OREANDA-NEWS. December 30, 2008. Mission Control Center in Korolev today hosted Russian Father Frost with the top-management of Russian space industry. They wished happy new year to the crew of the International Space Station.

Together with Father Frost, some of the kids who participated in the International Contest “Let`s Design a Logo for Soyuz TMA-14 Crew” also came to the MCC. The Contest was run by Roscosmos from Oct. 24 to Dec. 25 (http://www.federalspace.ru/child_picts_konkurs.asp).

ISS-18 crew- Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov, US astronauts Michael Fincke and Sandra Magnus, were greeted by Father Frost, Anatoly Perminov, Roscosmos Head, Alexy Krasnov, Head of the Roscosmos Human Space Program Directorate, Vitaly Lopota, RSC-Energia President, Joel Montalbano, NASA Human Spaceflight Program Director in Russia, cosmonauts Yury Gidzenko and Gennady Padalka (Gennady is to become the commander of the Russian Soyuz TMA-14 space vehicle to fly to the ISS in March 2009). And warm words prepared for them by the kids obviously touched the ISS crew .

Of course, short ISS communication slot was not enough to put all the kind words and wishes, but the smiles on the faces of the ISS-18 crew showed that they received a piece of good spirits via the voice loops.

During the Contest, Gennady Padalka, and Michael Barratt, future Soyuz TMA-14 flight engineer, were both sayin that it had been very hard for them to select only 3 best drawings out of 150 designs from Russia, USA, Holland, Belorussia, Turkey, UK, India, Poland, Belgium, the Philippines.

Introducing the winners, Gennady Padalka said:
"Souyz TMA-14 crew appreciates every drawing we received. Each of them deserves the prize".
Gennady Ivanovich announced the names of the three winners:
3-d place- Stanislav Pyatkin, Uglegorsk, Russia,
2-nd place- Kaitlin Riley, NY, USA,
1-st place- Anna Chibiskova, Moscow, Russia.

Some kids will also receive photos of the crew with their signatures. Among them, there are Aziz Yigur, Istanbul, Madeleine Porczak, USA, Helen van der Horn, Holland, Roman Kuznetsov, Kazakhstan, Alina Karimova, Tatarstan, Vika Sobolevskaya, Belorussia, and many others.

Gennady Padalka submitted the patch design based on Anna`s drawing for the approval to Roscosmos Head.

Anatoly Perminov said that he liked the emblem very much and signed the document which provided official status for Soyuz TMA-14 patch. It is worth mentioning that such ceremonial event is held for the first time in the history of the Russian Federal Space Agency.

In addition, Mr. Perminov proposed to award one more kid, Roma Kuznetsov from Kazakhstan, since "Roma deserves it, and it is clear that in the nearest future all the launches under the Russian human spaceflight program will occur from Baikonur. Kazakhstan is our reliable partner in space programs, so let a boy from Kazakhstan become one of the winners".

Prime sponsor of the Contest, Russian Insurance Center Underwriting Public Company, invites the winners to make a wonderful journey to Baikonur in March next year to take part in the ceremonial events around the launch of the Soyuz TMA-14.

All the kids who were in the MCC on this day also received sweet presents from Father Frost.