Fallbrook Students Make Call to Space Shuttle Pilot

A group of young ham radio enthusiasts in Fallbrook got to ask a question Saturday of the pilot of the space shuttle Atlantis--despite a patchy radio link with the orbiter whizzing 245 miles above the Earth.

Communications with Atlantis faded in and out as the students at Potter Junior High School in Fallbrook and schools in Florida and Indiana spoke with the Atlantis crew.

Potter eighth-grader Trey Pfeiffer wanted to know how easy it is to use extra vehicular activity tools during a space walk.

“One of the purposes of our mission is to evaluate equipment for use of the EVA tools for work (such as) assembly of a space station,” answered pilot Kenneth Cameron. “We will be working in space to evaluate several tools. Some will be easy, some will be difficult.”

In all, seven students--members of a school-sponsored amateur radio club--and their parents gathered at the Fallbrook school for the 10:30 a.m. call to Atlantis.

In spite of the difficulty of understanding questions and answers, the students were enthusiastic about their extraterrestrial contact.

“This is a great idea,” said ninth-grader Cayce Ramey. “I’ve enjoyed it a lot. I think we should keep it up and try it whenever we can.”

Students at Lyman High School in Longwood, Fla., and Monroe Central School in Parker City, Ind., also patched into the orbiter via a ham radio.

At Lyman, a student asked whether the astronauts could see the stars better without looking through the Earth’s atmosphere and pollution.

Cameron answered that the stars were indeed clear, but that the astronauts’ major task was observing phenomena on Earth.

A student from Monroe wanted to know what astronauts expected to find from the Gamma Ray Observatory the shuttle was to deploy on Sunday. But contact faded at that point and the question went unanswered.

Gamma rays are the hottest, most energetic radiation in the universe and emanate from exploding and pulsating stars, quasars and areas thought to be black holes.