Video Conferencing from the International Space Station

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May 21st, 2008 by Video Conferencing Expert

On Monday, students and educators at the Richmond Hill Community Center in New York and the Valley Christian Elementary School in California took part in a 20 minute video conference call with astronaut Garrett Reisman aboard the International Space Station. Reisman answered the students questions, such as, “What do you talk about on the ISS?” and gave demonstrations of microgravity by performing mid-air summersaults and effortlessly lifting 80 pound containers of water.

The live event was made possible with a Tandberg video conferencing solution provided by industry expert IVCi. The event was also made accessible to viewers nationwide via a streaming video link on the NASA web site.

Neme Alperstein, Program Administrator of Technology at the Richmond Hill Community Center, believes in the power of video conferencing to take students to places they may otherwise never see first hand.

Students come here to participate in video conferences, so the children are very familiar with the technology. They did their research and were prepared when they spoke with the astronaut. Video conferencing is very interactive, and it enhances the children’s learning. I don’t think it’s the future, I think it’s the present.