Used to dialing 9 to call out when you're at work? So are astronauts.
But that pesky, extra digit tripped up Dutch astronaut André Kuipers, when he accidentally called 911 from the International Space Station.
The astronaut was trying to dial an international number, he told Dutch public broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting, when he erred. Floating inside the space station, he made a mistake many people make in regular gravity — he missed a number.
"First you dial the 9 for an outside line, and then 011 for an international line," he explained. "I made a mistake, and the next day I received an email message: Did you call 911?".....
Wayne Hale, who served as a flight director in NASA's Mission Control, tells NPR that astronauts in the International Space Station have been able to make calls as they please for more than a decade now. The phone system uses Voice over Internet protocol....
"A capability that was built into the ISS, with the rise of Internet phone calls, is the ability for the astronauts in the space station to just dial up anybody that they might want to," Hale said. "Many people have gotten calls from space."
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/04/682247286/how-to-dial-911-from-space
Wonder which VoIP provider is used.
Too bad they can't use Sunrocket.... :)
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