UMATILLA COUNTY — At the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, parents in Eastern Oregon were faced with a difficult decision about their children’s schooling.
Oregon Charter Academy students are used to being taught over long distances, but they recently reached new lengths as they learned from an astronaut currently living at the International Space Station.
Students of the virtual charter school, including several in Hermiston, made contact with a radio operator in Australia who patched them through to Dr. Shannon Walker, a NASA astronaut serving on the space station.
Reagan and Barrett Stanek of Hermiston participated in the experience. This year is their first year attending Oregon Charter Academy, and they are both members of the schoolâs NASA-ARISS club. Although neither of them ended up asking Walker a question during the broadcast, they said it was an interesting experience listening to a real astronaut in space tell them about her life.