ARISS News Release No. 24-86

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ARISS Contact is Scheduled with Students at

CEIP INDAUTXUKO ESKOLA HLHI, Bilbao, Spain

December 2, 2024—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact between an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and students at CEIP INDAUTXUKO ESKOLA HLHI located in Bilbao, Spain. ARISS conducts 60-100 of these special amateur radio contacts each year between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses aboard the ISS.

Indautxuko School, founded in 1918, is a Pre-Primary and Primary Education Centre (2-12 years old) located in Bilbao, in an urban environment with 625 students and 91 educational professionals. It is a multilingual school (Basque - Spanish co-official language, English and Spanish). The school is hosting this ARISS contact for their students in 5th and 6th grade (10-12 years old). Members of the Asociación EuskoByte Elkartea amateur radio club (EA2RKE) are supporting the school for this event.

This will be a telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask their questions of astronaut Sunita Williams, amateur radio call sign KD5PLB. The downlink frequency for this contact is 145.800 MHz and may be heard by listeners that are within the ISS-footprint that also encompasses the telebridge station.

The ARISS amateur radio ground station (telebridge station) for this contact is in Aartselaar, Belgium. The amateur radio volunteer team at the ground station will use the callsign ON4ISS, to establish and maintain the ISS connection.

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for December 4, 2024 at 12:47:48 pm CET (Bilbao, Spain) (11:47:48 UTC, 6:47 am EST, 5:47 am CST, 4:47 am MST, 3:47 am PST).

The public is invited to watch the live stream at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlwWxPnO6Ic

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As time allows, students will ask these questions:

1. What studies should an astronaut have?

2. How do you feel inside the ISS?

3. How does the ISS move? Does anyone pilot it?

4. What project are you currently working on?

5. What physical and psychological characteristics should an ISS crew member have?

6. If you had an emergency, what would you do?

7. Are your routines always the same?

8. How do the Earth and the Moon look like from the ISS?

9. Would you be willing to travel to Mars?

10. What did you feel the first time you went into space?

11. How do you cook your food on the ISS?

12. How do you maintain hygiene?

13. Do you find sleeping in space comfortable?

14. How do you communicate with your families?

15. What do you do in your free time to avoid getting bored?

16. How do you know if you are face up or face down?

17. Do you get dizzy or sick in space?

18. Where does your toilet waste go?

19. Is space scary?

20. What have you brought to remember your family?

About ARISS:

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the ISS. In the United States, sponsors are the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program (SCaN) and the ISS National Lab—Space Station Explorers. The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics. ARISS does this by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities take part in hands-on learning activities tied to space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see http://www.ariss.org.

Media Contact:

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

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