On Oct. 28, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden called astronauts on the International Space Station from the Payload Operations Integration Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The payload operations center is the command post for science and the payload operations team works with the crew in space to conduct experiments around the clock, 365 days a year. While inside the payload operations center, Bolden talked to station Expedition 41 flight engineers Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Reid Wiseman. The astronauts discussed the experiments that they are performing inside the space station. More than 1,550 research investigations and student experiments from 82 countries have been completed inside and outside the orbiting laboratory. Bolden called the crew in space from the Payload Communications Manager, or PAYCOM, position. April Hargrave, to Bolden’s left, was the PAYCOM on duty. The PAYCOM routinely communicates with the space station astronauts as science experiments are performed on the space station. Bolden’s discussion with the astronauts can be viewed on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mqhqojL26c&list=PLBEXDPatoWBngmgCe62SgrfKc6ai-Rg7V
Image credit: NASA/MSFC/Emmett Given
