Local students make contact with International Space Station

Have you ever wanted to visit space?

As we all know, it's not that easy to get there. For some kids in our area, they're still curious about life that way. With the help of West Virginia University's Amateur Radio Club, they got to learn a little more about space from astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

Some were quite curious, and they got to take some of their questions and have them answered by the ones who know it best.

"I asked how long did they have to train to go to zero gravity," said Ava Skinner. "It's been really fun. I haven't really gotten to do all the activities because I was in here practicing."

It was hard work indeed.

"It was a long process for us, it was that full year of planning," said Will Howard, Vice President of the WVU Amateur Radio Club. "To get these activities in place was much more down to the wire."

Howard says it's something they've been working on for about a year.

"I'm super excited," Howard said. "We heard an astronaut speak. He was speaking to us. That's exciting."

For Howard and his team, this isn't an easy accomplishment. It was also something they weren't quite sure of just a few days ago.

"Until Wednesday, we did not know what day it would be," he said. "That's been the hardest struggle of this whole thing."

Others who helped play a role in getting this done shared the excitement. For Sarah Moore, one of the best parts was seeing how excited the students were.

"You could see, the kids who spoke, very excited and their friends in the audience were like, I know a person who has talked to an astronaut,'" said Moore. "Very rewarding. It's probably in my top 10 moments at WVU."