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The easy edifice classmates of a young woman killed in the Jan shootings in Tucson spoke with astronauts aboard NASA's  expanse shuttle Endeavour New Sunday to intend a looking of what chronicle in expanse is like.

About 400 students from metropolis Verde Elementary School in Tucson, Ariz., stayed up New Sunday period (May 22) for the quantity to speech to Endeavour shuttle commander Mark buffoon and assignment doc Mike Fincke as the astronauts sailed 216 miles (347 km) above Earth.

The cosmic call was organized by NASA for Kelly, the husband of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was injured in the Jan. 8 move that killed six people. Among those killed was 9-year-old Christina Taylor-Green, a student at metropolis Verde.

"In the terminal quaternary months, I've become to esteem your classmate Christina Green rattling much," buffoon told the students. "I've become to see a aggregation about her, and when I was her age I remember watching the Phoebus astronauts travel on the moon."

Kelly said he was inspired by the Phoebus moon landings and hoped to support spur welfare in expanse among the students as well. 

To verify Arizona, buffoon wore an Arizona Wildcats t-shirt (a metropolis Verde shirt was unavailable) and he carried the easy school's 2010-2011 yearbook, which has a credit tender for Taylor-Green.  Kelly promised that he and his gathering would clew the reference and give it to metropolis Verde after Endeavour returns home June 1. [Photos of Shuttle Endeavour's Final Launch]

Kelly said he has inclined feelings for Arizona, and not exclusive because his wife is from the state. Giffords was shot in the nous during the Jan. 8 move and underwent surgery terminal week, while buffoon was in space, to hit a assets of her skull replaced with a impressible plug. Giffords also watched buffoon launch into expanse aboard Endeavour on May 16. buffoon is also wearing a chromatic foam bracelet decorated with the text "Peace, Love, Gabby" in his wife's honor.

Astronaut Q&A

Kelly and Fincke also answered whatever questions about the ins and outs of experience in space. Among the student's most-pressing inquiries:

Does the food taste good in space? The M & M candy tastes good, but the rest of the food, not so much, buffoon joked.  [6 Everyday Things That Happen Strangely in Space]

Do they hit a doctor onboard for emergencies?  No, but the gathering is drilled for whatever instances and crapper call for support if it's needed, the astronauts said.

How do astronauts applier their set in space? The aforementioned way grouping do on Earth, but with no streaming water, Fincke said. Incidentally, "brushing set is important for you guys as well, not meet astronauts in space," Fincke told the students.

Have the astronauts ever seen anything strange in space? "I don't conceive anyone has ever seen a UFO or an alien, but we're keeping our eyes open," Fincke said.

Endeavour's test mission

Kelly, Fincke and the rest of Endeavour's gathering are in the midst of a 16-day assignment to the International Space Station, where the shuttle is currently parked. The shuttle launched into expanse on May 16 to have a $2 billion astrophysics experiment and another constituent parts and supplies to the orbiting lab. Two of quaternary regular spacewalks hit been performed.

Later today, the astronauts module verify whatever instance soured to rest from their laboring voyage and intercommunicate with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. There are digit Italian astronauts in orbit together on this flight, digit on Endeavour and the another on the expanse station. The gathering module also be at the expanse send during an unexampled event: the departure of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft backward three send crewmembers backwards to Earth.

A Soyuz has never departed the International Space Station while a NASA shuttle was cropped at the orbiting laboratory. Astronauts aboard the Soyuz organisation to snap photographs of Endeavour cropped at the expanse send as the capsulise departs to getting the unequalled picture opportunity.

This mission, called STS-134, is Endeavour's 25th and test voyage before the orbiter is old after this assemblage along with the rest of NASA's shuttle fleet.

You crapper study SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the stylish in expanse science and exploration programme on Twitter @Spacedotcomand on Facebook.

• Photos: Shuttle Endeavour's Final Mission - Part 2
• Photos of Space Shuttle Endeavour's Final Launch
• Soyuz Flyaround Animation

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