A once in a life-time experience hit South Plains College and everyone who got the opportunity to witness the amazing connection to American astronaut Leroy Chiao and Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov more than 200 miles above Earth.

A live downlink with NASA’s International Space Station was the highlight of a historic three-hour event on March 1 in the Sundown Room of the college’s Student Center.

The two astronauts answered prepared questions written by the high school and junior high students from the surrounding schools in the area, about space and how the two are able to survive the unknown.

 “ It was something you will never have any chance of,” said Veronica Mendoza, a senior at Motley County High School who was among the more than 200 students attending the event. “It was cool though.”

The experience all began with SPC calling Houston’s Mission Control Center to receive a connection to the space station. After being connected to the astronauts, the students could see the astronauts as they were speaking back and forth on a video cam and could hear their response over the intercom.

The question-and-answer session began with those questions that were written by the students. Those students picked got to step up to the microphone and ask questions of the crew of Expedition 10, who have been on board the space station since October 2004. The questions varied from exercising, eating and drinking, sleeping, to current Earthly events, such as, worrying about terrorism, advice on how to get in the space program, and what experiments are being performed in space.

Those experiments include research for new aids vaccines, as well as experiments on plant growth, the human heart at rest, health hazards posed by space radiation and the effect of prolonged space fight on human skeletal muscle.

The questions were asked directly to Chiao and to Sharipov and a female interpreter translated the questions into Russian to English. For Sharipov to understand and then translated his responses to English.

There was a little delay in the communications, as the astronaut and cosmonaut would answer the student’s question, which would than be beamed to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and then to telephone lines at SPC.

One of the students asked if Chiao felt like it was a dream, and he admitted that it was like a dream to be an astronaut.

“Every now and then it still seems like a dream that we’re up here, especially looking down at the Earth,” explained Chiao, a NASA science officer and station commander. “It’s so beautiful, and the colors are much more vivid than you might imagine. It’s kind of dream-like.”

SPC had a complete 20 minutes linked to Chiao and Sharipov. After the question-and-answer session, the students said goodbye to Chiao and Sharipov in English and Russian.

Joan Sanders, a NASA education specialist, also way in the Sundown Room to answer any questions that were not able to be answered by Chiao and Sharipov during the question-and-answer session due to limited time. After the downlink, NASA sound technicians John Stoll and Greg Wiseman in Houston talked with the students attending the event. Both are SPC graduates.                               

This experience impacted the students’ live as well as those of their teachers.

“It has been exciting for me,” said Kate Wendt, a student teacher in Levelland. “I think the kids have been excited, but I have been more excited then they have. I love NASA, and if I had the opportunity I would love to go and be in space one day.”

Kathy Gillespie, a teacher from Motley County, said, “It is fantastic. I think it is an exceptional opportunity for students on the South Plains to get to come and actually get to talk to people in space, find out what space travel is all about and how you get to become an astronaut.” Gillespie added. “I think South Plains College’s connection is fantastic, and it is important to the South Plains too.”

Sanders explained space as, “ Imagine being in a room looking out the window at the most magnificent sight you have ever seen and then opening the door and stepping out into it. That is what it is like to space walk.”

Other high school students are now interested in attending other programs that have to deal with science and space.

“I thought that it was pretty cool,” said Tawny Miller, a sophomore from Whitharral. “It’s a rare opportunity. You don’t get to talk to astronauts every day, so I feel all special.”

Added Jake Baker, another sophomore from Whitharral, “They gave us a lot of background, like if you want to become aeronautical engineer, just anything in the Math and Science Building. They gave us a lot of information.”

All ages were touched by the “rare experience.” Austin Fowler, an eighth-grader from Irons Junior High School in Lubbock, said,“ It is great that they can come here and do this. Getting to see the astronauts, it’s just awesome.”

His mother, Jacqueline Fowler, SPC instructor in mathematics, said she was very impressed by the NASA experience.

“This is great, since there are not very many places that get to have it and I found out that we were one of three, a place in New York, another place and here. That is tremendous. And it was even better then what I anticipated.”

Sanders later demonstrated what it was like to sleep in space. She asked for a volunteer and chose Sam White, a sixth-grader from Roosevelt Junior High School.

Sanders put White in the space sleeping bag and demonstrated how the astronauts have to strap in to the bag and clip on to the wall, so they will not run in to things while sleeping.

At the end of the event, Sanders arranged the high school students into teams to compete in building the tallest freestanding structure out of a 100 cards and four straws.

For any additional information on experiments being performed in space or NASA view their web site at www.spaceflight.nasa.gov.