“Israel looks beautiful from up here,” according to one of the astronauts circling the world in the space ship Challenger.
Allon Tavor, an Israeli amateur radio enthusiast, obtained the schedule of the Challenger orbits over Israel and made contact with one of the scientists aboard, a radio ham operator who obtained permission from NASA to take his short wave radio aboard with him and speak to ham radio operators on the ground.
Tavor said he made voice contact with Challenger last night while it was passing over Tel Aviv, until it was over Jerusalem some 90 seconds later. An excerpt of their conversation, broadcast by Israel Radio today, sounded loud and clear.
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