Photo courtesy / NASA
Astronauts Dominic "Tony" Antonelli '89 (left), pilot of the STS-119 space shuttle mission currently working on the International Space Station, and his former Aero-Astro classmate Michael Fincke '89 (center), ISS Expedition 18 commander, are seen here helping a crewmate after a spacewalk on Sunday. They took part in a long-distance phone call on Tuesday morning from President Barack Obama, who was accompanied by a group of schoolchildren and congressmen. Fincke welcomed Obama aboard the station as it hurtled along overhead at 17,500 mph, and Antonelli urged the students to study hard if they wanted to be able to become astronauts someday. "One of the best things about getting to work here is you can study just about anything you're interested in," he said, pointing out that astronauts may be not just engineers but also physicists, doctors, or, as with two of the present crewmembers, schoolteachers.
