Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, and the environment. In keeping with the theme of the past four months, Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday is featuring science and other news from the major public research universities in the midwestern states where Republican governors and legislatures are threatening the collective bargaining rights of public employees.
This week's featured story comes from Agence France Presse via Discovery News with video from NASA Television on YouTube.
Obama Dials for Pizza, Gets the Space Station
The U.S. President joked with the space station astronauts on Friday, but had a heartfelt message for the final shuttle crew.
Sat Jul 16, 2011 09:44 AM ET
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) got a very long-distance call Friday from US President Barack Obama, who joked that he thought he was dialing out for pizza.Hot from giving a press conference at which he pushed Republicans to reach a deal on raising the US debt ceiling, the American president took time out to chat with the 10 astronauts and cosmonauts currently aboard the ISS.
"I was just dialing out for pizza, and I didn't expect to end up in space," Obama quipped, raising a laugh from the gathered crew.
But turning serious, he told the astronauts how proud he was of them and said their work "ushers in an exciting new era to push the frontiers of space exploration and human spaceflight."
"The space program has always embodied our sense of adventure and exploration and courage," the president said.
More after the jump.