In the longest remote link ever made by the VIC Network, a "techno-chain" extended from Indiana to New York, then to Moscow. The signal was then microwaved to Mir Control and was connected to the space station.

Technological wizardry -- American astronaut David Wolf (visible on the left monitor) "visiting" from space. His family members (in the fore ground) are seen as Wolf saw them on the monitor at right.

From Mir to IUPUI

In a 'virtual classroom,' a family gathers together in a NASA 'first'

Thanks to some technological wizardry from his friends at Indiana University and the IUPUI campus, American astronaut David Wolf managed to spend some time with his Indianapolis family over Thanksgiving weekend from his "home away from home," the Mir space station.
Using the communication abilities of University Information Technology Services (UITS) on the IUPUI campus, the 41-year-old Indianapolis native and his family were "face-to-face" for 16 minutes on the Sunday morning after Thanksgiving.

The interactive visit was coordinated by UITS staff member David Donaldson and by Michael Jasiak of the IU School of Continuing Studies' Virtual Indiana Classroom (VIC), which has sites on IU campuses throughout the state.

"It was the first videoconference of its kind for NASA," said Donaldson.
Until the video link, Wolf -- who holds an engineering degree from Purdue and a medical degree from IU -- had stayed in touch with his family via biweekly telephone conferences. Nine members of the Hoosier astronaut's family took part in the video link, including his father, mother, stepmother, grandmother and sister.

In addition to the family conversation, Wolf was able to enjoy reading newspaper articles about his mission via a document camera, and watched a videotape his family furnished.

"We expect there will be additional requests to place videoconference calls," said Donaldson. The VIC facility is likely to be made available to Wolf and his family for future visits during his mission aboard Mir, which began in late September. He is scheduled to return to Earth next month.
To establish the signal, UITS routed the hook-up from Indianapolis to Bloomington, then to a NASA site in Huntsville, Ala., then to Maryland. The next link in the "techno-chain" was to New York, where it was uplinked to a satellite and shipped to Moscow, which then microwaved the signal to Mir Control and then transmitted it to the space station. "It's the longest remote link we've ever made with the VIC Network," said Donaldson. "We have to give credit to people such as Michael Jasiak, Carl Kegeris, Michael Yoakam, Steve Egghazi and Joe Stevens for making the videoconference possible."

http://shuttle.nasa.gov/

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