[NASA HQ News] California Students to Speak with NASA Astronauts on Space Station

      October 26, 2017
MEDIA ADVISORY M17-127
California Students to Speak with NASA Astronauts on Space Station

NASA astronauts Joe Acaba and Randy Bresnik shown here working inside the International Space Station in preparation for a spacewalk on October 20. The two will talk with students at Santa Monica High School in Santa Monica, California on Monday, Oct. 30 about living and working in space.
Credits: NASA

Students at Santa Monica High School in Santa Monica, California, will speak with NASA astronauts living, working and doing research aboard the International Space Station at 11:50 a.m. EDT on Monday, Oct. 30. The 20-minute, Earth-to-space call will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

Students will interact with NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik and Joe Acaba who are aboard the International Space Station on Expedition 53. Each homeroom in the school submitted questions to the astronauts. Discussion will include topics about living aboard the space station, NASA’s deep space exploration plans, and science in space.

This is Bresnik’s second mission to the station. He currently is serving as Expedition 53 commander after launching to the station on July 28. He’s scheduled to return to Earth in December. Acaba arrived at the space station Sept. 12, beginning his third space mission and will return to Earth in February 2018.

Bresnik graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1985. Jonny Kim, a recently announced member of the astronaut candidate class of 2017, also graduated from Santa Monica High School in 2002.

Four Santa Monica High School students recently flew an experiment onboard the space station as part of the Student Space Flight Experiments Program (SSEP) Mission 11. The experiment, “The Effect of Microgravity on the Rate of Fermentation in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae,” studies whether microgravity on the space station affects the quantity of ethanol produced from yeast fermentation.

Media interested in attending the event should contact Gail Pinsker via email at gpinsker@smmusd.org. Santa Monica High School is at 601 Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica.

Linking students directly to astronauts aboard the space station provides unique, authentic experiences designed to enhance student learning, performance and interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). This in-flight education downlink is an integral component of NASA’s Year of Education on Station which provides extensive space station-related resources and opportunities to students and educators.

Follow the astronauts on social media:

https://www.twitter.com/NASA_astronauts/

For more information, videos and lesson plans highlighting research on the International Space Station, visit:

 https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation/

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Katherine Brown
Headquarters, Washington