By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
When the international space station passed over the Islands yesterday, it wasn’t just an exclusive opportunity for four high school students from Hawai‘i to speak live with commander Bill Shepherd in space.
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| Lianne Takamori, a senior at Sacred Hearts Academy, talks with space station commander William Shepherd. Sitting next to Takamori is Bernie Kilonsky of the Hawaii Academy of Science.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser |
It was about making history for Shane Kaleleiki and Jonathan Valdez of Wai‘anae High School, Kiani Arkus of the Kamehameha Schools, and Lianne Takamori of Sacred Hearts Academy.
Shortly after his brief conversation with Shepherd from the amateur radio facility at Sacred Hearts, 15-year-old sophomore Kaleleiki was filled with pride for his school and his community.
Hawaiian studies teacher Linda Galano had told Kaleleiki and Valdez the invitation extended to them by the Hawai‘i Academy of Science to speak with Shepherd was something special.
"Our kumu kept telling us this is an honor because you guys are from Wai‘anae and nobody expects us to be here," Kaleleiki said.
Sacred Hearts is the only high school in the United States qualified to operate telebridge connections for NASA’s Amateur Radio International Space Station program. Yesterday’s contact was the first with the $63 billion international space station.
The four spoke with Shepherd from 9:16 to 9:22 a.m., and each got to ask him one question.
"I’ve never talked to anybody more important," Kaleleiki said.
He asked Shepherd, "Is ISS-Alpha helping us share technology with other people from around the globe?"
The answer, that sharing does occur, surprised Kaleleiki. "I figured they stuck to their own procedures, rather than trading procedures around."
Shepherd, a 51-year-old Navy captain, has been aboard the international space station with Russians Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev since last November. Their four-month mission will end this month, and Shepherd yesterday promised his friend, Hokule‘a voyaging canoe navigator Nainoa Thompson, who was moderator at Sacred Hearts, that he would try to come to Hawai‘i.
It was while sailing on the Hokule‘a that Shepherd first expressed an interest in doing some kind of communications link with Thompson and students from Hawai‘i as part of his space station mission.
"To actually be speaking to an astronaut in space," Valdez marveled. "It’s amazing what technology can do today."
Bernie Kilonsky, a University of Hawai‘i oceanography research associate who helped set up the communication link yesterday, said Shepherd was about 235 miles above Hawai‘i when he was speaking to the students.
"It was awe inspiring, a once-in-a-lifetime experience," said Arkus, who asked Shepherd how he combats muscle atrophy because of inactivity. "I never expected to hear that they had a treadmill up there."
Takamori, 18, was so nervous she didn’t hear Shepherd’s reply to her question. "It was nerve-racking, and it went by so quickly," she said.
For the record, Shepherd said what he missed most was his wife, two big dogs and his big back yard.
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Yesterday’s audio session with Shepherd is posted at