Houston we , uh , do n’t actually have a trouble . Forget I foretell . K , bye .
We ’ve all been there . The bottom dial , the pocket dial , the wrong - figure telephone dial – you name it . But not many of us can say we ’ve done any of those things while orbiting around Earth . That is unless you ’re Dutch spaceman André Kuipers .
That ’s right . Speaking with the Netherlands ’ public broadcasterNederlandse Omroep Stichtingin commemoration of this year ’s fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing , Kuipers said he mistakenly called American pinch services when he forgot to dial 0 while making a long distance call from aboard the International Space Station ( ISS ) .
The 60 - year - honest-to-god told the radio program that it ’s potential to transmit with Earth via satellite about 70 percent of the time . But it ’s not as promiscuous as just assure Siri to dial your mom , or tapping in a phone number at the earpiece booth . ( For those of you born after 1998 , a phone John Wilkes Booth is an archaic method of communicating that had phones tethered to actuallines . They even took existent coin . ) Just like radio station broadcast signal to your car stereo , the ISScan communicateinformation down to Earth in a variety of ways , including email , video schmoose , and , yes , even Twitter .
" If you ’re in outer space , it ’s like you ’re gain a call via Houston , first you dial the 9 for an outside cable , and then 011 for an external line , but yes , you swim and you have to key it in on a filmdom , ” explicate Kuipers , who say the day after make his misapprehension he received an electronic mail message enquire if he had actually called 911 .
" I missed the 0 , and indeed there was a paper at the Houston consternation center [ that ] something pass in the Johnson Space Center , ” said Kuipers , jest that he was “ a footling disappointed that they had not come up . ”
Fortunately , even in space cosmonaut are able to occasionally call home and say hello to Friend and family , but there is a holdup given the approximately 386 - kilometre ( 240 - mile ) distance from Earth .
“ Sometimes , people would fall up because they think I did not say anything , so by and by on I started to talk as soon as I had dialed the last numeral , ” Kuipers order .
[ H / T : Nederlandse Omroep Stichting ]
