Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report February 13, 2012

1. Upcoming School Contact

The Academy @ Shawnee has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Tuesday, February 14 at 20:15 UTC via ON4ISS in Belgium. The contact will take place at the Challenger Learning Center in Louisville, Kentucky with the assistance of the Louisville Astronomical Society. This ARISS contact is part of a comprehensive education plan which will pique students' interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

2. Iqaluit Students Experience Successful ARISS Contact

On Wednesday, February 8, an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact was held between Inuksuk High School in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada and on-orbit astronaut Don Pettit, KD5MDT via telebridge station AH6NM in Hawaii. Approximately 600 students and some VIPs were in attendance, including a number of dignitaries from government and private corporations, as well as the Premiere of Nunavut, who spoke a few words at the end of the contact. A talk was given on the Northern lights and the ARISS team gave a presentation on the International Space Station, Robotics and Amateur Radio. CBC North (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and local media reported on the event and NASA TV broadcasted the contact audio.

3. Soumuta Elementary School Students Radio ISS

Students from Soumuta Elementary School in Kagoshima, Japan participated in a successful Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Saturday, February 11. Approximately 90 students and guests gathered to listen as Dan Burbank, KC5ZSX fielded 11 questions from the youth. The contact highlighted lessons covering the Space Station and amateur radio concepts. Media representatives from three television stations, one radio station and four newspapers attended.

4. ARRL Article On Astronaut Janice Voss

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran an article in the February 9 ARRL Letter about astronaut ham Janice Voss, KC5BTK who passed away last week. The story talks about her missions and mentions her participation in SAREX (Space Amateur Radio Experiment) contacts. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/astronaut-janice-voss-kc5btk-sk

5. AMSAT News Service on ARISS

The February 12 AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation) News Service bulletin (ANS-043) included an item about the death of astronaut Janice Voss, KC5BTK, who participated in several SAREX contacts during her NASA missions. Another story talked about the upcoming ARISS contact with Perth, Australia to celebrate John Glenn's flight over Perth in a Mercury-Atlas 6 spacecraft that was launched on February 20, 1962. To view the articles, see: http://amsat.org/pipermail/ans/2012/000592.html

6. ARISS on Twitter

ARISS news is available on Twitter. The ARISS twitter account ARISS_status has just surpassed the 1000 followers mark. See: http://twitter.com/ARISS_status