NASA Hosting Live Bilingual Web Chat With Drone Pilot
WASHINGTON -- NASA invites the public to join a bilingual online chat
on Thursday, Sept. 23. The chat is NASA's first hosted in Spanish and
English on the agency's website.
Participants in the live chat will be able to interact in English and
Spanish with NASA pilot Herman Posada. He pilots the agency's unique
Ikhana and Global Hawk unmanned aircraft into dangerous conditions
such as wildfires and hurricanes. When Posada sits at the controls
and flies the aircraft, he is not in their cockpits, but at a ground
station miles away. He uses a joystick and video monitors to control the vehicles.
Ikhana, a Predator B modified for non-military missions, carries
instruments for environmental Earth science studies. It also is used
for advanced aircraft systems research and technology development.
The Global Hawk has been very busy this hurricane season collecting
tropical storm data.
The event is tentatively scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. EDT from NASA's
Dryden Flight Research Center in California, and it will last
approximately one hour. The time and date is subject to change due to
tropical storm research flights. For the chat schedule, Ikhana and
Global Hawk images and video, and to participate with Posada, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/connect/
Source: NASA
