U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris made a particular name to the International Space Station (ISS) to have fun Ladies’s Historical past Month and a few of the ground-breaking work astronauts are doing in orbit.
NASA shared a video of the dialog between Harris and astronauts Shannon Walker and Kate Rubins, who’re presently working aboard the ISS for a six-month mission. The decision, which NASA released on YouTube Wednesday (March 24), got here amid Ladies’s Historical past Month.
“Greetings from the White Home, which is the place I’m proper now,” Harris stated excitedly in the beginning of the video. “Congratulations on your entire success and simply being ladies in area — you all are such unimaginable position fashions.”
Video: VP Kamala Harris calls space station! Talks with NASA’s Shannon Walker and Kate Rubins
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Harris requested Walker and Rubins concerning the analysis they’re presently engaged on and to share recommendation for teenagers who could also be all in favour of turning into astronauts or scientists.
“I do not assume any of us ever actually thought we’d be astronauts,” Rubins, who was the first person to sequence DNA in space, stated within the video. “So I might encourage everyone who’s even eager about it, simply do not maintain your self again. All of our crew members do what we do as a result of we adore it. We love each minute of it.”
A number of the analysis being performed on the area station in the present day contains finding out hundreds of tiny worms to take a look at how muscle strength changes within the setting of area, and dealing with free-floating satellites that may assist future explorations to the moon and Mars.
These satellites, called Astrobees, work alongside the astronauts autonomously or through distant management. The robots are designed to carry out routine chores and duties across the area station, akin to documenting experiments, working collectively to maneuver cargo or serving to discover misplaced items of apparatus. The astronauts are testing the robotic know-how in order that the Astrobees can at some point keep future spacecraft whereas the crew is away, Walker defined within the video.
“Science is difficult work and other people get scared by the coursework, they usually assume it is rigorous and it will be too laborious for them,” Rubins stated within the video. “Science is superb — it’s so a lot enjoyable, it makes each day enjoyable, and we adore it. We love doing science in area.”
Harris expressed her gratitude for the astronauts’ work and prolonged an invite to them to come back go to the White Home once they return to Earth.
Final month I spoke with Astronauts Dr. Shannon Walker and Dr. Kate Rubins aboard the Worldwide Area Station. They’re setting an instance for little women world wide to dream massive, lead with conviction, and to see themselves because the scientists and astronauts of tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/tQR5lK7JSYMarch 24, 2021
“Final month I spoke with Astronauts Dr. Shannon Walker and Dr. Kate Rubins aboard the Worldwide Area Station. They’re setting an instance for little women world wide to dream massive, lead with conviction, and to see themselves because the scientists and astronauts of tomorrow,” Harris said in a tweet.
This wasn’t the primary time Harris referred to as the area station since taking workplace. In February she referred to as the orbiting laboratory to congratulate NASA astronaut Victor Glover for turning into the primary Black astronaut to fly a long-duration mission to the area station. Glover, who arrived on the ISS on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in November, is now 4 months into his deliberate six-month keep.
Observe Samantha Mathewson @Sam_Ashley13. Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Fb.
