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Alpena astronaut-in-training headed to Washington D.C.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Teen Nikoli Dagrella pauses from his work as company owner and future astronaut in his Alpena home Tuesday.

ALPENA — An Alpena teenager has been chosen among six from the state to travel to Washington to talk to Michigan leaders about a program that is giving him a foundation to — very literally — reach for the stars.

A member of the Civil Air Patrol’s cadet program, Nikoli Dagrella, 15, is the first teen from northern Michigan to be chosen for the honor of representing his wing in a trip to the nation’s capital to converse with senators and representatives about the Civil Air Patrol program.

The Civil Air Patrol, an auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is an organization of civilian aviator volunteers trained to engage in search-and-rescue missions, provide comfort and aid during natural disasters, and assist with homeland security. Its cadet program trains 12- to 18-year-old youths in aviation science.

With a strong emphasis on aerospace education, the cadet program is, for the Alpena teen, a stepping stone to the heavens.

Dagrella and his family moved to Alpena from Georgia a year and a half ago to take advantage of some of the city’s unique features. His heart set on the lofty goal of being the first kid astronaut in space, Dagrella learned that, in order to qualify for NASA’s aerospace program, he has to become certified in SCUBA diving.

The freshwater shipwrecks of Thunder Bay and opportunities through the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary provide one of the best places in the world to explore the underwater spaces that mimic the underwater training environments NASA uses to simulate the weightlessness of space.

Another NASA requirement, becoming fluent in Russian, Dagrella met with the help of his Russian mother, an airline flight attendant who used to allow the fledgling aerospace engineer to visit the cockpit on international flights.

When he was a boy of 3, Dagrella first heard the word “astronaut.”

“As I got older, it’s one of those things I felt like I was born to do,” Dagrella said.

By the time he was 11, Dagrella had his hands on a yoke and was flying on his own, under the tutelage of an Experimental Aircraft Association in Georgia.

When the family moved to Alpena in 2018, Dagrella learned about the Alpena squadron of the Civil Air Patrol cadet program, which meets at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center.

About six active junior high and high school students in the Thunder Bay Squadron meet regularly, offered opportunities such as disassembling and reassembling a Cessna 150.

The upcoming trip to Washington will allow Dagrella to speak on behalf of the organization that is helping Dagrella aim for the stars.

At the age of 11, Dagrella and his sister, Natasha, founded their own company, Imagination Aeronautics INC. Asked as a youngster why he chose to write the INC in all-caps instead of the standard upper-lower “Inc.,” the lad replied that the traditional way of doing things followed the rules of the planet.

The business he envisioned would go beyond the bounds of Earth.

Working with a premise that Einstein’s theory of relativity — the well-known, if little-understood, equation E=MC2 — is based on earthly laws of physics and is therefore incorrect in space, Dagrella contends it’s possible to fly beyond the speed of light, and someday to populate planets around the solar system.

With his company in the research and design phase, as his sister and vice president focuses on the possibility of modifying the human genome to withstand the g-force of the speed of light, Dagrella is creating business plans and communicating with local and national agencies to make his dream a reality.

If he can complete his doctorate by the time he is 18, Dagrella said, NASA has indicated they would accept him into their astronaut training program.

When you’re young and have big ideas, Dagrella said, about half the people you meet say your goals are unrealistic and can’t be met.

The other half, though, are supportive, encouraging, and ready to believe, at least in his experience.

Meetings with Alpena Mayor Matt Waligora and other community leaders to discuss the possibility of using local land and underwater space as a possible test launch base met with some hesitation at first, Dagrella said, as the adults processed the young man who stood before them, head full of both knowledge and understanding of things usually beyond adult comprehension or interest.

A senior at Alpena High School, the teenage CEO and astronaut-to-be is treated just like any other student, he said. He is challenged by classes and inspired by many of the other students, who think on multiple levels and are full of all sorts of dreams of their own.

Big goals — and big experiences, like travelling to the nation’s capital to represent a state — take time and focus that, some fear, rob a young person of childhood.

He’s not missing out on anything, though, Dagrella feels.

“It’s my mission,” he said. “It’s something I have a true passion for doing. I’m going to push myself to find out what my limits are.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.

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