The Assamese school students were greatly impressed by NASA astronaut Edward Michael Finke, who onboard the ISS today. The man spoke to the students in their native language while an extraordinary live interaction from the space lab was being conducted.

When asked whether he could speak Assamese, Mike Finke, who is married to an Assamese Renita Saikia, said, “Moi alop kobo paru.” (I can speak a little)

A loud round of applause from the students of Assam Jatiya Vidyalalya was received by Fincke, who is learning Assamese during his space stint, during a telephonic interaction from International Space Station (ISS) organized by Friends of Assam and Seven Sisters (FASS), an organization of non-resident Assamese, in coordination with NASA.

It would be interesting to note that even Finke’s wife Renita works at NASA and her parents had left for USA several decades ago.

“The members eat normal food like hamburgers and sausages on the spaceship but they are mostly packed food, prepared on ground but we do heat these sometimes,” said Fincke, to the students. The man is also the commander of the current expedition 18 mission of the ISS.

He further informed to the students, “Water on the spaceship is used just like back in the planet but we recycle both water and urine.”