases, visitors can experience simulated space flights with the permanent staff. A highlight of every visit," says Denny Russo.

What do the young people do at the facility?
The extracurricular educational centre uses the child-child principle, i.e. children and young people come to the centre and learn how to communicate information about space travel, astronomy and meteorology to other children and adults. The children look after the visitors in the centre. They carry out space tests or even a simulated space flight with them.
The task of the Cosmonaut Centre, as part of the Experiential Education Centre, is to create offers to give visitors to the facility topic-specific impressions. The guests are then looked after by our children, the so-called regular staff. This is a working group with currently 19 active members. Similar to a sports club, attendance is not compulsory, but makes more sense the more often the children are there. The AG also has its own rota. They learn how to interact with visitors and how to impart knowledge. Quite unconsciously, they develop personal and social skills that can be decisive not only at school, but also later for professional success.

On 26 August 1978, Sigmund Jähn was launched from the Russian Baikonur Space Centre in the "Soyuz 31" rocket. Together with the Soviet cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky, he was in space for seven days, 20 hours and 49 minutes. In autumn 1978, he became an honorary citizen of the city of Chemnitz and the Cosmonaut Centre has borne his name for more than 40 years. He is represented there with all kinds of exhibits. He was a regular guest at the Küchwald until his death in September last year. Most recently in March 2019, when he opened an adventure trail. Visitors can carry out numerous experiments there - just like the cosmonauts of the time.

What is your aim with the facility?
As already mentioned, we want to convey the fascination of space travel in an age-appropriate and everyday way and promote the personal development of our guests and working group members with experiential education programmes. It is also important to me that all Küchwald stakeholders - the park railway, open-air stage, botanical garden and adventure education centre - work together for the benefit of visitors. One current project is the signposting in Küchwald Park. This is intended to give visitors an overview of the park. Another project is set to celebrate its premiere next year. A joint opening party at the start of the season with all Küchwald stakeholders.

How is the relationship with the local schools?
In this case, we benefit from the past because many teachers still know our facility. Primary school classes in particular take advantage of the offer - especially at the end of the school year. Daycare centres also drop in at short notice. The wider range of services is also set to be expanded.

Before joining the cosmonaut centre, Denny Russo, a trained central heating and ventilation engineer, was a professional soldier for twelve years. "I've always done something with people," laughs the mid-40-year-old. Working closely with the other stakeholders in Küchwaldpark, he is committed to further developing the park as an attractive destination for families.

Where does your passion for the cosmonaut centre come from?
It gives me great pleasure when I can unite people and see happy families. It means a lot to me to see the motivation, the development and the shining eyes of the children. But it is also the feedback from the visitors that confirms that the path we have been following for the past 1.5 years is the right one.

Opening hours of the Cosmonaut Centre: Monday/Tuesday - day off, Wednesday to Friday 2 to 5 pm, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5 pm. During the holidays, the doors open Wednesday to Friday as early as 1 pm.