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Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry has passed away after a brief battle with cancer.

Hoosier native addresses Senate from space

Indiana state senators are used to hearing from special guests during the legislative session, but Thursday lawmakers had an out of this world experience as NASA Commander and Hoosier native Kevin Ford addressed the Senate from aboard the International Space Station.

Though the 12-second delay between the Senate floor and the Space Station caused some chuckles among the lawmakers and special guests, Commander Kevin Ford was able to speak to legislators and children watching in classrooms around the state.  Ford addressed the type of experiments he’s conducting, his experience working with Russian cosmonauts and even how he eats in space.

“This says seasoned scrambled eggs on it.  At the little top there is a little place where we can inject a needle and inject 100 milliliters of hot water in here.  And you give it 15 minutes and you let the seasoning mix in and you have yourself some scrambled eggs,” said Ford.

Ford also spoke about his hope that the United States continues to pursue manned spaceflight.

“We, frankly, are a country who is very blessed with a lot of assets and a lot of really great technical and technological skill sets, things that we can really contribute, I think, to the human race.  And so it’s almost, in my opinion, our obligation to do it,” said Ford.

Ford has spent 105 days on the space station and will return home in a little over a month.  The Montpelier native is the younger brother of former state Senator David Ford, who passed away in 2008. 

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.