European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers juggles fruit in weightlessness. Picture taken on February 16, 2012
In space, there are also awkward situations. To recall at least the case of 2012, when the Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers accidentally called 911 (emergency service) from the International Space Station. How did that happen?
If you are temporarily living in space, then you need to call Earth through Houston. To do this, dial 9 (external line), and then 011 (international). It turns out that the astronaut accidentally missed 0 and the alarm center in Houston received a signal of danger from the Johnson Space Center. The employees entered the indicated room, which turned out to be empty, and the signal itself arrived from space. Interestingly, this is not the only case of such an error. A similar problem a few years ago happened to the British astronaut Timothy Peak. He also dialed the wrong number and addressed an unknown woman with the usual question: “Hello, is this the planet Earth?”.
Kuipers, 60, a physician by training, has retired from the ESA astronaut corps. During his career, he managed to visit the ISS twice, having spent 9 days in the orbital laboratory in 2014, and then lingering from December 2011 to July 2012. The 46-year-old Peak is still working at ESA. Visited the ISS only once (from December 2015 to June 2016).
