"Hello" out there

The reasons people MISDIAL 911 are almost as numerous as the reasons they call for real.

Back before we had to dial the area code before making a local call (remember?) we often had people calling 911 because they thought they were calling their friend in Randallstown whose number started with 922-. And they hit the 9 and the 1 and they hit the 1 again and before they could talk to Edith about who was bringing the potato salad on Sunday, they were hearing "Baltimore County 911" in their left ear.

And then there were the Saturday Specials- people who had 911 on speed dial (!) who picked up the phone to give it a good dusting and accidentally hit that button.

And the ones who were surprised to find the police at their door, having been sent because someone in the house called 911 and hung up, and they avowed over and over that no one in the house could have done that..until little baby Hildegarde walked in with the phone in her hand...

But I digress. The point is that if you have misdialed 911, don't feel so bad...there's this news story from Vice.com...

Dutch astronaut André Kuipers confessed to accidentally dialing 911 from orbit.

Kuipers revealed last week that in trying to make a call—by pressing 9 and then 011 for an international line—he missed a crucial number, triggering an alert at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.


“The next day I received an email message: Did you call 911?” Kuipers, a 60-year-old astronaut with the European Space Agency, told Dutch radio show Met Het Oog Op Morgen.

Astronauts on the ISS can place phone calls via a constellation of communication satellites and an IP phone that relies on internet protocol rather than a PTSN, or public switched telephone network. Using a form of “Space Skype,” they can easily dial Earth with a surprisingly clear connections, Geek pointed out in a 2013 conversation between NASA Flight Director Holly Riddings and Space Answers. The station even has its own Houston area code, according to the Washington Post.

So now we know that astronauts whirring about in space have access to movies, e-books, YouTube, phone calls with their families, and all the rest that connectivity brings us.

Tim Peake, a British astronaut also with the European Space Agency, tweeted that he dialed a wrong number while Out There and had to say, "I'd like to apologise to the lady I just called by mistake saying ‘Hello, is this planet Earth?' - not a prank call...just a wrong number."

I have gotten many odd phone calls, and now I know they must have come from outer space. Just as I suspected.

Meanwhile, I'd like a chance to be a guest on the Dutch radio show called "Met Het Oog Op Morgen" just to have a chance to say those words out loud.