Adrian Lane spends 50 seconds to chat with American astronaut

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HARROW: Amateur radio enthusiast Adrian Lane spent 50 seconds chatting to American astronaut as he flew over UK
Adrian Lane, 52, a former lorry driver, spent weeks trying to make contact after being told that astronauts were due to pass over his home.
The father-of-two plotted the space station’s route and worked out the brief window during which it would be 200 miles overhead, travelling at 18,500mph.
As it came into his frequency he sent out a call with his unique sign and to his astonishment an American astronaut answered back to “welcome him aboard”.
The station was in range for just four minutes and the pair chatted for around 50 seconds before they lost contact.
Mr Lane, from Coleford, Gloucestershire, admitted that it was a mundane conversation in which he asked what it was like in space and got the response: “Very dark”.
But he said it still “blew his mind”.
“The adrenaline was pumping a little bit,” he said.
“I said to them how wonderful earth must look from up there. They said ‘oh Adrian, it’s amazing, you can’t imagine what it looks like from up here’.
“He said it was very dark but when you look down at Earth it is full of colour. I basically asked who he was and how things were in space that day. It was such a rush.
“I was buzzing. It’s not every day you get to talk to some guy out in space.”