Teenagers don’t often get a chance to interview astronauts who are orbiting the Earth in a real-life space station.
So Jack Pritchett, an eighth-grader from Key Peninsula Middle School, made the most of his question Wednesday.
Speaking into a microphone at the Galaxy Theatre Uptown in Gig Harbor – where students interacted with a pair of U.S. astronauts aboard the International Space Station – Jack voiced what some of the other 700 kids in the audience were no doubt wondering.
“How do astronauts stay entertained in space, and can you show us?” Jack asked, facing a movie screen with a live feed from NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Sandra Magnus.
“Well,” said Magnus, whose zero-gravity surroundings caused her hair to rise straight up without hair spray. “Pretty much anything that has to do with floating that we can’t do on Earth.”
She and Fincke, part of a team that arrived at the station in October, climbed walls and did somersaults in their cramped space, which prompted laughs from the young crowd.
Students from Key Peninsula, Vaughn Elementary and Peninsula High schools were treated to a live 20-minute Q&A session with the astronauts Wednesday.
Key Peninsula is one of five schools on Planet Earth to interact live with members of the International Space Station, said teacher Kareen Borders.
The middle school, known for its science curriculum, enjoys a close relationship with the space agency. It was named a NASA Explorer school five years ago – one of only two such programs in Washington – and has hosted numerous astronauts at its campus across the Purdy Spit.
But to talk directly to space travelers, who were soaring above the Pacific Ocean and moving at about 17,500 miles per hour, was out of this world, said Borders, the school’s team leader for the Explorer program.
Connecting live to the space station wasn’t easy, even though the theater’s name includes the word “Galaxy.” AJ Witherspoon, general manager, said his company worked with NASA and Comcast three or four months early to make sure everything worked properly.
By about 9:30 a.m., just as buses arrived to unload an army of curious young scientists, Witherspoon checked the audio equipment that would link the theater with the space station and with NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston.
He couldn’t help but get caught up in the excitement.
“It’s pretty cool,” he could be heard saying to a school staffer. “I just talked to Mission Control.”
Students eventually took their seats. They were spread over two theaters that received the live feed, though only Theater 6 kids were able to ask questions.
The event also featured a Who’s Who of local aerospace, military and government. The group included Bonnie Dunbar, a former NASA astronaut and CEO of The Museum of Flight in Seattle, and Army Gen. John Shalikashvili of Steilacoom, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
About 20 students asked prepared questions for Fincke and Magnus, who floated and bounced on the movie screens. There was a 5-second delay between question and answer, which left students laughing when the smiling pair hung upside down in silence.
The questions covered everything from the effects of microgravity on the human body to whether stars appear as beautiful in space.
“It’s like looking at twinkly little diamonds all over the sky,” Magnus said.
Before the astronauts returned to their mission, Fincke encouraged the youths that if they work hard in school, anything is within reach.
“You have to remember, Sandra and I were kids too,” he said. “Now we’re living our dream.”
That message resonated with Marissa O’Quinn, a 14-year-old Key Peninsula student. Afterward, she said it was amazing to see and talk to the astronauts live.
“I think it would be great to be in outer space,” she said.
Brent Champaco: 253-597-8653
