Today has been less busy than yesterday for me, but certainly not less exciting! I got to go to a live stream of an interview with an astronaut that is at the moment at the International Space Station. This astronaut, whose name is Andrew Morgan, is also a passionate scout which is super cool! And if that by itself isn’t exciting enough, watch this – we got to ask the questions!

 

When I decided to sign up for this programme, I certainly imagined it much differently. I thought we would sit, have the astronaut on a big screen and that the entire thing would be something like an open discussion with him. The event took place early in the afternoon so I went to the meet up right after I had my lunch. We get packed lunches that we can carry around because most people are usually at the activities when it’s time for the meal. It was really hot around midday and the meeting place was outside so I think all of us were very relieved when we were finally let inside of the air conditioned building where the interview itself was about to take place. We waited for a bit when suddenly a staff member came up to us and asked for fifteen volunteers. Even though we had no idea what they were for, many of us still raised our hands and I was lucky enough to get selected.

 

We were pulled aside from the other ambassadors and the staff began to explain what we were to do. Our role was to be the interviewers!! I couldn’t believe it at first and couldn’t get myself to think of a suitable question for Andrew – I was just so excited! That problem was soon solved for me though. Apparently, all NASA events are scripted beforehand. The astronaut already had gotten our questions and had prepared his answers. We had to go in a very precise order. There were twenty questions in total and I was the fifteenth. We had to stand in a line next to the camera and the person whose turn it was would come forward, introduce themselves, say from which country they are and pose their question. As the astronaut was responding, we would swap and the next person would come forward. It was a shame we couldn’t really see the big screen on which the whole thing was projected but interviewing someone that’s SO far away from Earth is exciting enough, right?

 

The only bad thing was that there wasn’t time for everyone to ask their question. I was pretty close to the end of the order so I got super nervous that I wouldn’t get to ask my question. As I was getting closer to my turn, I saw one of the staff members signalize that we only had five minutes left and that made me really scared I wouldn’t make it in time. Fortunately, I did! But it was super close –  I was the last one that got to go. That made me feel kind of bad for the people that didn’t get to do their turn. Although they later asked their question the organiser of the whole event and he gave them Andrew’s answers. Of course that’s not really the same but hey – it’s still something!

 

I’m so happy and honoured to have gotten to be a part of something as big as this! I could had never even imagined I’d ever get to talk to a real astronaut that’s currently in space. I’m so lucky to have been one of the very few people that got to have their turn and this moment definitely goes to my list of moments that I’ll never forget – a list that only keeps growing and growing here at the jamboree! 🙂 There is still over a week ahead of us I cannot wait to make more amazing memories!

Here is a link to the entire interview:

https://youtu.be/vLf_1kHrPgA

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