• Question: When you communicate with the astronauts do you have to do so in their own language? If so how many languages do you speak?

    Asked by HappyKid347 to Simon on 14 Dec 2015.
    • Photo: Simon Challis

      Simon Challis answered on 14 Dec 2015:

      Hi HappyKid347!

      Good question! The two official languages on the ISS are English and Russian. However many Astronauts from different countries fly to the ISS and so it is not unusual to hear other languages being spoken occasionally on the voice loops. In the last few years we have had several Japanese astronauts and of course with ESA we have had Italian, German and Danish astronauts flying.

      I personally speak English, Italian and French and a little bit of German, Spanish and Dutch so I have spoken German and Italian to our crew in space :-).

      Which languages do you speak?

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