CALLINGTON will be invaded by Russians next week as the Community College gets a visit from two Cosmonauts.

Colonel Alexandre Volkov and Dr Alexandre Matynov, from the Russian Space Programme, will visit the school as part of the college's project to build a space centre on the site and present 'An Audience with a Cosmonaut' on Tuesday evening.

Colonel Alexandre has been in space three times and at present is working as a commander of the cosmonauts' training team at the Cosmonaut Training Centre.

Dr Matynov is an author of 120 scientific articles and six books dedicated to spacecraft motion control.

The proposed centre will be open to the public and give a hands-on experience of some of the latest technology being used in the space industry. It will also contain a learning laboratory and robotics centre.

The current observatory will be enhanced with a state of the art telescope and dome, which will be linked to the internet allowing access from all over the world.

A satellite down link station will be built to allow people to track and access satellite data, as well as giving the college live broadcasts from NASA on all its missions to space.

As part of its continuing link-up with NASA, the college is again sending three students to the Kennedy Space Centre. Steve Scott, Alice Parsons and James Williams will fly out to Florida on Easter Monday where they will be VIP guests of NASA at the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis.

'An Audience with a Cosmonaut' starts at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £2.50 for adults or £1.25 for children/concessions in advance or £3 for adults and £1.50 for children/concessions on the door.