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Poway Students Connect To Space Via Ham Radio

Adobe Bluffs Elementary students take turns asking U.S. astronaut Cady Coleman questions on a ham radio as she flew over the San Diego region on Tuesday morning.
Ana Tintocalis
Adobe Bluffs Elementary students take turns asking U.S. astronaut Cady Coleman questions on a ham radio as she flew over the San Diego region on Tuesday morning.
Poway Students Connect To Space Via Ham Radio
Students at Adobe Bluffs Elementary School in Poway spoke directly to an astronaut aboard the International Space Station on Thursday morning. The kids connected with Cady Coleman as she flew over San Diego County.

Students at Adobe Bluffs Elementary School in Poway spoke directly to an astronaut aboard the International Space Station on Thursday morning.

The kids connected with Cady Coleman as she flew over San Diego County.

"Good morning from Adobe Bluffs Elementary School in Sunny San Diego," exclaimed Lauren McLaughlin, a fourth grader who held a CB radio tight as she and more than a dozen classmates waited eagerly to ask Colemen questions about space.

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Coleman is an astronaut aboard the International Space Station. This is her third space mission.

The space craft was orbiting above the San Diego region for about 10 minutes, just enough time for students to find out kind of food she eats in space and if she could bring her pets.

Third grader Kevin Pert asked Coleman a tougher question about the future of space travel.

"She said, 'You could help the future of space travel be different and the possibilities are endless,'" said Pert.

A local group of ham radio experts applied to NASA to host the direct radio link from space. Adobe Bluffs is one of just a few campuses in the U.S. that got the chance to connect.