Pope Francis would make a call to the International Space Station (ISS) today, Oct. 26, at 9:00 AM EDT, 9:00 PM, Singapore time, and 11 PM IST from the Vatican. The pope would speak to the Expedition 53 crew who are working aboard the ISS.
The schedule of NASA said:
"9 a.m., Thursday, October 26 - ISS Expedition 53 In-Flight Event for ESA with Pope Francis from the Vatican and Flight Engineer Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency and Other Members of the Expedition 53 Crew.
The webcast of the in-flight interview can be watched live on TV or online or on Youtube:
NASA LIVE and
The call from Pope Francis would be the second one ever by the Vatican to speak to the ISS crew members. Pope Benedict XVI had made his call to the Space station first time from Vatican Library in Rome in 2011.
ISS commander Randy Bresnik and his crewmembers Paolo Nespoli, Joe Acaba, Alexander Misurkin, Mark Vande Hei and Sergey Ryazanskiy would talk to the Pope.
Pope Francis has been active on social media as well. Until July 2017, Francis was the most followed world leader on Twitter but has now been overtaken by US President Donald Trump who has 40.3 million followers.
Pope Francis has 40 million followers on his nine-language @pontifex account. "Forty million followers means 40 million people, 40 million hearts, minds, and passions," Dario Edoardo Vigano, the Vatican official tasked with coordinating the Pope's Twitter and Instagram accounts, told Vatican Radio recently.
"It is a world, a relationship, a community: this figure emphasizes that so many people continue to follow, day after day, even by way of (140-character bursts), the Pope's teaching authority, which reaches people in very different ways," said Vigano.
Such is the importance the pontiff attaches to his Twitter account, "he closely and carefully checks all the tweets" before they go out, Vigano said.
