i wanted to find out to settle a dispute, when the shuttle is up in space , can people call them and?

Question

talk to them, i would think they are too busy and also the signal wouldnt reach that far. I dont think we can call, but a friend said she could call if she wanted too , the FAA and put call thru, just curious here thanks, hope to get good answers

Answer 1

Yes, they are in constant touch with the master control facility (MCF) over voice communication. They ensure various systems check-out, functioning and trajectory monitoring including jerks on stages separation and jerks receiving by it. Jerk defines the true velocity of the rocket and its the real time bound action that is being monitored by the MCF.

Once they are beyond the earth's gravity, they are allowed to talk with family members present in the MCF.

Answer 2

Lets see ... 300 million people in the USA, if just 1 in a million called, that would be 300 calls. At 1 minute each, that is 5 hours of phone calls. Plus all the other people in the world, another 3000 phone calls, that would make 50 more hours. And then some people would call twice. And of course the astronauts have nothing else to do ...

Yes, makes sense to me ....

On the other hand, there have been times when NASA has has special call-in programs. You call NASA, and if you sound interesting and sober, they connect you to one of the astronauts. They had less than a 1-hour slot, and took only 10 or 12 calls. NASA had to reject about 120,000 calls, so only 1 in 10,000 were selected. No idea if they plan to do it again.

See the link for another example.

Answer 3

The shuttle is in constant radio contact with ground control, but the astronauts are busy with their program and don't have time to talk to individuals.

Answer 4

The control centre at Huston is always talking to the crew.

Answer 5

Diplomatically.

Answer 6

You cannot cal them but you cancheck their latest status at www.nasa.gov