Astronauts are experimenting with tiny satellites inside the space station that one day might be able to perform a variety of tasks.

On April 8, 2014, astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Steve Swanson conducted a Q&A for the Sandy Hook Elementary School students from the International Space Station.

"Sandy Hook Elementary, we hear you loud and clear. Welcome to the International Space Station."
[Rick Mastracchio]

"Thank you and welcome to Sandy Hook. We are so happy to be here with you." [Sandy Hook Staff]

When one student asked about the ongoing experiments, Rick provided details on some experimental satellites.

"Can you show us any of your mission's experiments?" [Sandy Hook student]

"Yeah, we do a lot of experiments up here. One of the experiments we have a lot of fun with is called 'spheres'. It's basically a series of satellites - we have 3 little satellites like this. The scientists and engineers down on the planet Earth are doing research to see how to control these satellites. These little guys, they fly around inside the space station. Someday they may be able to fly around and help us carry our tools for us or maybe hold a camera for us. Then maybe someday little satellites like these could even fly outside the space station. So we have a lot of fun with these little guys." [Rick Mastracchio]