Goddard Student Employees Talk Out of this World

	Students at live downlink in Builidng 33, engage in discussion with Expedition 7 crew aboard the ISS. Photo by Chris Gunn

NASA student employees at Goddard and Johnson had an opportunity to speak to the Heavens on Wednesday, August 6 as part of NASA's Teaching From Space Program. Expedition 7 crewmembers aboard the International Space Station took a break from their experiments and operations to answer questions from students at these centers. In addition, students were able to chat with Expedition 7 Flight Director John McCullough and NASA's chief Scientist and astronaut Dr. Shannon Lucid.

About 65 people from Goddard, mostly students, attended the live downlink chat in Building 33. Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA Space Station Science Officer Ed Lu addressed questions about their experiments, their training, Columbia, their thoughts about living in orbit around the Earth and the benefits of the ISS.

"The future of humankind is strongly linked to space exploration," said Malenchenko. "The sooner we move forward, the sooner we'll learn more. This will lead to various breakthroughs in many areas of research. We can see very well how different nations can cooperate and bring out the best."

Joni Jorgensen, a NASA Academy student at Goddard from the University of Kansas, asked the astronauts if it was difficult for two men to maintain the ISS, which traditionally has a crew of three. Lu answered that it took some getting used to, but once they got a system down, operating the ISS with two people became possible.

Meghan Baker, a NASA Academy student at Goddard from the University of Maryland-College Park, asked how the crew spent its free time and if it spent its free time together. Malenchenko stated that the two enjoy one another's company and had already established a close friendship on prior missions.

Though the question and answer session was casual and the astronauts were clearly having fun, their overall message to the students was more serious in tone. "We're going to need you greatly over the next few years," said Lu. "Some exciting things will be happening over the next few years and you'll be a big part of that."

Lu and Malenchenko have been in orbit for over 100 days and will return to Earth at the end of October. Among other tasks, the astronauts repair ISS systems, conduct research on the affects of micro-gravity and make Earth observations. They are the first crew of two to live aboard the station.