Students from seven schools were allowed to ask questions to Tim Kathmandu, January 20 Timothy Peake, the first British European Space Agency astronaut, who is popularly known as Tim, today advised Nepali students to follow their dreams when an eighth grader Rozway Regmi of Naxal-based Brihaspati Vidhya Sadan High School requested him to say something to students listening to him. UK astronaut Tim Peake KG5BVI said, “Follow your dreams. You need to find out what you are passionate about and what you are enjoying.” BVS had organised a programme on its premises where students from seven schools in the Kathmandu Valley were allowed to ask 24 questions to Tim. The Ham Radio which is also called Amateur Radio, placed on the school premises and operated by Pravin Raj Joshi 9N1KK was connected to another Ham Radio in Kingston, South Australia operated by Tony Hutchison VK5ZAI at around 1:50 pm by a mediator in Sweden reached through phone. Later at around 2:21 pm, the Ham Radio in Australia was connected to International Space Station. Students talked to Tim for around ten minutes. Since the students had very little time to talk to Tim, they just fired questions at him but unfortunately, out of 24 questions only 17 were answered due to technical problems. In queries of students about his inspiration and detrimental effects on body when living for a long time in space lab, Tim said that he was inspired by Neil Armstrong the first person to walk on the moon and that it was not easy to work in ISS. He further said that they do some sort of exercise for two hours every day to keep them physically fit. He also advised students who aspired to be astronauts to study various subjects such as science, engineering and maths. Sambriddhi Ghimire, a tenth grader from BVS, shared her experience stating that since she was the first student to ask question and the connection was very poor she could not understand what he said. “I was very excited and a little bit nervous too while asking the question,” she said. She asked Tim about the most beautiful view from space.

Mimansha Dhungel, a tenth grader at LRI School, said talking to an astronaut far away in the space was a rare opportunity although she could not ask her question due to connection problem. After hearing communication between students and Tim, British Ambassador to Nepal Richard Morris said that the conversation between students and Tim was amazing. “We are celebrating 200 years of relationship between Nepal and Britian this year and the event today just took the relationship to a whole new level,” he said, adding, “It was a tremendous moment and the students did a fantastic job.” Various distinguished people such as Sudip Pathak, member of the National Human Rights Commission, Ganesh Shah, former minister for Environment, Science and Technology, Balananda Sharma, retired lieutenant general of the Nepal Army, Satish Krishna Kharel, president, Amateur Operator Nepal, representatives from various international non-government organisations, teachers and students from various schools had a very first experience of talking live to an astronaut through Ham Radio. The ISS was moving at 7.8 km per second some 410 km above the earth when the students were talking to Tim. Tim is the sixth British-born person to visit the ISS and the Seventh British –born person in space.