Obama links up with ISS astronauts on very long distance call

by Rich Bowden - Mar 24 2009, 21:16

Dedicated space nut President Barack Obama yesterday took time from his busy schedule to speak with the crew members currently orbiting the Earth on board the International Space Station (ISS).

President Obama, accompanied by Members of Congress and schoolchildren in The White House's Roosevelt Room, asked a number of questions during the 30-minute video call ranging from the benefit of the newly-installed solar array on the space station, to the progress of science experiments and the astronauts' fitness and food.

"I'm told that you're cruising at about 17,000 miles per hour. So we're glad that you are using the hands-free phone," Obama joked with the crew.

"Mr. President, we go around the planet once every 90 minutes. It's quite a thrill, and it is very fast, and we see 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every day," responded ISS commander Michael Fincke.

Asking about the solar array, which will provide enough energy from the sun to enable a doubling of the ISS crew later this year, Obama said: "We're investing back here on the ground in a whole array of solar and other renewable energy projects. So to find out you're doing this up there at the space station is very exciting."

The astronauts answered a number of other questions covering diverse subjects such as how they manage to send e-mail back to Earth each day, to how they sleep aboard the space station and even their dietary habits.

While expressing his pride in the work of the U.S. astronauts orbiting on the ISS, Obama also greeted Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and his Russian counterpart Yury Lonchakov, saying the example of the international "spirit of cooperation [is something] that we can apply not just in space but here on the ground, as well."

According to NASA, Obama was joined in The White House's Roosevelt Room by Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Bill Nelson, along with Reps. Gabrielle Giffords, Bart Gordon, Parker Griffith, Suzanne Kosmas and Alan Mollohan.

The schoolchildren were from the Boys and Girls Club of Washington, D.C., Southeast Elementary Academy of Washington, the Louise Archer Elementary School and Thoreau Middle School in Virginia, and the Parkland Magnet Middle School for Aerospace Engineering in Maryland.

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