First EC Galileo satellite named after Bulgarian girl Natalia
9-year old Bulgarian girl Natalia Nikolaeva from the city of Varna on the Black Sea coast has become the first national winner in the European Commission competition for children’s drawings under the Galileo programme. The contest is themed Space and Aeronautics and takes place in all EU member states, admitting for participation 9 to 11-year-olds. According to the regulations, the winners in the national competitions will have their names given to one of the GPS satellites of the independent global navigation satellite system of Europe called Galileo. The 27 GPS satellites of EU countries will be launched into space one after the other in alphabetical order. The first two satellites for Bulgaria and Belgium will be launched into space in October this year.
More than 400 Bulgarian children joined the competition. The winner was selected by a 3-member jury in which Bulgarian astronaut Alexander Alexandrov was part. “The children who participated in the competition were very talented and inventive”, he told a Radio Bulgaria reporter. “A child had even included an optical cosmic lens in its drawing. It was very hard for us to choose the winner. But after summing up the results under the three criteria, i.e. correspondence to the topic, originality of the idea and aesthetic appearance, Natalia’s drawing gathered the highest number of points”, Alexander Alexandrov said firmly. More from him:
“The main message of all children’s drawings was peace. Some of them had a small flag with the word peace written on them. Almost all children’s drawings focused not on the technical element in the task, but rather looked forward to the future, with a view to new planets, new galaxies, interplanetary flights, and encounters with aliens, etc. Children possess unique spirituality and their works are the result of their intact souls”, the astronaut believes.
The winner in the Galileo children’s drawing competition, Natalia Nikolaeva, was born in 2002. The young painter from Varna received the award at an official ceremony in Sofia personally from Mrs. Cathrine Cavvada from the European Commission, head of department in DG Enterprise and Industry. In addition to the fact that her name will travel in space, young Natalia also received a certificate and a statuette. The statuette is a miniature replica of the real satellite that will be part of Europe’s new navigation system Galileo. Natalia also received a special invitation on behalf of European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani to personally attend the launching of her satellite into space on October 21.
Natalia’s favorite pastime is drawing. For a year now, she has been attending a painting course. She prefers pastels and is lured by the concept of infinity. She most often paints images from outer space and ocean depths. As the typical girl of her age, she is also interested in fashion and draws models of clothes. And her dream is to become an astronaut.
Like many other talented children, she can express herself better in forms and colors than in words.
“In my drawing, I depicted two astronauts who meet on the planet Mars because I have read that according to scientists, there is life of Mars”, Natalia explains.
One of the astronauts in her drawing is from Bulgaria and has the Bulgarian national flag depicted on his chest, and the other is a foreigner. They are both firmly shaking hands because they feel friendship between them and want to see peace and love on Earth and Mars and in the entire universe.
The Galileo drawing competition is to finish by the end of 2011 in all 27 EU member states. With the launching of 27 new satellites, the Old Continent is to take a place at the forefront technological innovation and will have its own independent access to satellite navigation.
Text and photo: bnr.bg
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