Students from the Boys & Girls Club of the Flathead Reservation and Lake County in Ronan, Montana, will have an opportunity this week to hear from a NASA astronaut aboard the International Space Station. The space-to-Earth call will air live at 12 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Jan. 25, on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.
NASA astronaut Nicole Mann will answer prerecorded questions from student participants of the Boys & Girls Club of the Flathead Reservation and Lake County out-of-school programing. Mann is the first Native American woman to fly in space.
The program provides opportunities for reservation youth that inspire students to be the best version of themselves and uses science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to foster collaboration and problem solving. The downlink connects to their experiences as part of the Students to Launch program and their study of STEM.
Students to Launch was born out of a partnership agreement between NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM) and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The program works through OSTEM’s Community Anchors and its informal education institutions called “S2L Hubs” – museums, science centers, youth-serving institutions, libraries, and other places across the country where students congregate outside of school.
Media interested in covering the event should contact Aric Cooksley at aric@flatheadbgc.org or 406-493-2312.
For more than 22 years, astronauts have continuously lived and worked aboard the space station, testing technologies, performing science, and developing the skills needed to explore farther from Earth. Astronauts living in space aboard the orbiting laboratory communicate with NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston 24 hours a day through the Near Space Network Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS).
As part of Artemis, NASA will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future human exploration of Mars. Inspiring the next generation of explorers – the Artemis Generation – ensures America will continue to lead in space exploration and discovery.
See videos and lesson plans highlighting research on the International Space Station at:
