WHEN astronauts on the International Space Station beam down to Earth for a chat with Mission Control, there’s a good chance they’ll hear an Aussie accent.
WHEN the astronauts on the International Space Station beam down to Earth for a chat with Mission Control, there’s a good chance there’ll be an Aussie accent on the other end.
That accent belongs to Adelaide-born Andrea Boyd who works as the International Space Station (ISS) operations engineer and is the only Australian who works with the ISS.
When you hear astronauts talk to “Houston” in the movies, that’s basically her, she says but she’s in Cologne, Germany. She is the voice of Europe for the ISS.
There is generally six astronauts aboard the ISS from the participating countries of the US, Russia, Japan, and Europe. They have scheduled calls with Mission Control and Earth-dwelling colleagues like Ms. Boyd are always on hand “in case they have any issues”, she said. “That’s always the most fun part of my job.”
And given that the ISS is usually running about 200 experiments at any given time, there’s always something that could go awry.
“That ranges from basic sciences like physics, chemistry, to applied biology or to specific medicines,” Ms. Boyd said. Read more...
WHEN the astronauts on the International Space Station beam down to Earth for a chat with Mission Control, there’s a good chance there’ll be an Aussie accent on the other end.
That accent belongs to Adelaide-born Andrea Boyd who works as the International Space Station (ISS) operations engineer and is the only Australian who works with the ISS.
When you hear astronauts talk to “Houston” in the movies, that’s basically her, she says but she’s in Cologne, Germany. She is the voice of Europe for the ISS.
There is generally six astronauts aboard the ISS from the participating countries of the US, Russia, Japan, and Europe. They have scheduled calls with Mission Control and Earth-dwelling colleagues like Ms. Boyd are always on hand “in case they have any issues”, she said. “That’s always the most fun part of my job.”
And given that the ISS is usually running about 200 experiments at any given time, there’s always something that could go awry.
“That ranges from basic sciences like physics, chemistry, to applied biology or to specific medicines,” Ms. Boyd said. Read more...