During the 2013–14 school year, Sandy Hook School third and fourth grade students had the opportunity to talk, via Skype, with two flight engineers aboard the International Space Station (ISS), and on Friday, September 10, one of the astronauts visited the school, offering presentations and visits with students during the morning.

Waterbury resident Rick Mastracchio and Steve Swanson both talked with the students last April using Skype, as the culminating celebration of the 2013–14 One School One Read program, which had the whole school community read the same book at the same time, which was How Do You Burp in Space? And Other Tips Every Space Tourist Needs to Know by Susan E. Goodman. That conversation was also shared live so students across the entire school and family members could tune in.

“Station, this is Sandy Hook Elementary. How do you hear me?” Sandy Hook School Principal Kathy Gombos said at the start of a video posted by NASA of the April 8 talk. The video, called “Space Station Crew Discusses Life in Space with Students at Sandy Hook Elementary School” was later posted to YouTube on NASA’s account.

“Sandy Hook Elementary, we hear you loud and clear. Welcome to the International Space Station,” Mr Mastracchio said on the video.

Standing before the first group of students he was set to present to on Friday, Mr Mastracchio told the students he spent nine years working to become an astronaut. He also said he has flown to outer space three times, and his latest trip was spent onboard the ISS.

Mr Mastracchio shared a video made by ISS crew with the students, before explaining a number of things for the students. Onboard the ISS, Mr Mastracchio said a number of experiments are conducted, and his favorite involved ants. Students laughed as Mr Mastracchio described how the ants handled having no gravity.

Astronauts, he said, on the ISS also have to fix things. For one spacewalk, Mr Mastracchio said he had to go outside the ISS, so he put on a spacesuit.

“We had to be very careful,” said Mr Mastracchio to the gathered kindergarten and first grade students. Outside the ISS, he explained, is dangerous. But everything ended up fine as it was a, “very successful space walk.”

In order to send to supplies to the astronauts onboard the ISS, Mr Mastracchio said cargo ships are sent up. He also showed video of him “taking the garbage out in space.” As he explained to the students, the cargo ships, after being emptied, are filled with garbage before being released from the space station to burn up in the Earth’s orbit.

Mr Mastracchio also shared other aspects of life on the ISS.

“The nighttime lights over the United States are beautiful,” he said. “I enjoy looking at them.”

He also said he took a good number of photographs of Connecticut.

When it came time to hold a question and answer session, students asked a range of questions. One student wanted to know whether Mr Mastracchio had brought a Sandy Hook School T-shirt he brought with him to the ISS to surprise students in the video last April, back with him.

Mr Mastracchio held up the shirt for students and also shared a photo he took of the t-shirt in space, floating.

Students also asked whether Mr Mastracchio could see planets while in space, how he slept on the ISS, and how he ate dessert.

Watching Venus emerge over Earth, Mr Mastracchio said, is like watching the sun rise, and to sleep on the ISS, he said, he used a sleeping bag to stay in place.

“It was very comfortable,” he told the students of the sleeping arrangements.

Eating dessert, he said in answer to the question, was tricky. Without gravity, Mr Mastracchio said the astronauts have to be careful not to fling food off their utensils, or it will float around before sticking to the walls.