Houston, You Have a Call Fairview Students to Chat With Astronaut in Space

Students at Fairview Elementary School have started preparing for their moment of contact with a NASA astronaut in outer space.

Two students from each grade at Fairview will get to talk with astronaut Leroy Chiao early next year, while Chiao is working aboard the International Space Station. It will be the first time Fairview students have contacted an astronaut in space.

To prepare students for this historic event, representatives from Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, a coalition of radio groups dedicated to helping students communicate with astronauts, visited Fairview Oct. 15.

“They showed the kids how ham radios will be used to talk with Dr. Chiao,” Fairview Principal Kerry Swalwell said. “The kids are so excited about this program.”

Chiao, a qualified flight mission specialist who has logged more than 36 days in space, was the guest of honor at a special assembly at Fairview this past May. He spoke to students about working hard and following their dreams.

After the assembly, school leaders stayed in contact with Chiao and his wife. Eventually, Chiao was able to arrange for students to speak with him while he’s on the space station during the first week in February.

Chiao is spending a total of six months on the space station. He arrived there Oct. 16, and is scheduled to come home in mid-April.

The students’ conversation with him on the space station will dovetail with the third and fifth grades’ study of space, a unit that includes an annual visit to the Challenger Learning Center in Woodstock.

“This is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Swalwell said. “Talking to an astronaut while he’s actually working in space will bring science home to the students in a way not possible otherwise.”