Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report June 15, 2009

1. ARISS Contact with Tongfu Primary School, China

Youth attending Tongfu Road No. 1 Primary School in Guangzhou, Guangdong, P.R. China experienced an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Thursday, June 11. Astronaut Michael Barratt, KD5MIJ answered 19 questions put to him by the students as an audience of approximately 465 people looked on. Extensive media coverage included seven television stations, three radio stations and ten newspapers.

2. Successful ARISS Contact with Italian School

On Friday, June 12, children from several schools in L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy took part in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact. Approximately 200 students and guests, including European Space Agency (ESA) and Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) representatives, attended the event. ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti gave presentations on ISS missions and ESA/ASI activities. Astronaut Frank DeWinne, ON1DWN answered 13 questions on the first pass and another 7 questions on the following pass. Many television stations, including CANALE 5 and SKY, radio stations and newspapers provided media coverage. Internet video streaming had more than 6,500 connections.

3. Belgian Students Speak with Frank De Winne An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact took place on Friday, June 12 between Vrije Basisschool Terbank-Egenhoven in Heverlee, Belgium and Frank DeWinne ON1DWN on the ISS. Telebridge station ON4ISS in Belgium assisted with the contact. Twenty-two questions were answered during the nine minute pass, delighting the audience of 400 children, parents and guests. Four television stations and two radio broadcast stations with national and regional audiences covered the event. During the main evening news, a detailed report on telebridge ground station ON4ISS was broadcast by the national television service.

4. Astronaut Training Status

Astronaut Doug Wheelock passed his amateur radio licensing exam and was issued the callsign KF5BOC. He is scheduled to be part of Expedition 24 along with Shannon Walker, KD5DXB and Aleksandr Skvortsov.

On June 9, Wheelock also received Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) training on basic radio operations.

5. Australia Journalist Takes Interest in ARISS

A local journalist in Kingston, Australia has taken an interest in Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) and given great publicity to the program over the past three years. To view her latest article, see: http://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2009/20090603-2/index.php

6. ARISS on Twitter

The European Space Agency (ESA) is currently promoting their Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) school contacts on their Twitter site. See: http://twitter.com/esa_oasiss.

A U.S. ARISS member has also been posting ISS amateur radio related items to a Twitter site. See: http://twitter.com/RF2Space.

7. ESA Press Release on Frank De Winne's ARISS Contacts

The European Space Agency (ESA) put out a press release on Frank De Winne's Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contacts. See: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/OasISS_Mission/SEM6SOQORVF_0.html

8. ARISS International Meeting

The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) International Face to Face Meeting will be held on Thursday and Friday, June 18 -19 at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands. The team will come together to give regional reports as well as status reports from the program's other committees including education, publicity, operations and hardware.