This is a transcript of the communications between students of Virginia Run Elementary School and astronaut Suni Williams aboard the International Space Station on March 2, 2007. Difficulties in communications prevented the contact with the children from beginning until 3:36 into the pass. Everyone recovered completely and all of the children were able to ask their questions and listen to the answers.

Also a video of the event

Audio recording

Operating the Vienna Wireless Society K4HTA station are:
Pete Norloff, KG4OJT
Iain McFadyen, KI4HLV
Tom Azlin, N4ZPT
John Transue, AF4PD
Phil Wherry, AI4JF
Gary Nelson, KI4EKM
Will Marchant, KC6ROL
Matthew Norloff, KG4URU

Assisting:
Corky Searls, AF4PM
Dan Sullivan, KO1D
Matthew Pepper, KB1EXM
Deane Parker, K4MEL

The International Space Station rose above the south west horizon at 11:19:40 and set at 11:29:39 below the north east horizon.

11:19:15 NA1SS NA1SS this is K4HTA over
11:19:24 NA1SS NA1SS this is K4HTA over
11:19:35 NA1SS NA1SS this is K4HTA over
11:19:43 broken audio <… Four Hotel Tango…>
11:19:51 NA1SS NA1SS this is K4HTA over

11:20:00 Kilo Four Hotel Tango Alpha this is November Alpha One Sierra Sierra over

11:20:06 Good signal Suni, are you ready for the first question?
11:20:15 Are you ready for the first question? NA1SS this is K4HTA over

11:20:20 …vember Alpha One Sierra Sierra over

11:20:23 We have a good signal here Suni, are you ready for the first question? Over

11:20:30 Kilo Four Hotel Tango Alpha this is November Alpha One Sierra Sierra over

11:20:37 NA1SS this is K4HTA, how copy?

11:20:45 Kilo Four Hotel Tango Alpha this is November Alpha One Sierra Sierra over

11:20:51 NA1SS, K4HTA do you copy?

11:21:00 Kilo Four Hotel Tango Alpha this is November Alpha One Sierra Sierra over

11:21:06 NA1SS, K4HTA how copy?

11:21:14 Iain: NA1SS NA1SS this is K4HTA

11:21:17 …go Alpha this is November Alpha One Sierra Sierra over

11:21:24 NA1SS NA1SS K4HTA over

11:21:31 Kilo Four Hotel Tango Alpha this is November Alpha One Sierra Sierra over

11:21:39 NA1SS K4HTA over (on backup frequency)

11:21:44 Kilo Four Hotel Tango Alpha this is November Alpha One Sierra Sierra over

11:21:50 NA1SS K4HTA how copy (on backup frequency)

11:21:57 Kilo Four Hotel Tango Alpha this is November Alpha One Sierra Sierra over

11:22:03 NA1SS K4HTA how copy?
11:22:08 NA1SS K4HTA how copy?

11:22:11…r Hotel Tango Alpha this is November Alpha One Sierra Sierra over

11:22:16 NA1SS K4HTA do you copy?

11:22:32 NA1SS K4HTA how copy?

11:22:39 NA1SS NA1SS this is K4HTA over

11:22:43 … ierra over

11:22:44 NA1SS K4HTA do you copy?

11:22:47 We copy you loud and clear. Hello Virginia Run Elementary School it’s good to hear you.

11:22:51 Great to hear you Suni! Are you ready for the first question?

11:22:54 Absolutely.

11:22:56 My name is Nicholas. How high above Earth are you? Over.

11:23:03 Hi Nicholas. We’re only about about 200 to 250 miles above the Earth. That’s about the distance between Washington DC to New York, so when you think about that you can think about how thin our atmosphere is that’s protecting our Earth. Over.

11:23:18 My name is Alex. How do you eat? Over.

11:23:23 Hi Alex. That’s a great question. It is a little bit difficult to eat because everything flies around. But luckily it’s stuff that’s usually stuck together like some type of casserole and we have it in a can so it doesn’t get too far away. Sometimes we have to catch it though. We usually just have to heat up our food. We don’t have to really prepare it. over.

11:23:42 My name is Luke. Is it pitch black in space besides the stars? Over.

11:23:48 Hi Luke. As a matter of fact it is. I think it’s the blackest color black I’ve ever really seen in my life. There’s no atmosphere up here to make the sky seem a little bit blurry or milky. It’s absolutely clear and it’s really really black out in space. Over.

11:24:05 My name is Elliott. Tell us about the layers in your space suit. Over.

11:24:10 Well we have lots of layers that we wear for a space walk. First we have long underwear. Secondly we put on top of that a cooling garment just in case we get hot we have water circulating around to cool us. And then there is a rubberized suit which is the pressurized suit and on top of that is a layer of meteorite protection and also thermal protection so, many layers on the space suit. Over.

11:24:34 My name is Layne: How and when did you decide you wanted to be an astronaut? Over.

11:24:42 Well I’m a helicopter pilot Layne. I went down to Johnson Space Center for a visit and I met a bunch of people not only military pilots and helicopter pilots but physicists, chemists, veterinarians, doctors that were all astronauts and I thought oh what the heck, maybe I could be one too. Over.

11:24:58 My name is Donny. What kinds of things are you doing to help future ISS expeditions? Over.

11:25:06 Hi Don, make sure you tell your parents I said hi. What we’re doing up here is paving the way hopefully for more than three people to live, maybe six. And also, doing science work that will help us have your generation go back to the Moon and on to Mars. Over.

11:25:23 My name is Chloe. How does the air get into the space station? Over.

11:25:29 Hi Chloe, that’s a great question. Air is brought up here by two spacecraft. There’s Progress and also the Space Shuttle. And then we make air by dividing water, H2O, into H, hydrogen, and O which is oxygen. And that’s how we get some of our air. Over.

11:25:45 My name is Ellen. How is day-to-day living different there than here? Over.

11:25:50 Hi Ellen. Well, day to day living is a lot of fun up here because we have a great view of our beautiful planet. What’s sort of cool about living here is you can work on the ceiling; you can work on the wall; you can work on the floor and it all feels sort of the same. You really can take advantage of the environment up here. What’s a little different about eating and working with things that don’t have Velcro on them is that you lose them easily because they fly away. Over.

11:26:15 My name is Bahman. If something serious happens, what is your most valuable instrument? Over.

11:26:21 … Bahman. I think the most valuable instrument would be the Soyuz which is a rescue vehicle. It’s like a rescue boat. Over.

11:26:28 My name is Andrew. If you could talk with any former astronaut, who would it be and what would you talk about?

11:26:35 Hi Andrew. I think I would want to talk with any astronaut who had been to the moon because it would be a pretty great thing to find out what it was like to actually see our entire planet in your window. Over.

11:26:47 My name is Liliana. What kind of research are you doing in the space station?

11:26:52 Hi Liliana. Well most of the research we’re doing up here is to find out what happens to the human body after being in space for so long. Microgravity is fun to fly around in however it takes a beating on your body. First of all your bones don’t have to work so hard so they start going away a little bit so we have to do physical fitness up here and we need to find out how much physical fitness we need to do to keep those bones in shape as well as our muscles. Radiation is also a big factor because we don’t have our atmosphere to protect us. And so we’re trying to find out things like that what the limitations of those things are so we can keep people up in space for longer periods of time. Over.

11:27:29 My name is Nickie. What are your daily activities? Over.

11:27:33 Hi Nickie. Well everyday is different so we do all sorts of things from space walks (which are called EVAs) to robotic work (we have a robotic arm outside which we use to connect different parts of the space station with) to science experiments as well as just clean up. We’re the only ones who live here and so we have to do all of the cleaning and maintenance and sometimes you feel like a plumber or a carpenter because you have to work on your house while you’re up here. Over.

11:27:57 My name is Daniel. What has been your biggest surprise since you've been up in space?

11:28:03 Hi Daniel. I think my biggest surprise was how difficult it was to relax in space and sleep easily. I felt like I needed a bed or something to lay down on but there’s nothing much to lay down on. We sleep in sleeping bags and the sleeping bags are tied to the wall so you don’t go anywhere but I had a hard time relaxing my neck because I didn’t have a pillow and didn’t have that sense of having a pillow or something I was laying down to. The second thing, one thing I miss is being able to dunk cookies in milk. There’s no cups up here so you don’t have a cup of coffee or a cup of hot chocolate so those are things it takes a little while to get used to. Over.

11:28:42 Hi Suni, I’m Shea the school student president. Speaking on behalf of the Students, we can not thank you enough. You have given us a once-in -lifetime experience and to go above and beyond our everyday classroom studies. We wish you and your expedition 14 crewmates well and stay safe.

11:28:59 Well thank you very much. It’s a great honor and privilege to be here and be talking to you guys. I know you’ve done a lot of work and a lot of research to get this contact done. I hope you’ve learned a lot and if you have some outstanding questions I know Carl is there. He can probably help you out understanding a little bit more. But thank you so much for your attention and it was really fun talking with you guys and take care.

11:29:21 THANK YOU!

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