ASTRONAUT MIKE FINCKE PARTICIPATES TO THE “LONG NIGHT OF THE STARS”
At
Mike, KE5AIT sent his
greetings and the greetings of Commander Gennady Padalka to the audiences at
ESOC and in the many participating institutions. He spoke of his work onboard
the ISS and mentioned the Spacewalks he has performed with Gennady. One of
their tasks during these Extra Vehicular Activities has been to install
antennas for the
The astronauts have
very busy days, but also some free time. They have dinner late, at
About stars and
planets, Mike stated they look the same as from earth but don’t twinkle, since
there is no atmosphere. He much appreciated the opportunity to discover the
southern constellations.
The ARISS contact was
video broadcast across ESOC live. There was also a big screen in the open. It
was a nice late summer evening and the sky was clear. A crowd followed the
ARISS contact on the big screen outside and in the same time could see the ISS
crossing the sky as a bright moving star. Quite an
experience. When Mike Fincke stated that he was looking forward to the
joint exploration of Space by all nations: “Humans’ Future in Space”, his words
were followed with rapt attention by everyone, old and young, with a huge crowd
of happy, excited faces all around.
At ESOC about 1200
visitors and 150 staff members assisted to the contact. Moreover, in the nearby
In total, 28
journalists and their associated staff covered the event, of which 11
newspapers and magazines, 3 news agencies, the Hessen TV-station (which relayed
the material to the main nationwide channel ARD) and 4 radio broadcast
stations.
The number of visitors
in the 175 participating institutions was 120.000 and a sizeable proportion of
these witnessed the ARISS contact live.
Gaston Bertels, ON4WF
ARISS