ARISS News Release No. 25-05

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ARISS Contact is Scheduled with Students at

Pine View School, Osprey, Florida, USA

January 26, 2025—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 Pine View School located in Osprey, Florida. 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.

Pine View School for the Gifted, established in 1969, is a public school located in Sarasota, Florida, dedicated to serving intellectually gifted students in grades 2 through 12. Pine View offers a challenging and enriched academic program which includes their STEM program. With this ARISS contact, the school hopes to expand the student’s engagement with STEM, particularly in the realms of Space and Earth Sciences. Members of the Tamiami Amateur Radio club (W4AC) are supporting the school for this contact.

This will be a direct 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 relay ground station.

The amateur radio ground station for this contact is in Osprey, FL. Amateur radio operators using call sign W4AC, will operate the ground station to establish and maintain the ISS connection.

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for January 28, 2025 at 12:21:48 pm EST (Florida, USA) (17:21:48 UTC, 11:21 am CST, 10:21 am MST, 9:21 am PST).

The public is invited to watch the live stream at: https://www.youtube.com/@SarasotaSchools and https://www.facebook.com/sarasotaschools

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As time allows, students will ask these questions:

1. Can you explain how microgravity affects the human body when first arriving at the space station?

2. Can you describe your experience during a rocket launch, and what physical sensations you feel?

3. Can you tell us about one of the experiments you’re currently working on?

4. What is the biggest sleep challenge astronauts experience in space, and what are scientists doing to address it?

5. How do you prepare meals and what’s your favorite space food?

6. How do you use HAM RADIO aboard the ISS?

7. What inspired you to pursue a career as an astronaut?

8. How does being in space influence your thoughts on humanity's future in space exploration?

9. How do you perform repairs on the exterior of the ISS?

10. How do you stay in touch with your family and friends?

11. How do you collaborate on the experiments with astronauts from other countries aboard the ISS?

12. Do you ever get afraid during your mission and how you overcome it?

13. How do you stay physically and mentally fit during space missions?

14. What advice would you give aspiring astronauts?

15. What’s the most surprising thing you learned during astronaut training?

16. How do the plants you grow aboard the space station adapt to the microgravity environment, and what challenges do you face in cultivating them?

17. What’s your favorite part of daily life in microgravity?

18. What is the best moment you had in space?

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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