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National

‘Mike Mama’ shares space experience

Sushanta Talukdar

The session was attended by 80 schools of Assam

— Photo: AP

SKY HIGH FEELING: NASA astronaut Colonel Edward Michael Fincke, wife Renita Saikia, with their youngest daughter Torali, pose for a photograph in Guwahati.

GUWAHATI: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut Colonel Edward Michael Fincke, also known as Mike Fincke, is the first person to have performed Assamese folk dance, Bihu, onboard the International Space Station (ISS). But, he does not want to be the last person to have done this in space.

Sharing experiences of dancing Bihu in zero gravity condition, Colonel Fincke told about 900 students during an interactive meet here on Monday that he would like to see some from among them perform the Bihu at the ISS. He was confident that one day astronauts from the State would travel to space.

The Pragjyoti ITA Centre for Performing Arts at Machkhowa here turned into a NASA training room, preparing astronauts for a space voyage, with the Colonel Fincke giving elaborate replies to about 80 questions posed to him by a student representative from each school. The day-long session, which lasted for more than five hours, was facilitated by the Friends of Assam and Seven Sisters (FASS), of which Colonel Fincke is a life member.

The questions ranged from the experience of dancing Bihu in space, adaptation in zero gravity condition, protecting the ISS from high speed dust particles or meteorites, to what went wrong with the Space Shuttle carrying Kalpana Chawla and six other astronauts, designing a space ship, space elevators, life beyond earth and the experience of casting vote for the United States Presidential election from the ISS.Till this interaction, Colonel Fincke, married to Assamese engineer at NASA Renita Saikia and popularly called “Assam’s son-in-law,”became ‘Mike Mama’ (Assamese for maternal uncle) for the students. The students were overjoyed to listen to the astronaut reply to them in Assamese.

Former students of Axam Jatiya Vidyalaya were introduced to Colonel Fincke. Fifteen students of this Assamese medium school spoke to him from their school campus in January, when he was at the ISS, on his second space voyage, in a Space Talk programme facilitated by NASA at the request of FASS.

After the interaction, Colonel Fincke posed for photographs with students and teachers from each of the 80 schools that had taken part in the interaction.

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