You can see the Golden Gate Bridge from low-earth orbit
President Barack Obama and a group of brainiac young students played stump-the-astronaut with the current occupants of the orbiting space station.
This was an event beamed live between the White House Roosevelt Room (the bookcase has been converted into a whizbang video screen) and the space station.
Obama, phone cradled on his shoulder, talked to the group of astronauts sitting erect and being careful not to float away in their gravity-free environment.
The 12 middle school students from Michigan, Florida, North Carolina and Nebraska had lots of questions once Obama turned the microphone over to them, such as the age-old query: what can you really see on Earth from space?
“Yes, we can see a lot of great landmarks. We can see the Golden Gate Bridge (in San Francisco), the great skyscrapers in New York and the Grand Canyon is just breathtaking,” said one astronaut.
Another question: Can you create artificial gravity in space? Answer: Yes, but it would take a really large structure that is rotating, like the way water sticks to the side of a barrel when you swing it around.
The NASA brass was at the event. Remember Obama, in his proposed 2011 budget, cuts the Constellation project intended to send astronauts back to the moon. The president noted at the event that “my commitment to NASA is unwavering.”
Space quiz and levity at the White House
President Barack Obama treated astronauts on the International Space Station to a little levity of his own as they traveled at 17,500 mph, circling the planet once every 90 minutes. “Do you guys still drink Tang up there?” the president asked to laughter.
It took some effort, but the 10 astronauts in blue shirts, including some from Japan and Russia, bobbed but managed not to float off during the presidential session by holding onto a rail with their toes.
The astronauts appeared on a screen in the White House Roosevelt Room, and Obama initially did not realize he had to use a telephone to speak to them. “The handset sir,” a staffer instructed.
Obama and the astronauts talked about the mission on the space station, where the crew is adding solar panels, but the most fun came from the other questions. Obama asked the one female astronaut whether she had been tempted to cut her hair shorter.
“I think it’s a real fashion statement,” he said as her long dark brown hair floated around her head as if it were alive.
A group of children who watched with Obama had their own questions:
Thanks to our gov/nasa/and Obama for all the hard work.Ibet its beautiful up there.I think Obama should get to go to Space.