Finnish President Tarja Halonen received a phone call from space on Monday from Finnish-American astronaut Timothy Kopra onboard the International Space Station.
Kopra spoke with Halonen during a 14-minute-long video conference call that was broadcast live on NASA's website.
During the call, Halonen tested the authenticity of Kopra's Finnish roots by asking him if he missed sweating it out in the sauna while in space.
"It would be a wonderful extension to have a sauna on board…. I miss sauna and I miss my family but it is a great experience," he told the Finnish president.
Two of Kopra's grandparents emigrated from Finland to the United States about a hundred years ago and Finnish media has been closely following his space mission as he is the first astronaut with ties to the Nordic country.
Kopra was part of a seven-strong crew onboard the NASA space shuttle Endeavour, which blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 15 for the ISS.
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