Dutch Astronaut Andre Kuipers has admitted that he accidently called the American emergency services whilst in orbit during his time aboard the International Space Station.
The 60-year-old astronaut, who spent over 200 days circling the globe over two separate missions in 2004 and 2011, admitted to the ‘mishap’ during an interview with Dutch broadcaster NOS.
He said: “If you’re in space, it’s like you’re making a call via Houston, first you dial the 9 for an external line and then 011 for an international line”.
However, during one such call, Kuipers had omitted the zero when trying to call an external line.
As a result of the ‘keying error’ an alarm was activated in the Johnson Space Centre and a security team rushed to the control room where the call had ended up.
Mr Kuipers said: “The next day I received a message: Did you call 911?”.
It is not known as to how the rest of the conversation went down, but you can just imagine the look on the face of a 911 operator had the call made it through to them:
“911, whats your emergency?”
“Ah, sorry – I dialled the wrong number – I’m in space”.
The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit.
Its first component launched into orbit in 1998, with the first long-term residents arriving in November 2000.
It has been inhabited continuously since that date.
The last pressurised module was fitted in 2011, and an experimental inflatable space habitat was added in 2016.
The station is expected to operate until 2030
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