Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 7, 1 July 1989 — Nanakuli boy reaches for the stars at space eamp [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Nanakuli boy reaches for the stars at space eamp

Lynn Nalani Oamilda Ka Wai Ola O OHA Intern Five, four, three, two, one, blast off . . . Reynolds Nakooka Akau had just launched his own model rocket on the grounds of Nanaikapono Elementary School in Nanakuli when it shot into the air several hundred feet and jetted out towards the oeean beyond the school fence. He and his classmates never saw it again. But Reynolds eame back and built another rocket for a science project and was prepared for a second launeh. With his natural enthusiasm for space exploration, 12-year-old Reynolds, a sixth grader, may o'ne day be the first native Hawaiian astronaut. "I just picked it up one day and I liked it," Reynolds said about space exploration. In the second grade he read a book "Let's Go To The Moon," whieh captured his imagination and stirred his curiosity. Then in third grade he met "teacher-in-space" candidate Art Kimura who talked to the students about a space training eamp. Reynolds kept in touch with Kimura for three years because he was so eager to learn about space. Then in March of this year Reynolds took his interest one step further. He attended the National Aeronautics and Space Administration U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama with 60 other Hawaii intermediate and high school students. His trip was funded by the Waianae Coast Culture and Arts group, the PTA, YWCA and a donation from a Nanakuli resident. The five-day space program was a very short and exciting version of the type of training U.S. astronauts undergo before a space mission. It took off with students being taught about how a spacecraft operates in space. Afterwards, eaeh student was able to assemble and launeh his own model rocket on rocketry day. Reynolds said that the highlight of his training was on microgravity day when he was able to sit in and experience the one-sixth chair. "It's one-sixth of your normal body weight and that's how the astronauts feel on the moon . We just had to jump a

little and it gave us the feeling of being on the moon." Reynolds said he felt like jumping through the roof but his counselor was there to make sure he didn't jump too high. The simulated space shuttle mission at the end of the week was really fun because, Reynoldssaid, he and his crew got to pretend they were on a real space mission. Saturn, the name of their space team, won the best mission award. Reynolds said he was a little disappointed because he wished the shuttle had moved. "I want to go next year," Reynolds said, "I want

to go to the eamp for older kids in seventh through ninth grade because they have two missions and the shuttle has hydraulics and actually rhoves." Just as his Polynesian ances'tors navigated the seas and discovered the Hawaiian islands, Reynolds may soon. be pioneering the frontiers of our universe.

Reynolds Akau recalls his Space Camp adventure as he scans his photo album.