April 3: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) in Daytona Beach, FL hosted an ARISS radio contact with Matthew Dominick for Volusia County School District students from 4 middle schools. He answered 17 of their questions while an audience of 200 students and faculty listened. ERAU offered two livestreams and one is (begin listening at 1 hour 37 minutes) at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/eraudaytona/portal.htm?eventId=754085&streamType=video. These media groups aired stories: WNDB, Hometown News Volusia, Flagler News Weekly, and Newsbreak. The middle schoolers had done several months of space preparatory activities. Following the contact, the ERAU STEM Outreach Club held a workshop, staffing tables for the youngsters to create electrical circuits using copper tape, control spherical robots, and build space vehicle models. Youth talked to visiting ARISS engineers who had brought ham radio equipment. Astronaut and ERAU alum Nicole Stott gave a Zoom presentation and Q&A; it was projected on a huge monitor for the youth. ERAU Dean of the College of Engineering said, “We love having K-12 students on campus…inspiring the next generation to become engineers and scientists…they see how they can use math and science skills to do fun and interesting things.”
March 23: ARISS educator Micol Ivancic in Milan, Italy gave a web radio talk on Indie Life Radio about her activities during her trip to Florida to attend the ARISS 40-year celebrations at Kennedy Space Center. The radio host interviewed her about the ARISS program and the ISS program. The radio station turned the interview into a podcast and ran it two more times.
March 27-April 4: Mission Control-Moscow scheduled seven ARISS contacts supported by the ARISS-Russia Team. Educators at each site led students in the About Gagarin from Space lesson activities. Three crew members, Aleksandr Grebyonkin, Oleg Novitskiy, and Marina Vasilevskaya, supported the ARISS contacts, answering students’ questions and often focused on guidance toward aerospace careers. The following education groups took part.
- Southwestern State University in Kursk, Russia
- International Aerospace School named for U.N. Sultanov in Ufa, Russia
- Belarusian State University in Minsk, Belarus
- Secondary Lyceum of Amur State University in Blagoveschensk, Russia
- Ryazan State Radio Engineering University in Ryazan, Russia
- University College of the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University in Kaliningrad, Russia
- students from schools of the Aznakaevsky District in Tatarstan, Russia
ARISS Social Media
ARISS social media leader Jim Reed reported March 2024 Social Media highlights:
- Facebook stayed the top social platform for ARISS for the third straight month
- Video continued to help increase the number of Impressions on all ARISS platforms
- X Followers topped 20K this month — Facebook Followers passed 12K
March Total Impressions on X (blue) and Facebook (red) – 285,155
March Total Followers on X (blue) and Facebook (red) – 32,321
March 2024 X & Facebook Total Impressions and Total Interactions/Engagements
- ARISS X – Total Impressions / Views 139,689, Interactions / Engagements 5,561
- ARISS Facebook – Total Impressions / Views 145,466, Interactions / Engagements 5,347
March 2024 X & Facebook Total Followers – 32,321
- ARISS X – 20,042
- ARISS Facebook – 12,279
March 2024 X & Facebook Total NEW Followers – 434
- ARISS X – 158
- ARISS Facebook – 276
Also:
- ARISS Total New Followers on ALL ARISS Social Platforms (not just X and FB) – 839
- ARISS You Tube – Total subscribers 2,120
- ARISS Web pages – Unique Visits 18,029 & Page Views 51,505
March Top Posts on X and Facebook
- Top X post (17,658 Impressions, 869 Engagements): a 2006 video of ARISS SuitSat deployed from ISS
- Top Facebook post (22,208 Impressions, 633 Engagements): an image of ARISS’s HamTV unit headed to the ISS via SpaceX-30
ARISS Upcoming Events
Apr 10: ARTADEMIA education group, Milan & Scuola Secondaria I grado A Moro, Ponte Lambro, Italy- ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe Team