NEWS                                                        October 3, 1994

    RUSSIAN AND AMERICAN CHILDREN VISIT FCC AS PART OF INTERNATIONAL
                            EXCHANGE PROGRAM

     On September 23, 37 junior-high students from the United States and Russia visited
the office of FCC Chairman Reed E. Hundt as part of a cultural exchange program the
students have been involved in for several years.  They are all interested in rocketry and
space exploration.

     The American students are from Coventry, CT, and have been communicating via
internet with their Russian counterparts.  

     Last July, when Chairman Hundt visited Russia, he participated in a video-
teleconference between Brown University in Providence, RI, and the Institute for Space
Research in Moscow  at which the students actually saw and spoke to each other for the first
time.  At the teleconference Chairman Hundt spoke with both the Russian and the American
students and, when he learned the Russian children would be spending three weeks in the
United States, he invited them to visit the FCC.  During their visit here, officials from the
FCC's International Bureau talked with the students about the importance of space satellites
in the development of a Global Information Infrastructure, the FCC's role in nurturing GII
development, and the career opportunities that satellite technology creates for the students,
both in and out of science.  The Chief of the International Bureau, Scott Blake Harris, gave
the students souvenirs by which to remember their visit to the FCC.

     The Russian students began their three-week visit to this country in Connecticut,
where they and the American students divided up into small groups and cooperated in
building, launching, and collecting data on a number of model rockets.  This was followed
by their visit to Washington, DC, and then they went on to Space Camp in Florida, where
they will simulate the experience of astronauts in basic training.  Next spring the American
students will visit Moscow to complete the exchange. 

    - FCC -


     News Media contact: Rosemary Kimball at (202) 418-0500.
     International Bureau contact: Mark Grannis at (202) 418-0420.