NASA Astronauts Talk To Santa Monica Students From Space

SANTA MONICA, CA – NASA Astronauts, Commander Randy Bresnik and Joe Acaba, talked to elementary, middle school, high school, and college students Monday live from the International Space Station. The NASA Educational In-Flight Event was in Barnum Hall at Santa Monica High School.

Students from Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) —including Grant Elementary, John Adams Middle School, and Santa Monica College (SMC) — were invited to ask questions of the astronauts. Over the years, Bresnik stayed in touch with Samohi administrators. Catherine Baxter, Dean of Students, applied for this high-tech downlink from the ISS, orbiting 250 miles above Earth, and with Bresnik's support NASA agreed to set it up, according to the SMMUSD press release.

During a recent flyover, Bresnik tweeted a photo of Santa Monica from space, pointing out his two alma maters: Samohi and SMC. Nicknamed “Komrade” Bresnik, during his senior year at Samohi, Randy was a dual-enrollment student studying Russian at SMC, language training that would serve him well as Commander of ISS Expedition 53, the press release said. Launched from Kazakhstan via Russia’s Soyuz MS-5 spacecraft in July 2017, he shared the ride with his crewmate, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy.

Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1989, Bresnik became an astronaut in 2004 and has led three maintenance and repair EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) spacewalks outside the ISS during Expedition 53.

Jesse Torres and Nicholas Rodriguez, who are enrolled in SMC’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) program, were selected to address questions to Bresnik, as they both graduated from Samohi and are SMC students. Torres, an Aerospace Engineering major, asked what Commander Bresnik’s greatest training challenge has been.

“He answered that he was the flight engineer or co-pilot on the Soyuz spacecraft,” Torres said, “and having to learn about that spacecraft all in Russian was his biggest challenge. He said it starts small, you take it step by step and he was helped by that fact that Sergey Ryazanskiy got his PhD at UCLA.”

UCLA is Jesse’s first choice for transfer; he wants to get a Master’s Degree, and hopes to find work at a government aerospace facility or a university. Time ran out before Rodriguez, a Physics major who enrolled in the Marine Corps at age 19 and serves in the Marines Reserves, could ask Bresnik how his Marine Corps training helped prepare him for this ISS expedition.

“I was just happy to be able to see behind the scenes, and to watch the interaction between the students and the astronauts on the computer screen," Rodriguez said. "I never thought I’d have that kind of live connection or be close enough ever to see something like this.”

Other students asked what space smells like – “Cream of Mushroom Soup,” responded Bresnik – and whether dreams in space are different. Acaba, the second NASA astronaut, told the students that now in his dreams, walking feels like floating.

Photo courtesy of SMMUSD – Left to right: SMC physics major Nicholas Rodriguez, SMC President/Superintendent Dr. Kathryn E. Jeffery, and SMC aerospace engineering major Jesse Torres after the live downlink from the International Space Station. Rodriguez and Torres were selected to ask questions of Commander Bresnik and Astronaut Joe Acaba at Santa Monica High School’s Barnum Hall.