Miami Kids Space out With Obama

Prez and St. Thomas 7th graders phone astronauts from White House

A group of Miami students had an out of this world experience with President Obama yesterday when they joined the Commander in Chief in a phone call to the astronauts on the International Space Station and Shuttle Endeavour yesterday.

Three 7th graders from St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic School got in on the call with students from Michigan, North Carolina and Nebraska during a trip to the White House.

The students were selected to join the President on the call through their participation in a "Future City" engineering competition held each year in the nation's capital.

The competition has students from across the country competing to design cities of the future.

The phone call connected the president and students to the astronauts who are hovering some 200 miles above the Earth for about 20 minutes.

Questions from the students included inquiries about creating artificial gravity, the astronauts' feelings and emotions while in space and whether they can see nay distinguishable features from where they are.

The astronauts said they could see the Grand Canyon, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and the Great Wall of China, among other landmarks.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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