Using a radio they built and operated themselves, a group of Ontario students managed to contact the International Space Station -- a goal their professor said he initially believed was "pie-in-the-sky."
Humber College radio communications professor Mark Rector said he was skeptical when his students first came to him about a year ago, suggesting the project as a practical way of applying their skills.
"In the back of my mind I thought you guys are out of your tree. This is pie-in-the-sky. You don't just call the International Space Station. I mean the technical hurdles are almost impossible to explain to a lay person," Rector told CTV's Canada AM the day after contact was made.
Three students managed to convince Rector they were serious about the project, and they worked with him to overcome the technical hurdles and design the technology they needed to make the call.
It all came to a climax Monday. After working out a few last minute bugs, the nervous students sent their message at just after 12:30 p.m. ET.
No response.
A short while later, with frayed nerves, they made a second attempt. This time their efforts were rewarded, as they heard the voice of astronaut Sandra Magnus.
The group exploded with emotion -- one student crying, Rector pounding his fist in excitement and relief, the group embracing.
"We had reached our goal, reached our dream and we were just ecstatic," Gino Cunthi, one of the students who worked on the project, told Canada AM.
"All of the hard work we put into it came down to that moment right there and something just came out of us."
Rector said it was a powerful moment.
"It was a huge hurdle and for them to pull it off, I was just bursting with pride and bursting with relief that we actually pulled this off with the world watching."
The students had 10 minutes to speak with Magnus. They asked technical questions and posed queries submitted by students at Humber, before the window closed.
Magnus was asked how it felt to see Earth from space.
"Up here I've seen the world from a different viewpoint," she replied. "I see it as a whole system, I don't see it as a group of individual people or individual countries.
"We are one huge group of people and we're all in it together."
The students are being honoured by Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame for their accomplishment, which is believed to be a first.
Other student groups have communicated with astronauts on the ISS, but the Humber students are believed to be the first to build and operate the NASA-approved radio-telecommunications device necessary to contact astronauts in space.
Rector said all four students will be strong additions to Canada's space industry, and it has been an honour to work with them.
"For them to live that dream and for me to see it and help facilitate it and train them to do this stuff, it's the highlight of my teaching career."
