The news these days is often depressing at worst and frustrating at best. It’s easy to let it get us down. Never fear… The News Blender has you covered. Once a week we feature Something Good and, in return, all you have to do is tell us something good that has happened to you this week, something you are thankful for, a joke, a cute animal story, an inspiring tale of heroics, a Random Act of Kindness… SOMETHING good.
This week’s something good is out of this world.
Isabella Payne, an eight-year-old from Kent in the southeast of England, recently had an experience of a lifetime. Her father, Matthew, is an amateur radio operator. He is also a big space enthusiast and shares his love of all things NASA with his daughter. She has sat on his lap while watching every launch, space walk, and space station event since she was a toddler.
The International Space Station is equipped with ham radio equipment they use to contact schools and, once in a while, on their downtime, the astronauts will use it to “call out” to ham operators as they pass over. Matt says it’s a bit of a tricky thing – everything has to go right, including the weather, for earth-bound operators to hear an astronaut calling out and be able to have a quick chat. When Isabella was two, she perched on her dad’s lap while he facilitated a conversation between astronaut Tim Peake. up on the space station. and a class of local school kids. A couple weeks ago, she finally got her turn.
Matt had heard through the grapevine that Kjell Lindgren, an American astronaut on board the ISS, was using the radio equipment and was listening for Kjell’s call sign on the evening of August 2.
Isabella had gone to bed and just fallen asleep when her dad roused her and rushed her to their ham radio. She told CNN, “”I was like ‘Why are you doing this to me? I need my beauty sleep.'”
Isabella made it in time to hear Kjell’s call sign and answer him back. Matthew says the protocol is to keep these conversations short: give your call sign, say who you are, tell the astronaut thank you and end the call so as many people as possibly are able to have the experience of talking to an astronaut in the brief window they are available.
When Lindgren heard Isabella give her name and age, “His voice instantly changed from normal to joyful. You could hear his smile,” Isabella says. She continued, “I was elated when I heard his voice,” she added. “I thought it was a dream.”
After their conversation, Lingren tweeted about it, saying it might be his favorite interaction so far.
Since Isabella’s out-of-this-world conversation, she has heard from NASA via email and talked to media organizations. She has a goal to become a communication specialist for NASA and she appears to be well on her way.
She told CNN, “I want to talk to the astronauts and say, for example: ‘Good morning, Sam. Is everything still floating around up there like it’s supposed to?'”
As for the idea that space is a frontier for boys and men and less so for girls, she told the BBC, “I really want to inspire other little girls and I want them to know that just because boys have all the space clothing, doesn’t mean they don’t have to love space.”
Having a chat of a lifetime is definitely something good! Now it’s your turn… tell me something good!
