Local students get to communicate with astronauts on Space Station
By Ellis C. Cuevas
Sep 2, 2014, 20:19
Commander Steve Swanson and Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman on the ISS answer questions from middle school students at INFINITY
Middle school students from Mississippi and Louisiana participated in an extremely-long distance call on Tuesday, conversing with NASA astronauts Expedition 40 Commander Steve Swanson and Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman while the astronauts orbited the Earth aboard the International Space Station, (ISS).
The students were all crowded into the INFINITY Space Center, located in Hancock County.
More than 300 fourth- through eighth-grade students from Hancock, Bay-Waveland, Long Beach, Nicholson, Picayune and Pearl River Central middle schools, and Boyet Junior High in Slidell took part in the event.
Selected students from each school submitted questions to the astronauts, which ran from "What do you eat?" to "Were you afraid?" to "How is your body affected while traveling in space?"
Prior to the 20 minute event, students reviewed the exhibits at INFINITY and had a scavenger hunt and lunch.
"Linking students directly to astronauts aboard the space station provides an authentic live experience of space study, the scientific comments from space travel and the possibilities of life in space," Paul Foerman, INFINITY public relations director, said.