An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Los Angeles Academy Middle School, Los Angeles, CA on 15 Feb. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 17:45 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between NA1SS and W6RVD. The contact should be audible over portions of the state of California and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English.

We at Los Angeles Academy Middle School are pleased and very grateful to have this wonderful opportunity to speak live with an astronaut onboard the International Space Station. To tell the truth, we are not only pleased but quite ecstatic!

Our school serves low-income students in the Central Los Angeles area. The ethnic makeup of our school is approximately 90% Latino, 9% African-American, and 1% other. Many of our students originally spoke Spanish as a first language, and we currently have about 350 English Language Learners. Over 90% of our students are from economically disadvantaged families. We currently have about 1250 students in attendance.

The children who will be asking the questions are represented by a widely inclusive cross-section of our student population, and they are anxious to participate and become a part of this deeply rich community of caring individuals from the fields of science and technology. We hope, that together with you, we might just change a few lives through this experience!

We have been working on this project for over a year, and it has truly become a team effort involving students, parents, teachers, administrators, and community members. And it is certainly a labor of love! We have a school amateur radio club, W6RVD, which has talked to people as far away as Mexico, Japan, and South America. The Hughes Amateur Radio Club, CSULA, ARISS, and the California Science Center have all been working with us. Many of these folks attended our Community Law Day to share the project. The event, as well, was attended by our local congresswoman. Our radio club members, additionally, have taken a field trip to JPL in Pasadena.

Again, thank you for your diligence and your efforts to touch young lives!

Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows:

1. How does Los Angeles look from the International Space Station?

2. What is it like inside the Soyuz Spacecraft?

3. When you fly over your own town or city, do you recognize it? Does it make

you feel a little homesick?

[IN SPANISH: Cuando vuelas sobre tu pueblo o ciudad, la puedes reconocer?

Extrañas tu hogar?]

4. Do you ever just look out the window, feeling amazed? If you can see out

the window right now, what do you see?

5. When plants grow in space, how are they affected by weightlessness?

6. My Birthday is coming up in a few days. How do you celebrate birthdays on

the International Space Station?

7. The youngest person in space was 25 years old. I am 13 years old. Could

someone like me ever go into space?

8. Do you ever listen to AM or FM broadcast stations from Earth in space? If

so, how do they sound?

9. Can humans really live on Mars? If so, what is necessary for them to do

so?

10. Do you think you?ll miss being in space when you come back to Earth?

11. When you look down on Earth, how do you feel? Are you optimistic for

humanity?

12. What was your favorite subject in school and did that help you to become

an astronaut?

13. Do you or any other astronauts ever sing or play a musical instrument in

the ISS? Do you ever sing together?

14. Can you talk to your family at home from the ISS? How do you do it?

[IN SPANISH: Puedes hablar con tu familia desde el ISS? Come lo haces?]

15. Where do you go if you want to be alone? Is there a place you can go?

16. If you couldn?t be an astronaut, what else would you like to do?

17. How has being in space changed who you are?

18. Can you take a picture of you talking to us? Is this possible?

19. What do you do to keep your life spiritually centered?

20. What celestial bodies are you studying and how?

21. Have you seen the new Star Wars movie? If you did, what did you think of

it?

22. What experiment in the International Space Station most interests you?

PLEASE CHECK THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ARISS UPDATES:

Visit ARISS on Facebook. We can be found at Amateur Radio on the

International Space Station (ARISS).

To receive our Twitter updates, follow @ARISS_status

Next planned event(s):

1. University of the Philippines Integrated School, Quezon City,

Philippines, direct via DX1ISS

The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS

The scheduled astronaut is Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP

Contact is a go for: Sat 2018-02-17 10:23:00 UTC

2. "Galaxy - Children and Youth Center for Space Education", Kaluga,

Russia, direct via TBD

The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS

The scheduled astronaut is Alexander Misurkin

Contact is a go for 2018-02-18 10:45 UTC

3. Agrupamento de Escolas do Fundão, Fundão, Portugal, direct via CS5DBB

The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS

The scheduled astronaut is Scott Tingle KG5NZA

Contact is a go for: Wed 2018-02-21 09:38:11 UTC

4. Museum of Science & Technology - Danforth Middle School, Syracuse, NY,

direct via K2MST

The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS

The scheduled astronaut is Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP

Contact is a go for: Fri 2018-02-23 14:08:52 UTC

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 International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or informal education venues. With the help of experienced amateur radio volunteers, ISS crews speak directly with large audiences in a variety of public forums. Before and during these radio contacts, students, teachers, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org, www.amsat.org, and www.arrl.org.

Thank you & 73,

David - AA4KN

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