Astronauts Will Answer Students' Questions Live From Space

When I was a kid, I can only imagine how many questions I had about space. "How dark is it out there?" "Is it as cold as it looks?" "Can you touch the stars?" "Does Tang taste better up there?" Unfortunately, I didn't know any astronauts, so I probably had to read books to get the answers — although I still haven't found out the answer to that Tang one. But maybe I will soon enough.

That's because this weekend astronauts on the space shuttle Endeavour will actually be answering students' questions about space live on NASA TV. Students from nine different NASA Explorer Schools across the country submitted questions via video to NASA, and on Sunday, Feb. 14, shuttle Pilot Terry Virts and Mission Specialist Kathryn Hire will take time out of their schedule to answer the questions. Virts and Hire just launched into space this Monday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the crew will take part in three spacewalks and do some work to extend the space station.

As of now, the astronauts are scheduled to answer the questions from 10:34 p.m. to 10:54 p.m. EST, but there's a 5-15 minute window either earlier or later, so NASA is recommending people consult the NASA TV schedule to confirm the webcast.

The NASA Explorer Schools project is a three-year partnership that "supports the incorporation of NASA content and programs into science, technology and mathematics curricula in classroom grades 4-9 across the United States." You can find the list of schools where the questions will be coming from here.

In addition, any questions that the astronauts don't get to will be answered later on by experts in those subjects during an event on NASA's Digital Learning Network. I wonder who their Tang expert is.

Photo courtesy of TopTechWriter.US via Flickr