Ground Control to Major Fun!

Hundreds of Freeport students got the experience of a lifetime Tuesday by speaking live to astronaut Scott Tingle, who is orbiting Earth on the International Space Station.

Freeport schools were one of only 13 districts in the country chosen by NASA to make audio contact with the astronaut.

The students were able to interact with Tingle for about 10 minutes.

"It's very heartwarming to me and very gratifying to me,” said Tingle. “What we are able to do today, it's all about our students and inspiring our students to be anything, everything they can be."

The students spent months preparing for the interaction with Tingle. They did plenty of research, wrote essays and prepared questions.

Adisa Johnson hopes to one day become a theoretical physicist. He said interacting with Tingle was “surreal.”