May 13: ARISS announced the nine educational institutions selected to host ARISS radio contacts between January and June 2023 for students and a crew member on the ISS.  The groups were chosen based on the high-quality ARISS education proposals they each submitted. The institutions will now move forward with ARISS mentors who will assist with an equipment plan, and teachers will determine when to initiate their education plan.

Table: schools selected for ARISS radio contacts in January through June 2023

May 17:  The Virginia state chapters of the Air and Space Forces Association recognized ARISS’s Melissa Pore as 2022 Virginia State Teacher of the Year.  The group cited her for “achievements in advancing and motivating students and young people toward STEM disciplines.” It association vetted her for encouraging students at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington, VA to “explore new frontiers beyond classrooms, leading the Engineering Club, Amateur Radio Club, Aviation Club, SeaPerch Underwater Robotics Club, and Astrobotany Club.” Besides teaching high school engineering and technology classes, she is on the ARISS Ops Team that works out of Goddard Space Flight Center to support ARISS contacts and she’s an ARISS-US Education Committee member.

May 19-20:  ARISS volunteers from multiple states pulled together an outstanding presence for ARISS at Hamvention 2022, the largest amateur radio convention in the US, which is in Xenia, OH each year. The ARISS team staffed its constantly-busy exhibit area, presented an ARISS Forum to 150 listeners, had a portion of an education forum, did multiple interviews with podcasters, networked with many VIPs in the field, interacted with three of its sponsors and several of its larger donors, gave a remembrance at the AMSAT dinner of a special ARISS volunteer on his passing, and was honored at the Hamvention Annual Banquet where ARISS team member Kerry Banke was vetted for being chosen by Hamvention for the nationwide annual 2022 Special Achievement Award.  The booth took up two exhibit spaces in order to display to the crowds three of ARISS’ education programs including items from ARISS’ educational radio kits, a monitor with a video loop of photos from ARISS school contacts and STEM activities, and a model of the ARISS InterOperable Radio System on the ISS.  Convention attendance reached 30,000.

May 20: An ARISS radio contact was hosted by the Forum Accademico Italiano e.V. (FAI) in Köln, Germany for students in three German schools and one Italian school: Am Zugweg School and Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium in Cologne, Herkunft Sprache Unterricht in Bedburg/Elsdorf and Istituto San Giuseppe in Firenze. Samantha Cristoforetti supported the contact. Due to a sudden storm alert in the city, FAI sent students home but the ARISS team quickly pivoted and got the youth engaged in the ARISS contact via Zoom using the ARISS multipoint telebridge radio contact system. The live stream URL is:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otZcANd1vXo. FAI aims to encourage interaction of Italian scientists in Germany with scientists in Italy to engage Italian youth attending German schools. For the ARISS contact, FAI involved students in human spaceflight-related STEM activities so that youth could see the role of space exploration and what it means to be an astronaut.  Staff at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne shared their expertise in human spaceflight with the youth.

May 21 & May 28: Students taking part in activities tied to the All-Russian Traveler Festival in Zadonsk, Lipetsk in Russia were part of two ARISS radio contacts.  For the first day’s radio contact, youth asked questions of Sergey Korsakov.  During the second radio contact, youth at the festival spoke to Oleg Artemyev.  The ARISS-Russia team set up the radio contacts.

May 14: Micol Ivancic, an educator on the ARISS team in Italy presented a talk to the Photo-Amateurs Club in Garlasco in Pavia, Italy.  50 people heard her presentation, which covered the ARISS program along with a discussion about the ISS and its systems.   

May 27: Youth in the city of Aznakayevo in the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia, who have been studying communications through the Gagarin from Space program, engaged in an ARISS contact.  Sergey Korsakov supported the activity and the ARISS-Russia team set up the radio station for it.

May: The following ARISS radio contacts took place recently, and more details about the events will be available for next week’s report.

  • MINDSHUB APS & I.C. Avio in Ala, Trento, Italy
  • Voskresensky Children’s Center in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
  • Students and employees of SWGU in Kursk, Russia

ARISS Upcoming Events 

May 31 Amur State University, Blagoveshchensk, Russia  ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia Team
May 31 Old St. Mary’s School, Chicago, Illinois  ARISS contact, ARISS-US Team
June 2 Moscow Autonomous Education Inst. Engineering Ctr., Kazan, Russia, ARISS-Russia team