Freedom Crossing Students to Talk Live With NASA Astronauts on November 10, 2026

For students at Freedom Crossing Academy, a lesson about space is about to become something far more extraordinary: a conversation with the people actually living there. On Nov 10, Freedom Crossing Academy in St. Johns will participate in a NASA In-Flight STEM Downlink, giving students the opportunity to connect with astronauts aboard the International Space Station and hear their questions answered from orbit.

Freedom Crossing Academy is among a select group of schools chosen to participate in NASA’s In-Flight STEM Downlink program, with astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney scheduled to participate. While the exact time is still being finalized, the event will give students a rare opportunity to interact directly with astronauts as the International Space Station passes within communication range of Northeast Florida.

The opportunity is the culmination of an effort that began under Melissa Lime, who led Freedom Crossing Academy before recently becoming principal of Sebastian Middle School. The idea grew out of Freedom Crossing’s space-themed Rock Your School celebration last year, centered around the theme “Breaking Barriers to Infinity and Beyond.”

Lime had promised students she would try to find a way to bring an astronaut into their learning experience. When securing an astronaut visit proved difficult, NASA’s In-Flight STEM Downlink program presented another possibility — one that could quite literally take Freedom Crossing to space.

Applying, however, required much more than filling out a form. Freedom Crossing had to show NASA how the experience would impact students, how the school would build excitement around the opportunity and how the downlink could reach beyond one campus to engage the greater Northeast Florida community. Students became part of the application itself. A first-grade class completed a project about what it means to be an astronaut, while older students shared their thoughts about what an opportunity like this would mean to them.

The school also developed a “Countdown to the Downlink,” with STEM activities designed for students from kindergarten through 12th grade. Those activities explore everything from tracking a rocket launch and understanding what it takes to become an astronaut to locating the International Space Station as it travels overhead and learning about spacewalks and life in orbit.

NASA confirmed Freedom Crossing’s selection in June. By then, Lime had accepted the principal position at Sebastian Middle School, but the opportunity belonged to the students who had helped build it.

“The application was written in a way that, no matter what, the students at Freedom were going to get this experience,” Lime said. She has continued working with Freedom Crossing’s new leadership to help bring the project to completion.

Now, the students are preparing for the moment they have been working toward. Twenty Freedom Crossing students were recently selected to participate in the question-and-answer portion of the downlink. Their questions are submitted to NASA in advance for review, and the students record themselves asking them ahead of the event. That preparation allows astronauts to make the most of a very limited communication window as the International Space Station moves through the region.

During the roughly 20-minute downlink, the students’ recorded questions will be presented and the astronauts will respond from space, turning months of classroom preparation into a real-time connection between St. Johns County students and the International Space Station.

For Lime, that limited window is part of what makes the experience so remarkable. Space travel and the station’s orbit dictate when the connection can happen, meaning schools applying for a downlink do not initially know whether they will be selected — or exactly when their opportunity might occur.

NASA’s In-Flight STEM Downlink program is designed to connect students with astronauts living and working aboard the International Space Station while making science, technology, engineering and mathematics feel immediate and relevant. Rather than learning only through textbooks or videos, students get to see how STEM concepts are being used by astronauts conducting missions hundreds of miles above Earth.

Jessica Watkins is a geologist who earned her doctorate from UCLA and previously worked with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Mars Curiosity rover science team. She completed her first trip to the International Space Station in 2022 aboard NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission, spending 170 days in space.

Luke Delaney brings an especially meaningful connection for Northeast Florida students. A Florida native, retired U.S. Marine Corps major, naval aviator and test pilot, Delaney earned his undergraduate engineering degree from the University of North Florida before becoming a NASA research pilot and astronaut.

Freedom Crossing is turning the downlink into a schoolwide celebration and its Rock Your School event for the year. Students who participated in the project will gather for a large Watch Party alongside school and district leaders, community partners and invited guests. The school also plans to share the livestream throughout the district and Northeast Florida so students beyond Freedom Crossing can be part of the experience.

For the students at the center of it all, the event represents far more than watching astronauts appear on a screen. They helped earn the opportunity, spending months learning about space exploration, launches, the International Space Station and astronaut careers. Their own questions will make the trip from St. Johns County to space — and the answers will come back from astronauts orbiting high above them.

The experience will also be streamed through the Learn With NASA YouTube channel, allowing families, classrooms and viewers well beyond the Freedom Crossing campus to watch along.

For a generation of students who have grown up seeing rocket launches from Florida’s coast and watching images from space on screens, Nov 10 will offer something different: the chance to become part of the conversation themselves.

And for a few unforgettable minutes, the distance between a classroom in St. Johns and the International Space Station will feel remarkably small.