Author: cmejackson500

July 21: The SpaceKids Global (SKG) organization based in Winter Park, FL, in collaboration with the Girl Scouts of Citrus, in Orlando held an ARISS contact with Mark Vande Hei. SKG’s mission is to inspire girls and boys in STEAM+ (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, Math plus Environment) with a focus on empowering young girls. The two groups created a curriculum, Making Space for Girls, challenging girl scouts around the US with STEAM projects that began before, and continued through, Covid days with many activities carried out virtually. An example is a “Let’s Explore Space” event where girls from 14 states saw a demo of the new Unistellar EVscopes and heard guest speakers including a NASA software engineer and the VP of Programs and Partnerships at the ISS National Lab. For the ARISS contact, hundreds of youth tied in while 5 girl scouts and 13 leaders were on site. Many questions had been collected from 46 Girl Scout Councils nationwide; 20 questions were asked. The event was live streamed and a few days later had been viewed by over 480 people; it is at https://youtu.be/KzSRnjSjiTw. Each of the five interviewees received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from US Congressional Representative Val Demings.

Month of June + July 7: ARISS volunteer Gordon Scannell and members of the Livonia (MI) Amateur Radio Club set up an exhibit for the month of June about ARISS and ham radio satellites at the Livonia Public Library. The display case contained a loaner CubeSat simulator procured from AMSAT, amateur radio brochures and books from ARRL, and ham radios and antennas.  The library staff then asked club members to present a talk to the community; the hams introduced CubeSats and ARISS to 20 attendees. Afterwards, the hams spoke to the library staff about hosting a future ARISS contact.

July 22: Students at Seinan Gakuin Junior Senior High School in Fukuoka, Japan were given the chance through an ARISS radio contact to speak with Akihiko Hoshide. Some students were on site following Covid-19 guidelines and some joined by Zoom. As the ISS passed over the town, Hoshide answered 13 of their questions. A crowd of 152 were present for the contact. One TV news crew was on hand covering the event along with four newspaper teams. The event was livestreamed.    

June 31: The Savannah River Academy faculty in Grovetown, GA was totally impressed with informal educator Rachel Samples Jones, who planned the ARISS educational “Ham101” program for students.  She had orchestrated nine hands-on STEAM lessons for many of the 3^rd through 8^th graders to prepare them for their upcoming ARISS contact. Rachel reported that a lot of the students’ parents had talked to the school faculty to request more of her activities for their children. So not only did the school adjust its special projects schedule to better fit Rachel’s own work schedule, but starting this fall every student in the school will take part in the “Ham 101” program.   

Upcoming Events
Aug 3    Notre Dame Jogakuin Jr & Sr High School, Kyoto, Japan, ARISS contact        ARISS-Japan team

July 14: The highlight of the 2021 Youth On The Air in the Americas week-long camp was an ARISS contact supported by Akihiko Hoshide. He answered 15 of the youths’ questions. The camp, held in West Chester, OH, attracted 24 high school and college students from across the US who listened to the ARISS contact along with 14 staff members and volunteers who are formal and informal educators. The event was livestreamed with many viewers leaving congratulatory Chat messages; within 24 hours viewers totaled 384. The URL is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtMMo6ryU0U&t=1s. The campers bond over a love for technology, wireless, and radio skills. They enjoyed building their own receivers, triangulating the location of a radio transmitter, and building antennas. One of the first camp activities was launching four balloons with ham radio payloads, one, a high altitude balloon, and the others, mid-altitude. ARISS volunteer and brand-new university grad Ruth Willet taught a radio lesson on ARISS and satellite operations, guiding youth in testing their skills at tracking satellites and trying on-the-air activities that ARISS offers.

July 12: ARISS educator Diane Warner, whose school hosted an ARISS radio contact in late 2019, presented a webinar to a group of teachers about her ARISS contact and its great positive effects on students and the community. The 30 teachers listening were participating in a four-day professional development workshop on wireless communications in Newington, CT, sponsored by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). ARISS team member Rosalie White handled the Q&A portion of the webinar.

July 12: Two ARISS educators from Estes Park (CO) Elementary School, who led their students through many STEM lessons in preparation for their February 2021 ARISS contact took part in ARRL’s four-day professional development workshop. One of the Estes Park teachers is transitioning to junior high this fall and the two want a STEM pipeline going from elementary through eighth grade. Some of the hands-on electronics activities they did at the workshop included create and test tape-measure yagi antennas, populate circuit boards from electronic kits, and put together robots and learn to program them to maneuver through a special course.

July 14: A Russian ARISS contact tied to the About Gagarin From Space program was held for The Children’s University camp hosted at the Southwest Technical State University in Kursk.

July 6-8: ARISS teacher Micol Ivancic was thrilled to hear Tim Peake’s presentation while she attended the 2021 ESA Teach with Space Conference because he included details on ARISS. About 300 teachers attended, and when they asked him for more specific details on ARISS, Micol provided information, including useful URLs. Another notable conference presenter was ARISS team member David Honess who talked about AstroPi and some related teacher experiments. Attendees had been asked to submit classroom STEM activities to be shared with fellow participants—Micol provided a video of her school’s ARISS contact with Paolo Nespoli.

Upcoming Events

July 21 SpaceKids Global with Girl Scouts of Citrus, Winter Park FL, ARISS contact, ARISS-US team
July 22 Seinan Gakuin Junior Senior High School, Fukuoka, Japan, ARISS-Japan team

June 24: ARISS educator Gina Kwid and a co-teacher gave a presentation on ARISS and space transportation at i-STEM, an annual four-day professional development conference. PK-12 teachers apply to the Idaho STEM Action Center to be selected to attend i-STEM. Gina spoke about ARISS and her co-teacher spoke about Maker transportation activity. Viewers included 12 educators and 1 principal.

June 21-30:  Youth from four California high schools attending the GearUp Tech Camp held at California State University, Fullerton, learned about ARISS and radio communications in space from ARISS educator Melissa Pore.  Students were ages 9 to 17 and educators were junior high and high school educators.  Pore employed hands-on activities for learning about radio signals, radio waves, codes sent via Morse code and light, SCaN’s Deep Space Network, satellites, different types of antennas and the advantages of each type, and guiding students in building mini-models of antennas and making bookmarks and monogram key chains with their names in Morse code.   

July 8: Girl Scouts of Citrus (GS of Citrus) based in Orlando, Florida, in collaboration with Spacekids Global (SKG) and the ProXops company, has an ARISS contact the week of July 19. In preparation for the ARISS contact, GS of Citrus developed the Making Space For Girls program, utilizing hands-on STEAM activities to inspire regional and nationwide Girl Scout groups during the long months of COVID-19. Three of the many activities included:

• Send Postcards to Space–GS of Citrus partnered with Blue Origin’s For the Future in Space Engineering. 100 Girl Scouts from 17 states signed up to create ideas, designs, and discussions for new inventions, then drew their designs to be flown on a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket. Additionally, 37 adults received training, offering the program to their troops, leading to 380 more girls participating.
• Junior Ranger Spaceflight Explorer program by NASA and the National Park Service–GS of Citrus hosted 59 scouts and siblings in this girl-led program of interactive undertakings focused on space, leading to the completion of their Spaceflight Junior Ranger patch.
• Virgin Galactic presentations–CEOs of SKG and GS of Citrus, both Virgin Galactic astronauts, spoke to 150 Girl Scouts about their training and excitement for space.

June 21 & 25: ARISS educator Melissa Pore gave two presentations to youth at the Milton Space Camp in Washington DC.  A total of 50 students of lower elementary school age and 10 elementary school educators learned all about space communications. The first presentation covered ARISS and amateur radio in space.  The second presentation was on how to build models of satellites.

July 5: ARISS educator Micol Ivancic gave a presentation on the ARISS program to students of Corinaldesi-Padovano School in Senigallia, Italy. Attendees included 30 students ages 18 and 19, 14 educators, and 3 delegates from the European Erasmus “We Shape Our Future” student program. Ivancic spoke about ARISS voice and packet radio and demonstrated how the students can decode ARISS SSTV (picture) downlinks. She covered software defined radios and radio software apps.  

July: Two teachers at schools in France that hosted ARISS contacts a few years ago wrote a script for a comic about ARISS. The teachers had joined the ARISS French Workgroup in 2019 to assist in selecting and preparing French schools for Thomas Pesquet’s ESA Alpha Mission. The two teachers felt a comic could help schools understand how ARISS students learned about space communications, STEM, and ARISS. They worked with a graphic artist student and French ARISS team members and developed a three-part comic, a section for 1^st to 3^rd grade, 4^th and 5^th grade, and 6^th to 9^th grade. The comic was published and copyrighted and sent to ESA. CNES posted a long item on its web site about: the comic, ARISS program, and recent ARISS French school contacts. The web item titled “Hello ISS, Here are the French Students” is at https://missionalpha.cnes.fr/fr/mission-alpha/les-experiences-made-france/education.  The comic is at:  https://www.ariss-f.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/diffusion-BD-Sarah-Marie-Marie-Lydie.pdf 

Upcoming Events

• July 14  camp at Southwest Technical State U., Kursk, Russia, ARISS contact, ARISS Russia team
• July 14  Youth On The Air-camp, Cincinnati OH, ARISS contact, ARISS-US team
• July 21  SpaceKids Global with Girl Scouts of Citrus, Winter Park FL, ARISS contact, ARISS-US team

June 26: Students from French schools in three isolated villages engaged together in an ARISS radio contact with Thomas Pesquet, who answered 18 student questions. Schools were: Ecole de Bellême in Bellême, Pôle scolaire Igé/Le Gué de la Chaine in Belforêt en Perche and Ecole de Nocé in Perche en Nocé.  Students were social-distanced at school or conferenced in from home.  About 125 people were on site along with 75 students and teachers. The contact was livestreamed; within four days’ time, 1,733 people had viewed it. The URL is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK1lhT2VcSY. Media covering the event included Regional Newspaper Ouest-France, area FM station Radio-Intensité and Regional TV France-3.  

May 24: The ARISS team received photos and metrics for the About Gagarin From Space event conducted with students of the House of Technical Creativity in Svetly in Saratov, Russia. Instructors assisted 20 youths in making radio contact with the ISS while parents and administrators watched. Pyotr Dubrov supported the ARISS contact tied to the learning event.

June 17: Two French schools, the Collège Albert Camus in La Norville and the Université Paris-Saclay in Saint-Aubin, co-hosted an ARISS radio contact. Students talked with Thomas Pesquet who answered 19 questions. The radio contact was preceded by a three-hour special event moderated by the well-known dynamic French journalist and TV science presenter, Fred Courant. The audience of 450, mostly students, sat in an auditorium following area COVID guidelines. The show highlighted Thomas Pesquet’s life and background, and radio amateurs’ activities in an exciting way with a lot of multimedia; the audience responded enthusiastically. Three YouTube videos were offered for viewers and results showed viewer counts of 28,000 within 24 hours, and 42,000 within a week! Additionally, national BFM-TV and regional TV France 3 covered the radio contact as did regional newspaper, LeParisien.

June 21- 26: ARISS SSTV (slow scan TV) sessions are broadly popular with worldwide space enthusiasts, educators, students, and radio experimenters who download images transmitted from the ARISS radio by the ISS crew. For June, ARISS-International team members planned and prepared a 5-day SSTV session featuring 12 images of amateur radio operations on the International Space Station, Mir, and Space Shuttle.  2,770 participants posted 11,776 of their downloaded images at the online ARISS SSTV Gallery for public viewing (see https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/). Many then applied to receive a special ARISS certificate.

June 22 – 25: The ARISS-International working group held its 2021 annual meeting virtually and 37 attended or listened to recorded sessions. Participants from 14 states and 8 countries saw presentations and got into lively discussions on future strategies, current and future education projects, on-orbit and future hardware, ongoing and new operations, Lunar Gateway, commercial space opportunities, and more. Team members from the US totalled 19.

June 14: Following a spring ARISS radio contact, Estes Park Elementary School teachers and students told the ham club members who aided with their ARISS contact that they wanted to know more about amateur radio communications and its related technology. The ARISS Mentor has learned that the Estes Valley Amateur Radio Club set up a June class for teachers and students to experiment with ham radio activities, practice their radio communications skills, and learn material for the ham radio license test. The following people passed their FCC radio exams: five students, an elementary teacher, a middle school teacher, an IT staffer, and an adjunct educator.  The teachers will work together on elementary and middle school STEM classes this fall.

June 21: ARISS volunteer Ruth Willet graduated summa cum laude from Kettering University with a double major in engineering physics and mechanical engineering and a minor in acoustics. She garnered Kettering’s President’s Medal for scholarship, leadership, and community involvement. Besides being an ARISS volunteer, she is co-host of the ARRL video produced for ARISS that depicts much about the program; the video is played at nearly all US ARISS school contacts.

June 22: ARISS volunteer and educator Micol Ivancic learned she was selected to attend the ESA Teach with Space conference in July. Educators had to submit a classroom activity or project they did with their students. Ivancic provided a video of her school’s ARISS contact and a description of ARISS. The conference serves primary and secondary teachers and programs are designed to provide activities and online tools related to space themes and STEM learning. Ivanic said, “I am excited! At the conference, some submitted projects will be highlighted.”

ARISS Social Media

Facebook – June 2021

Twitter: On June 30, 2021, ARISS Twitter followers totaled 14966, a gain of nearly 2% over May.
Instagram: As of June 30, 2021, Instagram Followers now total 337.
YouTube: As of June 30, 2021, YouTube subscribers topped 1,521.
ARISS Web Unique Pageviews: 181,209 in June, a spike due to posting details on an upcoming ARISS SSTV session

Top performing Tweet in June
17.6K Impressions

Highest Facebook Reach in June
12,096 People Reached, 845 Engagements

Upcoming Events
Details on the next events will be available soon.

June 10: St Joseph’s Primary School in Bombala, NSW, Australia, hosted an ARISS contact with Shane Kimbrough. A group of 124 parents, friends, students, and teachers watched the event, which was livestreamed, although the count of viewers is not yet available. The Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC Radio National) and an area newspaper interviewed St Joseph’s Primary School Principal Susan Tighe and then aired and posted stories. The ARISS Technical Mentor commented that he had received a telephone call from Ms. Tighe who sincerely thanked the ARISS international team of volunteers for such a wonderful opportunity for the students, and stated that the audio quality of the ARISS radio contact was “amazing.”  A very young student, Essie, printed a four-sentence letter to her teacher that included this statement: “I am going to be an Adnoot [astronaut].”

June 14: Sterling Middle School in Sterling, VA hosted a recent ARISS contact and decided to create a video commemoration of their experiences revolving around the contact. The faculty produced the video to highlight educational projects tied to the ARISS contact that students engaged in (such as launching and tracking a medium altitude balloon), to honor all the students who spoke with Shannon Walker, and to thank sponsors, including NASA. In addition to the youth from Sterling Middle School involved in the learning activities, students from Sterling Elementary School and Guilford Elementary School had been involved in studies and were invited to ask questions during the ARISS contact; they were honored in the video, also. The 3.5-minute video is at: https://www.lcps.org/Page/236758.

June 9-10: A follow-up of last week’s Moscow Aviation Institute’s downlinked Slow Scan TV session shows an increase in the number of participants. Each image submitted must be reviewed before final posting to the ARISS SSTV Gallery for the public to see – the URL is https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/ – so the total number of people downloading images is difficult to know until a few days after the session. The number of space enthusiasts, educators, students, shortwave listeners, and ham operators in Russia, Europe, South America and North America who downloaded images totaled 558. They submitted 1,662 images they received.

June 11 – 12: Three ARISS-Russia radio contacts were scheduled the past week. On June 12, one contact was conducted under the Gagarin From Space education initiative and was for students from the cities of Great Ustyug and Velikiy Ustyug in the Vologda Oblast of Russia. An ARISS contact was to be held for students in Lipetsk, Russia, but ARISS-Russia reported the contact was unsuccessful, and a third ARISS contact was removed from the schedule.

Upcoming Events

• June 17 Collège A. Camus & U. Paris-Saclay, La Norville & St. Aubin, France; ARISS-Europe team
• June 21-26 ARISS SSTV Session; ARISS-International
• June 22-25 ARISS-International Annual worldwide meeting; ARISS-International      
• June 25       Ecole de Bellême, Pôle scolaire Igé/Gué de la Chaine, & Ecole de Nocé, Bellême, Belforêt en Perche & Perche en Nocé, France, ARISS contact; ARISS-Europe team

June 7: Students at the Collège Maurice Genevoix in Couzeix, France experienced an exciting ARISS contact with Thomas Pesquet who answered 18 student questions. TV covering of the event was TV France 3 Limousin; radio stations included: France Bleue, Flash FM, RCF and RMJ. Attending the event were 25 students, 4 technicians and 6 professors. Two VIP guests were the Madam Rector of Academy and Madam Vice President of the University in charge of Scientific Culture. A total of 650 students watched the event online. The link was also made available to the rectorate to all the establishments in Haute Vienne. The contact was live streamed at https://live.recreasciences.com/.

June 5: Chris Brault, who lives near Cincinnati, OH, recently won a $10,000 scholarship. In 2016, Chris was the lead student for the ARISS contact at ISpace School near Cincinnati.  He earned his ham license about the time his school submitted its ARISS proposal; he wanted to be involved in a big way, and made it happen. He co-stars in an ARRL video produced for ARISS to explain all about the program; the video is played to audiences at nearly all US ARISS school contacts. The scholarship is for his upcoming college years, majoring in aeronautics and minoring in computer science at St. Louis University. He is weeks away from earning his Private Pilot license, another goal.  

June 6: Students of the Center for Additional Education of Children “UNITER” of the Ruzaevsky Municipal District of Mordovia, Russia participated in a successful “About Gagarin From Space” ARISS contact. Oleg Novitskiy supported the contact.

June 9-10: The Moscow Aviation Institute launched a special Slow Scan TV (SSTV) event with cosmonauts downlinking 12 images featuring the Russian space program. From published reception reports, individuals in Russia, Europe, and portions of North and South America have downloaded images. Radio and space enthusiasts receiving the images are invited to post them at the ARISS SSTV Gallery found at https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/ for public viewing. Thus far, 482 individuals have downloaded 1402 images.

Upcoming Events

• June 10: St Joseph’s Catholic Primary, Bombala, Australia, ARISS contact, ARISS-Japan team
• June 11 & 12: Students in Lipetsk, Russia, ARISS contacts, ARISS-Russia team
• June 12: Students in Velikiy Ustyug, Russia, ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia team

May 25:  ARISS gets late reports on ARISS radio contacts, sometimes, and here is one.  Amur State University’s Mission Control Center had 17 students and their teacher as visitors on March 31 from the village of Ust-Ivanovka to talk with cosmonauts on the ISS.  The ARISS-Russia team assisted the youth in asking about “the life and work of Commander Sergei Ryzhikov of the long-term expedition ISS-64, and Flight Engineer Sergei Kud-Sverchkov.” Students learned the duration of a spacewalk can be 6-9 hours, how cosmonauts spend their free time on the ISS and what they eat, and heard comments on the future of Russian cosmonautics.

May 31: French students at Collège of Saint Pierre Marboz in Marboz took part in an ARISS telebridge radio contact with Thomas Pesquet who answered 20 questions. Present were 60 social-distanced people—students, teachers and guests, including city hall officials, regional academy officials, TV station reporters (2 national stations, 1 regional station), and a newspaper reporter. The school created a video for viewers featuring many student STEM-related projects prior to the contact along with a video of Pesquet from his pre-launch training days. Two livestreams captured 258 viewers, and 6 days later, another 6,113 had watched the recording. The URL is:  https://youtu.be/HnPoFku7DXg. The school integrated these topics into their STEM program: space-habitation and exploration, the solar system, orbital mechanics, astronomical phenomena, and radio science including satellites, radios, and circuit board kits (e.g. Arduino).

June 2: Students from The Father’s House Christian School, a provider of homeschooling in Morinville, AB, Canada engaged in an ARISS radio contact with Akihiko Hoshide. He answered 20 student questions, many good ones that aren’t asked often. This contact was held as a multi-point telebridge with students conferenced in. A video highlighted projects the 500 students enjoyed in preparing for their contact. The livestream garnered 213 views, and 5 days later, 585 people had watched the recording; the URL is: https://youtu.be/S0_-QFkXdi4.  Students and parents engaged in activities about space exploration, ISS living and topics drawn from these websites: ESA Space & Exploration, NASA KidZone, and Primary Science Teacher College.

June 3: ARISS leader John Kludt gave a presentation about satellites and ARISS to the Atlanta (GA) Radio Club. Men and women members of the club, attending via Zoom, totaled 31.

May 29: A Gagarin From Space ARISS contact event involving All-Russian Ufa Olympiad winners was sponsored by Ufa State Aviation Technical University in Bashkortostan, Russia. Oleg Novitskiy supported the contact.

Social Media
Facebook – May 2021

Twitter:
As of May 31, 2021, ARISS Twitter followers totaled 14,718, a gain of nearly 1% over the end of April.

Instagram:
As of May 31, 2021, Instagram Followers increased 1.9% over the end of April and now total 325.

YouTube Members:
As of May 31, YouTube members totaled over 1.4K, an increase of 1% over the end of April.

ARISS Web Unique Pageviews:
In May, ARISS Web Unique Pageviews totaled 22,767.

Upcoming Events
June 10: St Joseph’s Catholic Primary, Bombala, Australia, ARISS contact, ARISS-Japan team
June 11 & 12: Students in Lipetsk, Russia, ARISS contacts, ARISS-Russia team
June 12: Students in Velikiy Ustyug, Russia, ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia team

May 24: Youth at France’s Reunion Island school, Ecole Elémentaire de Saint Leu Centre had an ARISS radio contact with Thomas Pesquet who answered 17 questions.  200 people witnessed the event, which was also livestreamed for 189 viewers. While the audience waited for AOS, the school presented an excellent video. It featured interviews of students describing space-related projects they completed in preparation for their ARISS contact. A recording of the special ARISS day’s events is at: https://youtu.be/BxmUUzsUeXE (introduction begins at 10 minutes in) and has had 3,853 views.

May 22: ARISS-Russia scheduled Pyotr Dubrov for speaking with youth in Aznakaevo in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. They’d had a previous ARISS radio contact in January. ARISS located an online media story about the group’s January contact, held at the Aznakaevo Airfield’s youth collective radio station. The reporter gave examples of the boys’ questions—so similar to all global students, for example:  “Do you like space food?” The story quoted the youth supervisor: “We saw the trajectory of the flight, how they move at 27500 km per hour. Some parents didn’t fit in our tiny room and were standing in the street — the chairman of TPS No.4 commented on the event. Afterwards, students demonstrated ham radio communications.”

May 25: Students from two Chilean schools in Valdivia, Windsor School and Liceo Industrial of Valdivia High School, took part in an ARISS contact with Mark Vande Hei. This ARISS contact saw 200 people witnessing it including national and regional media broadcasters and a newspaper rep. The event was livestreamed, URL is:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS03hu-LI1E

(begins 3 minutes in) and has had 801 views. Both schools modified the STEM curricula to cover space exploration/science and radio communications. Activities engaged students in astronomy, radio science, robotics, and satellite-tracking software. Selected students took part in the Houston Association for Space and Science Education program. The schools partnered with the Radio Club Torreones. 

May 24: An About Gagarin From Space event was conducted with students of the House of Technical Creativity in the village of Svetly Saratovskaya, the Saratov region of Russia. Pyotr Dubrov supported the ARISS contact tied to the learning event.

May 22: The Lewis Center for Educational Research in Apple Valley, CA found out they were chosen for an ARISS contact in first-half 2021. The Victorville Daily Press featured an online article about the Lewis Center, citing President/CEO Lisa Lamb’s plan. She stated, “As soon as the new school year begins, our students will engage in weekly lessons to make the most of our radio contact with astronauts on the ISS.” Lewis Center STEM coordinator Amy Ritter said excitement is building around the school. The article’s link is: https://www.vvdailypress.com/story/news/2021/05/22/lewis-center-selected-nasa-program-connects-students-international-space-station-astronauts/5225338001/

May 27: ARISS leaders Kathy Lamont and John Kludt along with lead ARISS Education Ambassador Joanne Michael hosted an online ARISS Orientation Webinar for 18 representatives from nine schools–educators and the ham radio operators who will assist. The schools were selected recently to sponsor ARISS contacts in second-half 2021. The webinar offered an overview of an ARISS contact and covered deliverables, expectations, and possible radio station configurations.  Attendees asked questions and discussed their proposed education plans. They expressed excitement about the opportunity to host an ARISS contact.

May 27: Forest Edge Elementary School, a Title 1 school in Reston, VA was one of several schools participating in Space Exploration Night, and ARISS educator Melissa Pore gave presentations on ARISS, communications and satellites. She was part of a panel that included Deputy Director of NASA Earth Sciences Division Sandra Cauffman and reps from Langley Research Center and Northrop Grumman. 135 students watched with their parents while 10 teachers moderated the program. Follow-ups include lessons next fall on ARISS and SCaN.

May 27: ARISS thanks SCaN for posting a Twitter item about an ARISS school. The post garnered 8,327 impressions and was the top post of the week!

Details will be in next week’s  report about the successful ARISS contacts recently hosted in Russia and France.

Upcoming Events

June 2 The Father’s House Christian School, Morinville AB Canada, ARISS contact  ARISS-Canada team                              

May 19: Faculty and students at Monaro High School in Cooma, NSW, Australia hosted an ARISS contact with Mark Vande Hei. He answered 20 questions with a listening audience in the very-low-Covid locale comprised of 130 parents, the mayor, an Eden-Monaro federal member, and supporting radio club members. Many commented that Vande Hei very thoughtfully and candidly replied to students. Prior to hearing him, the audience viewed a recording of students’ STEM projects and activities. People were intrigued enough to ask more questions afterward about space and radio. The school streamed the contact on its Facebook page, garnering 3,228 views. The contact was heard by 18 listeners via Echolink. Faculty had modified student courses to include content on communications and space habitation, and had shared lesson ideas with all surrounding schools.

May 20: Lycée Jean Moulin (LJM) students in Les Andelys, France made an ARISS contact with Thomas Pesquet who answered 16 questions. Students, staff, and media (National TV-TF1 and Regional TV France-3) were at the school following Covid guidelines. 200 social-distanced people watched a livestream, and later, 1,946 more. Everyone saw a review of students’ space and astronomy activities, and facts about the area’s primary and junior high schools that took part in related studies. LJM offers internships in aeronautics and space industries. The school partners are ArianeGroup, Normandy Aerospace Club, and Radio Club de Vernon; all support aerospace and engineering projects such as: build and program rovers and develop star-tracking technology for telescopes.

May 13: ARISS announced the nine education organizations accepted for an ARISS contact between January and June 2022. Organizations will typically begin preparing related STEM activities as the fall school semester begins. The ARISS team wrote and distributed a news release, which was picked up by many media outlets.  The organizations are:

• Bellefontaine High School                                                         Bellefontaine, OH
• Carter G. Woodson Middle School                                           Hopewell, VA
• Lewis Center for Educational Research                                    Apple Valley, CA
• Matinecock District, Suffolk County NY Boy Scouts                 Medford, NY
• McBride High School                                                                 Long Beach , CA
• Old St. Mary’s School                                                                Chicago, IL
• Salem-South Lyon District Library                                             South Lyon, MI
• Sussex County Charter School for Technology                         Sparta, NJ
• Space Hardware Club                                                                Huntsville, AL

May 22, 24: Youth at Reunion Island’s Ecole Elémentaire de Saint Leu Centre, as well as a group of students in Russia at a school in Aznakaevo, the Republic of Tatarstan, each had an ARISS contact. Some details should be known in a few days.

Upcoming Events

• May 24 Gagarin from Space program in Saratov Region, Russia, ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia team
• May 25 Windsor School & Liceo Industrial de Valdiva, Chile, ARISS contact, ARISS-Canada team
• May 27 ARISS Orientation Webinar for Jan-Jun ARISS contacts, K. Lamont, J. Kludt