Bennett Venture talks to astronaut

TOLEDO, Ohio - Students at Toledo's Bennett Venture Academy were able to interview an astronaut aboard the International Space Station Friday afternoon.

The students were able to communicate via Ham radio as the space station passed thousands of miles over Northwest Ohio.

Over 500 questions were submitted and 12 students were picked to ask Astronaut Robert Thirsk about 24 questions.

The students asked questions like "what is the spacesuit made of?" and "How do you sleep in space?"

"It's very special," said Cindy Zamora, a technology specialist. "It's been a long process. We applied almost two years ago to get this to happen. It's been a lot of paperwork and time invested, but it's all coming together."

The crew of the Space shuttle Atlantis is docked with the ISS, delivering more than 13 tons of spare parts for the space station, including equipment for the outpost's robotic arm.

Atalntis is on an 11-day mission in space. Only five more shuttle missions to the ISS are scheduled before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.