ISS cosmonauts communicate with guests of Frankfurt Book Fair

A 14-minute TV link-up connected visitors of the Russian exposition in the Forum pavilion of the world's largest Frankfurt Book Fair with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and US astronaut Edward Lu from the International Space Station in Germany on Saturday.

Winners of the youth contest for the best question to the ISS cosmonauts held by German periodicals got the right to participate in this unusual TV link-up, said Nelli Petkova, the director of the program "Russia - Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair-2003".

Siegmund Jahn, the first German who had been to the orbit, was one of 300 spectators at the TV link-up in the Forum pavilion.

Malenchenko and Lu appeared on TV screens against a background of the logotype of Russia's participation in the Frankfurt Book Fair "Russia - New Pages". This logotype was earlier delivered to the International Space Station on board a cargo spacecraft, Nelli Petkova said.