A conversation happening in orbit becomes accessible to anyone curious enough to tune in
On April 30th, two NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station will pause their orbital research to speak directly with Missouri schoolchildren, bridging the 400 kilometers between Earth and the cosmos through a live YouTube broadcast. Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, members of Expedition 74, will answer pre-recorded student questions about science, engineering, and life in microgravity — a deliberate act of connection between those who explore the frontier and those who may one day follow. Organized by the University of Missouri's Pre-Employment Transition Service, the event reflects a long-held belief that inspiration, like gravity, works across great distances.
- Two astronauts living and working in orbit will briefly set aside their experiments to speak with K-12 students and community members in Missouri, making the extraordinary feel immediate.
- The challenge of collapsing the distance between a classroom and low Earth orbit is met with live audio and video routed from the station through Houston's Mission Control to YouTube viewers worldwide.
- Questions submitted in advance by organizers keep the twenty-minute session focused, ensuring students hear real answers about daily life, scientific research, and the realities of spaceflight.
- The broadcast requires no registration — anyone with internet access can watch, turning a private conversation in orbit into a public moment of shared curiosity.
- The event lands as part of NASA's broader strategy to cultivate the next generation of scientists and explorers for Artemis lunar missions and the long horizon of Mars.
On the morning of April 30th, NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway will take a brief pause from their duties aboard the International Space Station to answer questions from Missouri students — a live conversation streamed on NASA's Learn With NASA YouTube channel beginning at 10:50 a.m. Eastern time. The session, organized by the University of Missouri's Pre-Employment Transition Service in Columbia, will welcome participants from kindergarten through high school, along with community members curious about life 400 kilometers above Earth.
Meir commands the SpaceX Crew-12 mission and brings experience from previous spaceflights; for Hathaway, serving as pilot, this is his first time in orbit. The two launched together in February 2026 aboard a Dragon spacecraft, joining Expedition 74 alongside ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. Before their departure, both conducted equipment interface tests at Kennedy Space Center, suiting up inside the Dragon capsule to prepare for the systems they would rely on in space.
During the roughly twenty-minute session, pre-recorded student questions will guide the conversation — covering topics in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Audio and video will travel from the station to Mission Control in Houston before reaching viewers worldwide, requiring nothing more than an internet connection to access.
The station itself has been continuously inhabited since the early 2000s, completing an orbit every ninety minutes while its crew conducts microgravity research in human health, materials science, and fluid physics. That work feeds directly into NASA's Artemis program and its ambitions beyond the Moon. In pausing to speak with schoolchildren, Meir and Hathaway do something the science alone cannot — they make the future feel reachable.
Two NASA astronauts orbiting Earth at 400 kilometers altitude will pause their research on Thursday, April 30th, to answer questions from Missouri schoolchildren. Jessica Meir, commanding the SpaceX Crew-12 mission, and Jack Hathaway, the mission's pilot, will respond to pre-recorded questions about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics during a live broadcast beginning at 10:50 a.m. Eastern time. The conversation will stream on NASA's Learn With NASA YouTube channel, organized by the University of Missouri's Pre-Employment Transition Service in Columbia.
Meir and Hathaway launched together in February 2026 aboard a Dragon spacecraft and arrived at the station the following day. They are part of Expedition 74, working alongside European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. For Hathaway, this marks his first spaceflight; Meir brings experience from previous missions. Before their launch, both astronauts conducted equipment interface tests at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 12th, donning pressurized suits and entering the Dragon capsule to familiarize themselves with the systems they would depend on in orbit.
The event will draw kindergarten through high school students as well as community members, all with the chance to hear directly from people living and working in space. The session is scheduled to last approximately twenty minutes, with questions submitted in advance by organizers. Audio and video will transmit from the station to Houston's Mission Control Center and then to viewers worldwide. This kind of direct contact serves a deliberate purpose: NASA uses these educational moments to connect young people with the reality of space exploration and the work that happens 250 miles above their heads.
The International Space Station itself has been continuously inhabited since the early 2000s, completing one orbit around the planet every ninety minutes. Astronauts aboard conduct experiments in microgravity that cannot be replicated in Earth-based laboratories—research in human health, materials science, and fluid physics that informs both immediate applications and long-term ambitions. The data collected supports NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon and eventually send missions to Mars. Meir and Hathaway contribute to these ongoing experiments while managing daily maintenance of station systems, adjusting research protocols in real time as conditions warrant.
For journalists seeking to cover the event, confirmation of attendance is required by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 29th. Contact information is available through Kimberly Pudlowski at 636-697-5845 or kimberly.gee@missouri.edu. The broadcast itself requires no registration—anyone with internet access can watch live on YouTube. In this way, a conversation happening in orbit becomes accessible to anyone curious enough to tune in, collapsing the distance between a classroom in Missouri and two people floating in the vacuum of space.
Citas Notables
NASA emphasizes the educational value of these public contacts, showing how space exploration inspires new generations— NASA (via source reporting)
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does NASA invest time in these live conversations when the astronauts have actual work to do up there?
Because inspiration is part of the work. A student watching this might decide to study engineering or physics. That's how you build the next generation of people who keep the program alive.
But couldn't they just record a message? Why does it have to be live?
Live is different. There's no script, no editing. When a kid asks a question and an astronaut answers it in real time from 250 miles up, that's real. You can't fake that connection.
What's the actual research they're doing up there that justifies the cost?
Experiments in microgravity that tell us how materials behave, how the human body adapts to weightlessness, how fluids move without gravity. That data goes into everything from medicine to manufacturing. And it's preparing us for longer missions—to the Moon, eventually to Mars.
So this event is partly PR, partly education, partly recruitment?
Yes. All three at once. NASA needs public support to keep funding. Schools need to know space is a real career path. And students need to see that the work matters. This event does all of that in twenty minutes.
What happens if something goes wrong during the broadcast?
Mission Control in Houston is monitoring everything. If there's a problem, they handle it. The astronauts are trained for this. But honestly, a technical glitch might make it more real to the students—they'd see that space exploration isn't magic, it's engineering and problem-solving.