--- title: President Obama Calls The International Space Station description: U.S. President Barack Obama spoke to American astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren aboard the International Space Station. canonical: https://time.com/4079208/international-space-station-barack-obama-scott-kelly/ author: Mark Rivett-Carnac article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-20T02:40:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T11:55:08.740Z article:section: Science og:title: President Obama Calls the International Space Station og:description: He talked with astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren about their work og:url: https://time.com/4079208/international-space-station-barack-obama-scott-kelly/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama Calls the International Space Station twitter:description: He talked with astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren about their work twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 'Come in International Space Station, This is President Barack Obama' by [Mark Rivett-Carnac](https://time.com/author/mark-rivett-carnac/) ## Mark Rivett-Carnac Oct 20, 2015 2:40 AM UTC by [Mark Rivett-Carnac](https://time.com/author/mark-rivett-carnac/) ## Mark Rivett-Carnac Oct 20, 2015 2:40 AM UTC U.S. President Barack Obama made an ultra long-distance call to American astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren aboard the International Space Station on Monday. The President spoke to the astronauts ahead of astronomy night at the White House, praising their inspiring work and stellar [Instagram feed](https://instagram.com/stationcdrkelly/?hl=en). More than halfway through his [one-year mission](http://time.com/space-nasa-scott-kelly-mission/), Kelly just set an American [record](http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/scott-kelly-becomes-us-astronaut-to-spend-the-most-time-in-space) for the cumulative number of days in space and next week he will surpass the single-longest spaceflight record. During the marathon voyage, Kelly and his team will research how our bodies and minds adjust to long-duration spaceflight and conduct 400 experiments to prepare for a “journey to mars.” Follow TIME’s ongoing coverage of Kelly’s year in space [here](http://time.com/space). > [](https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/656263630741073920) President Obama Calls The International Space Station ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4079208/international-space-station-barack-obama-scott-kelly/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4079208/international-space-station-barack-obama-scott-kelly/"},"headline":"'Come in International Space Station, This is President Barack Obama'","datePublished":"2015-10-20T02:40:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:55:08.740Z","description":"The President speaks to astronauts ahead of astronomy night at the White House","url":"https://time.com/4079208/international-space-station-barack-obama-scott-kelly/","keywords":["space travel","Barack Obama","Space","Science topic","international space station","scott kelly"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mark Rivett-Carnac","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mark-rivett-carnac/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space-travel/","name":"space travel"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4079208/international-space-station-barack-obama-scott-kelly/","name":"'Come in International Space Station, This is President Barack Obama'"}}]}] ```