Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report December 6, 2010

1. ARISS Celebrates Ten Years of School Contacts

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) celebrates its tenth anniversary of school contacts this month. On December 21, 2000, astronaut William Shepherd participated in the first ARISS contact with Burbank School students in Burbank, Illinois. To date, ARISS has performed 565 contacts with children around the world, stimulating their interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). To view the full press release, see: https://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm (under Latest News).

2. ARISSat-1 Shipped to Russia

ARISSat-1 was shipped from Johnson Space Center on November 24. It was held in Germany until Saturday, December 4 at which time it was transferred to Russia. Energia representatives are expected to pick up the hardware early this week. The Russian team will install the battery and the Kursk University experiment and will then be joined by U.S. team members. Together, the team will test the satellite for flight. A final safety review will follow in January. ARISSat-1 is scheduled to launch on Progress 41P on January 28.

3. ARRL Article on Expedition 24/25 Crew

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran a Web story on Expedition 24/25 crewmembers Doug Wheelock, KF5BOC, Shannon Walker, KD5DXB and Fyodor Yurchikhin, RN3FI. The U.S. astronauts participated in 22 ARISS contacts while on the ISS. Additionally, Wheelock made numerous general contacts with ham stations around the world during his stay in space. The article was also included in the December 2 ARRL Letter. To view, "ISS Expedition 24/25 Crew Back on Terra Firma," see: http://www.arrl.org/news/iss-expedition-24-25-crew-back-on-terra-firma

4. AMSAT Provides Update on ARISSat-1

On December 5, the AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation) News Service bulletin (ANS-339) provided a status on ARISSat-1and its shipment to Russia. See: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/archive/amsat-bb/48hour/msg82532.html

5. Amateur Radio Newsline Reports on ARISS

On December 3, the Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1738 ran two ARISS news items under its heading Ham Radio in Space. "Expedition 24 All Ham Crew Returns Home" is about the crew of Doug Wheelock, KF5BOC, Shannon Walker, KD5DXB, and Fyodor Yurchikhin, RN3FI returning to Earth. The story is followed by "Two Hams in New ISS Crew Soon to Launch" which is about Catherine Coleman, KC5ZTH, Paolo Nespoli, IZ0JPA and Dmitry Kondratyev who are readying for their flight in mid-December. See: ftp://ftp.arnewsline.org/quincy/News/news.txt