President Obama Places a Phone Call to the Crews

During the first space shuttle flight of Barack Obama's administration, the new president made a long distance phone call to the crews aboard the orbiting Discovery- Space Station complex this morning as it soared 220 miles high.

"Thank-you so much for taking the time to speak with us," Mr. Obama stated to the crews above. "This is really exciting!" The call from the Roosevelt room of the White House began at 9:52 am EDT, and concluded at 10:20 am.

"We are really proud of the work our American astronauts are doing... I know that we have our Japanese and Russian counterparts on their as well, " both of whom addressed the president.

The American President asked several questions from how do you attach a huge solar array to the station; to what kinds of experiments are you running; and to "I understand you will be speaking to my Alma matter [Hawaii] later; Do you use email up in space; and later allowed the local school children from Washington, D.C. to ask several questions to both space crews.

One child's question directed at the crew, "how many stars are in space", was responded in part by Mr. Obama's statement, "I would like to know the answer to that".

Senator's Kay Baily Hutchinson of Texas and Florida's Bill Nelson [who flew aboard Columbia in 1986] asked questions from health experiments to when will the station be full blown ready, respectively.