An International Space Station Expedition 13 ARISS school contact has been planned with students at the Sendai Municipal Yoshinari Junior High School, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan on Friday, 25 Aug 2006. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 08:12 UTC.

Teven-Tintenbar / ISS ARISS School Link-up 11th August 2006

The students from the small public school of Teven-Tintenbar, located in the Northern Rivers Region of New South Wales, Australia had a successful direct contact with the ISS on the evening of Aug.11, 2006. For several weeks prior to the event the principal, Mr. Keith Scott and staff had been preparing and releasing reports to the local media on the schools preparation. Children had been busy making models of space stations, rockets, shuttles and planets as well as painting murals to decorate the school.

The ARISS team has been quite engaged with Pavel Vinogradov as he continues the testing and verification of the SSTV system on ISS. We expect this to continue over the next few weeks.

Angela Storey
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034

What:

Nearly 1,000 students from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee Summer Programs in Nashville, Tenn., will attend a question and answer session via satellite with the three-member crew of the International Space Station and then get to talk to NASA astronaut Rhea Seddon, veteran of three space shuttle launches, on Thursday, August 17. Approximately 15-20 students from that group will actually talk to and ask questions of the space station crew during the event.

An International Space Station Expedition 13 ARISS school contact has been planned with students at the Devonport Maritime Museum, Devonport, Tasmania, Australia on Friday, 18 Aug 2006. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 10:38 UTC.

An International Space Station Expedition 13 ARISS school contact has been planned with students at the Teven-Tintenbar Public School, Tintenbar, NSW, Australia on Friday, 11 Aug 2006. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 07:32 UTC.

An International Space Station Expedition 13 ARISS school contact has been planned with students at the City of Ottawa Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Ontario Canada on Friday, 04 Aug 2006. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 13:27 UTC.

News from ARISS - Amateur Radio on International Space Station

AMSAT-UK ARISS Rep is Howard Long, G6LVB

Worldwide packet uplink: 145.990 MHz FM
Region 1 voice uplink: 145.200 MHz FM
Region 2/3 voice uplink: 144.490 MHz FM
Worldwide downlink: 145.800 MHz FM
TNC callsign RS0ISS-1
The ARISS initial station was launched September 2000 aboard shuttle Atlantis.

ARISS is made up of delegates from major national amateur radio organizations, including AMSAT.

Status: Operational.

AMSAT-UK ARRIS Rep is Howard Long, G6LVB

Details of contact with Back School, Isle of Lewis, Scotland, Wed 17 March 04

Details of the contact from King's School, Canterbury on Wed 27 Jan 04

Details of the contact with Neston Primary School, 6 Aug 2003

Howard Long, G6LVB, who is AMSAT-UK’s ARISS delegate has provided pictures, audio and video at his website http://www.g6lvb.com/neston and http://www.g6lvb.com/svc.

There is also more information and pictures on Neston and more recent International contacts on the AMSAT-UK web site

News from ARISS - Amateur Radio on International Space Station

AMSAT-UK ARISS Rep is Howard Long, G6LVB

Information on upcoming live UK ISS link-ups

We have tentatively scheduled two live school Amateur Radio link-ups in the UK for January 2004.
 
Mike Foale, the British-born astronaut on board the International Space Station, will be fielding questions from school pupils live during the two separate events.

Michael Foale (left) and Alexander Kaleri showing off their Christmas stockings on board the International Space Station (picture courtesy NASA)

Mike, who is a licensed Radio Amateur, specifically asked for the live link-ups with Back School, on the Isle of Lewis, and The King's School, Canterbury, both as ‘crew picks’.
 
Amateur Radio is the only way that the general public can speak to astronauts live while they live in space.
 
Back School (Sgoil A’ Bhac), Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland
 
The first contact is tentatively scheduled during the week starting 19 January 2004 for Back School about five miles north or Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland.
 

Back School, Isle of Lewis, Scotland (picture courtesy Back School)

This will be the first ever scheduled ISS contact with a Scottish school.
 
As a dual-language community, Gaelic is spoken on the Isle of Lewis along side English. With strong traditional values, Sunday remains very special day of the week, when almost all commercial activity ceases.
 
Mike chose Back School after a trip to the Isle of Lewis in June 2003. He went to Back School to talk to pupils there about his experiences, and promised to speak to them again soon: only this time it will be from space!

Technicalities
 
Unlike the recent southern United Kingdom live ISS link-ups, passes of the ISS on the Isle of Lewis only achieve a maximum elevation in the sky of 24º. This is because the ISS travels to a maximum latitude of 51.6º, but Back is located further north at 58.2ºN. Correspondingly, the contact time will be slightly shorter than usual at about 9 minutes. Because of the lower elevation and shorter pass time, technically this will be more difficult than those contacts conducted recently in England.
 
The King's School, Canterury, Kent, England
 
The second contact with the King's School, Canterbury, is currently scheduled to take place during the week beginning 26 January 2004.
 

King's School, Canterbury (picture courtesy The King's School)

The King's School was where Mike had his secondary education. It is an ancient school dating back to the 597AD. Situated within the precincts of the world famous Canterbury Cathedral, parts of the school date back to Norman times.
 
Having taken time to return to the school three years ago, Mike now has the opportunity to speak to the students again from space.

Technicalities
 
The ISS will pass almost completely overhead, and so technically we should have the maximum amount of time to conduct the live link-up. However there are local obstacles impervious to radio waves - such as the world famous Canterbury Cathedral at 235' (72m) to contend with!
 
Quick facts