Special to The Hays Daily News

HUTCHINSON -- Jared Gabel, son of Lisa and Todd Gabel, Hays, graduated from Level 1 of the Future Astronaut Training Program June 6 at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center. Gabel will be a seventh grader at Kennedy Middle School in the fall.

The week-long introductory astronaut camp is for students entering grades 7 to 10 and emphasizes teamwork, leadership and problem solving. Developed by Cosmosphere staff, the training is a nationally recognized camp that motivates campers to seek careers in space-related industries.

Throughout the week, campers train in space simulators -- the centrifuge, multi-axis trainer, space shuttle simulator ("Falcon III") and stress simulator -- and practice spacewalk rescues, launch homemade rockets, direct a robotic mission and learn night sky observation techniques.

The training participants also tour the Cosmosphere's world-renowned Hall of Space Museum and watch shows in the Justice Planetarium and Carey IMAX Dome Theater.

For more information about the camp, call the education coordinator at (800) 397-0330, Ext. 323, or visit the Cosmosphere Web site at www.cosmo.org.

The centrifuge is a rotating devise that tests people's reactions to forces encountered during launch and reentry; the multi-axis trainer spins riders 360 degrees in multiple axes while simulating tumble-type maneuvers that could be encountered in spaceflight; the space shuttle simulator is the most realistic shuttle simulator outside of NASA, simulating launch, orbit, satellite deployment, reentry and landing; and the stress simulator incorporates external stimuli into a mission to replicate stressful situations encountered in spaceflight.