Orenburg state university

Space Teleconference OSU — ISS. Orbit is On-line

On the April 11, the day before Cosmonautics Day, the first space teleconference with crew of International Space Station took place in OSU. Russian astronauts Yuriy Malenchenko, Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka were on-line.

The best students of OSU Aerospace Institute, Student Council members, University Miss and Mister of last years, other representatives of the University and telecommunication company "MTS" got opportunity to speak with people who were 400 km away from the Earth.

Crew members greeted students and professors. Students wanted to learn about different parts of space life: new research directions, conducted on the station, future of cosmonautics, way of life and personal relations on the Orbit. The flight engineer of ISS-46/47 Yuriy Malenchenko told that life on station is specific, but predictable. It goes according to certain plan: work, eight-hour sleep, free time.

On Cosmonautics Day they will lay the table where fruits and vegetables which are kept for solemn occasions. And flight engineer of ISS-47/48 Alexey Ovchinin said that he will eat pelmeni on return to the Earth.

Students of OSU Aerospace Institute asked questions about cosmonauts’ professional activity. Yuriy Malenchenko explained that programs for space exploration are composed up the year 2030 and are focused on near-by planets and the Moon research. They need new equipment, new control and communications facilities for programs realization.

Oleg Skripochka — flight engineer of ISS-47/48 told the students how cosmonauts get used to zero gravity keep fit and rehabilitate themselves on the Earth. Twenty minutes of communication passed quickly. OSU students congratulated all crew members on the coming holiday and sang the song "The Earth in Illuminator", changed words. Their song was about the first cosmonaut — Yuriy Gagarin.