Category: News

May 19: Webb Bridge Middle School in Alpharetta, GA hosted an ARISS contact for the students with Warren Hoburg answering 18 student questions. A crowd of 250 made up of students, faculty, Fulton County School District officials, and reporters attended the event. They appreciated seeing taped greetings to the students from Frank Culbertson. A livestream offered to the public garnered 455 viewers within a week’s time. All students had been learning things about space, and 6^th graders were targeted to focus on geology and space sciences throughout the year. The school partnered with North Fulton Amateur Radio League and helped youth experiment with Morse code, get on the air to make amateur radio contacts, and learn about satellites, orbital mechanics, and the Earth’s atmosphere.

May 19: During their ARISS radio contact with Warren Hoburg, students at Fairview Elementary School in Olathe, Kansas asked him 25 questions about what it is like to live and work on the ISS.  815 students and faculty watched the action. Four Kansas City TV reporters came to the event; three stories have been spotted—one on Fox news (https://bit.ly/3ICrQys) claiming market viewership of 23,557, and ABC-TV stories on their early evening and late night  news (https://bit.ly/3WG3Nog) claiming market viewership average of 51,316. Viewer count of the livestream after 6 days totaled 436. Students had studied astronomy and STEM careers, and in the science club, they discovered radio satellites and radio communications. School counselor Mitchell Cloud said, “Thank you for this incredible opportunity to talk with Astro Woody.”

May 22: ARISS thanks NASA’s Spanish engagement team at HQ for preparing NASA web and social media stories in Spanish about the 63 schools in 12 Caribbean and Central America nations who loved their ARISS contact of late 2022. A teacher was quoted on how ARISS inspired her students to become interested in science and technology, and curious about space.  Story URLs are—

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NASA_es/status/1660648739604766721?s=20

Web article: Cómo hablar con un astronauta en el espacio | Ciencia de la NASA

Facebook: NASA en español | Facebook

May 20: Students of the State Budgetary Educational Institution of Secondary School No. 285 in the Krasnoselsky District of St. Petersburg, Russia held a successful ARISS contact with Dmitri Petelin. Those involved in the event numbered 120. As with other ARISS-Russian sponsored ARISS contacts, this one was scheduled by Russia’s Mission Control Center-Moscow.

ARISS Upcoming Events
May 31: Youth at Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, Dubai UAE – ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe Team

                                 

May 11: ARISS intern Unsh Rawal gave a presentation to 10 ARISS senior leaders, summarizing his work of the past year for ARISS.  He assembled Java and Python code, built a user interface, and linked communications resources to remotely command and control a Makeblock mBot robot used in educational environments. The mBot is one item in the ARISS *STAR* kit that in the future, teachers will receive and use.  Open source code Unsh assembled allows an educator’s students to work with schools locally and around the country; schools register their robots and can see a list of other schools that registered their robot.  Schools can check a box that permits another school’s students to send commands that remotely control the other school’s robot. Modes to command the robots include Bluetooth or a radio mode using APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System).

May 18-21: Each May, ARISS pulls out the stops exhibiting to ham radio enthusiasts who travel to Xenia, OH from all over the world to Hamvention. This convention is the world’s largest amateur radio convention—31,000 attended last year.  The ARISS team has been planning its activities for months, including a booth with displays of hardware and education programs, a forum and mini-forums, and importantly, a kick-off of a 40-year anniversary celebration of amateur radio contacts made from a human spaceflight vehicle. More details on ARISS at Hamvention will be reported soon.     

May: ARISS-US Education Committee members are planning their activities for two educator conferences in late June. Kathy Lamont and Joanne Cozens Michael will attend the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference in Philadelphia. Kathy recognized the importance of sharing the ARISS program at ISTE saying, “It draws like-minded educators together around the focus of technology and educational impact … who are open to using varied technologies including wireless activities involving ham radio.”  For the 2023 Space Port Area Conference for Educators at Kennedy Space Center, six ARISS team members will attend. In addition to a presentation, ARISS aims to offer a special Q&A ARISS radio contact for selected educators. Following the conference, ARISS will hold an “Educate the Educator” workshop for educators who’ve signed up to receive instruction on using SPARKI (Space Pioneers Amateur Radio Kit) as a basic electronics teaching tool in their school. More details will be coming.  

May 10:  ARISS thanks NASA’s Applied Sciences group for its new web story on students at 63 schools in 12 Caribbean and Central America nations who loved an ARISS contact late last year– https://appliedsciences.nasa.gov/our-impact/story/caribbean-and-central-american-classrooms-connect-nasa-astronaut-space. The NASA Earth Applied Sciences Disasters program and other world organizations had supported a collaborative awareness initiative, Disaster Fighters. This group helped the students discover more about NASA and platforms in space such as the ISS that monitor natural hazards on earth. Students researched how information provided by this monitoring work can help their families better understand impacts of climate change and potential disasters. The article’s author wrote that the ARISS contact “was a way to connect [students’] curiosity with science’s role in creating a more resilient future for the communities where they live.”

ARISS Upcoming Events    
May 19: Webb Bridge Middle School, Alpharetta GA – ARISS contact, ARISS-US Team
May 19: Fairview Elementary School, Olathe KS – ARISS contact, ARISS-US Team
May 20: Youth in Saint Petersburg, Russia – ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia Team
May 26: St. Francis Xavier H.S., Gloucester ON, Canada – ARISS contact, ARISS-Canada Team              

                                 

May 1: The Council Rock South Amateur Radio Club, along with the Technology Club, facilitated students at Council Rock High School South in Holland, PA in trading questions and answers with Steve Bowen during their ARISS radio contact. He answered 17 of their questions. In the auditorium, 618 students, faculty, and parents watched the action. The contact was live streamed and is at www.crsarc.org/live. Within days, 1,744 people had watched the recording. A reporter from CBS TV station KYW in Philadelphia came, and quickly posted a short video at https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/council-rock-high-school-south-speaks-with-astronauts-on-international-space-station/. Several reps from the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) attended and the ARRL Pennsylvania Section ran an online article covering the contact; it is at https://epa-arrl.org/council-rock-south-high-school-has-out-of-this-world-contact-with-international-space-station/.  Before students initiated the contact, everyone watched a video from Pennsylvania Auditor General Timothy DeFoor congratulating students for their work preparing for the ARISS contact. The school engineering team and the Technology Club received recognition for accomplishments in constructing the radio antennas and for participating in the ARRL School Club Roundup’s on-the-air radio activities. A division of the school’s Technology Club is a HUNCH group–High schools United with NASA to Create Hardware. Members of the Warminster Amateur Radio Club lent a hand, and among other things, taught youth to build and solder electronic projects and do transmitter hunts.

ARISS Social Media

ARISS’ social media leader Jim Reed reported these highlights for April 2023:

• ARISS had 259,881 impressions on social media in April. 
• ARISS gained >1% Followers per month since January 1, 2023, equating to ~1,200 new Followers for the year so far, and ARISS now has more than 28,000 total Followers.

April Social Media Top Posts & April Total Metrics and images 

• Top April Tweet–Steve Bowen to talk to Montross Middle School: Impressions 20,132, Interactions / Engagements 124

• Top April Facebook Post – ham radio operators are part of Artemis 2 crew: Reaches / Impressions 9,691,  Engagements 194

• Top April Instagram Post – times the ARISS Radio must be powered down for ISS work: Reach 203,  Interactions / Engagements 21

• Top April Mastodon Post – ARISS’ anniversary of 1,000^th ARISS radio contact: Interactions 15

ARISS Total April Social Media Metrics:

• ARISS Twitter – Total Impressions / Views 192,766,  Interactions / Engagements 3,931 
• ARISS Facebook – Total Impressions 64,843,  Interactions / Engagements 1,910
• ARISS Instagram – Total Reach 2,272,  Interactions / Engagements 258
• ARISS Mastodon – Interactions / Engagements 123
• ARISS LinkedIn – 5 new Followers,  126 Reactions     
• ARISS YouTube – Total Subscribers 1.92k, an increase of almost 100

ARISS Upcoming Events
May 19: Webb Bridge Middle School, Alpharetta, GA – ARISS Contact, ARISS-US Team
May 19: Fairview Elementary School, Olathe, KS – ARISS Contact, ARISS-US Team

April 20: West Michigan Aviation Academy (WMAA), a Grand Rapids no-tuition high school, hosted an ARISS contact. It took place in the gym, full of 200 students and faculty, listening to Sultan Al Neyadi answer 15 student questions.  Before and after the contact, students came to a podium to present talks on research they’d done on space.  Both the school and the ARISS team livestreamed the event (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIXqiqqK5KU), resulting in 500 viewers.  A ham in Atlanta, GA, created a YouTube of Al Neyadi’s transmission and garnered 83 views. The media came: WKTV, WOOD TV, WXMI TV, and a web news service. During a WKTV interview (https://www.wktvjournal.org/aviation-academy-students-connect-with-international-space-station-astronaut), sophomore Keira Amis expressed excitement, “It was kind of scary in front of all these people, but it was incredibly worth it!” Science teacher Bryan Forney explained, “Every academic department found a way to tie [space] in curriculum … teachers were writing content and presenting lessons related to space. It’s great for students to hear and understand more about what it takes to put something into space, get people to space, what’s required of astronauts, and it helps put that career path in the realm of the possible for our students.” The area ham radio group assisted with radio communication studies and they transported and set up the ham radio station equipment for the contact.

April 21: Montross Middle School, a rural school in Montross, VA with limited resources and opportunities, was thrilled to host an ARISS radio contact for students with Steve Bowen. It was obvious the 12 students chosen to speak had rehearsed well when they asked their 23 questions. The pre-contact programming featured presentations from Principal Leah Segar and Westmoreland County School Superintendent Dr. Michael Perry.  The school district website offered a livestream (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFFmf9e0pZs), as did the school’s YouTube channel.  Over 1,000 students and 107 educators, administrators, and parents viewed the livestream. 5 days following the event, the school’s YouTube report showed 480 views. A copy posted at the ARISS YouTube channel reported 400 more views.  The Westmoreland News ran a nice story about the contact. For almost a year, students engaged in a STEM curriculum focusing on space-based subjects. The Westmoreland Amateur Radio Club mentored students in enjoying getting on the air to make ham radio contacts, learning about ham radio emergency communications practices, and how ham radio would be used to make their ARISS contact.

April 18-20: ARISS-International Chair Frank Bauer led the 2023 ARISS-International Annual Meeting, the first held in person since the start of COVID.  The meeting, held at the European Space Agency’s ESTEC facility in Noordwijk, Netherlands welcomed several ESA Education and ISS program leaders. 20 of the ARISS group traveled from around the globe to attend—delegates, board, and team members—with 9 joining virtually. ARISS Delegates came from three ARISS Regions; other Delegates were online. Meeting sessions covered crew training, crew support, Axiom private astronaut support, a review of the past year’s successes, and strategic discussions on implementing the ARISS 2.0 initiative, which encompasses ARISS as a NASA Implementation Partner, the three ARISS education programs in development (STEREO, STAR, and Student Mission Control) and the planned expansion to include commercial space stations and missions to the moon. Other topics included planning/coordination for the upcoming 40th anniversary of amateur radio on human spaceflight missions, ARISS Ham Video launch and operations readiness status, plans to restart ARISS slow scan (picture downlink) sessions, and new engineering projects, i.e., an ARISS Digital Communicator based on software defined radio technology that could support ISS and Lunar missions.   

April 21:  Schoolchildren at Rostov on Don, Russia engaged in the About Gagarin From Space lessons with the ANO FIRON group (Foundation for Innovative Development of Education and Science).  As with other ARISS-Russian sponsored ARISS contacts, this one was scheduled by Russia’s Mission Control Center-Moscow.  50 people were present for the contact where 9 young participants spoke with Andrey Fedyaev. 

April 22: Students in Portugal from a group of five João de Barros schools (AEJB) in Corroios and also the Escola Secundária da Baixa da Banheira (a vocational training school–VET) in Moita shared an ARISS contact with Steve Bowen. He answered 20 of the students’ questions.  200 people attended the contact as did a web news outlet. While waiting in the Moita school auditorium for the scheduled contact time, students listened to talks presented by the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences on black holes, characteristics of the ISS, and how astronauts live in space. AEJB offers a curriculum in, among other things, science and technology, socioeconomic sciences, visual arts, and computer technologies. Some of the Moita VET school curriculum includes IT, logistics, and pharmacy technician courses. The Amateur Radio Association in Portugal helped support the schools for this contact.

April 21: The Stone Magnet Middle School in Melbourne, FL invited Charlie Sufana to an awards ceremony; he had been their ARISS Technical Mentor for their recent ARISS contact.  30 people attended the celebration honoring volunteers who had done something special for the school this semester.  He networked with community members, answering questions about ARISS.

ARISS Upcoming Events
May 1: Council Rock High School South, Holland, PA – ARISS Contact, ARISS-US Team

April 14: The Augusta Preparatory Day School in Augusta, GA invited parents and students to Family Night to engage in learning activities and look at displays about school projects.  As part of the prep for the school’s upcoming ARISS radio contact in late summer, ARISS educator Rachel Jones and volunteer John Bobbitt set up and staffed an ARISS table. They exhibited a looping video of ARISS images and some items from the ARISS Radio Kit, i.e., Snap Circuits electronic learning kits and slinkies used to demonstrate radio waves. One hundred families and their children came to the event. Elementary and junior high kids stopping at the booth liked manipulating the Snap Circuits’ child-sized electronic components, such as resistors and capacitors. The youth engaged with the electrical circuit that was laid out to act as a Morse code oscillator and key. Rachel and John led kids in understanding how electrons flowing through wires can power devices. Kids quickly realized the fun of sending Morse code messages. Parents took ARISS leaflets; they and the high school youth asked many questions about the upcoming ARISS contact.

April 17: ARISS Director of Education Kathy Lamont introduced Ozbots to her Belmont Elementary School fourth and fifth graders in Prince William County, VA. They learned to code with the bots and Kathy Tweeted about it, resulting in many readers’ interactions. Last week, students at the school enjoyed manipulating ham radio antennas to listen to ARISS contacts in other states.

April 18: The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) and associated groups in Dubai, UAE gave high school students an exciting day with an ARISS radio contact supported by Sultan Al Neyadi, it being the first of several such scheduled ARISS contacts. The space project titled “A Call with Space” is an interactive initiative thanks to a collaboration of the Emirates Literature Foundation with MBRSC to bring space closer to the community.  The agency works to encourage space science and research in the region, offering educational programs that inspire future generations at all education levels about exploration and discovery. 

April 11: Eleven girls at Estes Park (CO) Elementary School, led by ARISS educator Ravi Davis, enjoy making on-the-air ham radio contacts and working toward passing their ham radio license exam. Ravi, who teaches STEAM science classes, said her girls get excited talking to ham operators around the world.  The girls’ quest to achieve the goal of becoming ham operators came from an initiative started by Ravi and the Estes Valley Amateur Radio Club after the school’s 2021 ARISS contact. In a recent post in the Estes Park Trail Gazette, Ravi said, “These students are highly motivated to learn about ham radio and radio science.”  The reporter wrote that by studying ham radio, students get introduced to science, engineering, and computer fields, and that radio science is all around us in every life. The story and its great photos of smiling girls is at  https://www.eptrail.com/2023/04/11/students-study-for-ham-radio-licenses/.

April 10: ARISS Technical Mentor Charlie Sufana attended the Platinum Coast Amateur Radio Society (PCARS) meeting in Melbourne, FL, presenting a program about ARISS. He highlighted the recent ARISS contact at Stone Magnet Middle School in Melbourne, where he led the school as its ARISS Technical Mentor. His talk explained the types of ARISS contacts and how he’d transported and assembled his portable ham radio station to the school with help from area hams, allowing students to speak with Steve Bowen. Following his talk, he answered questions; some listeners asked about helping a school to write a proposal to possibly be selected for a future ARISS contact. Fifty club members attended the talk and 46 others watched a YouTube of the presentation.

ARISS Upcoming Events  
May 1: Council Rock High School South, Holland, PA – ARISS contact, ARISS-US Team                                      

                       

                       

April 7: An ARISS radio contact was hosted at Collège Saint-Anatoile in Salins-Les-Bains, a rural area in the Franche Comté region of France.  During the contact, Steve Bowen answered 20 student questions. 100 students, professors, parents, and city and regional officials attended the event or watched the livestream from other rooms, as did 60 students at a neighboring school.  Within two days’ time, 2,000 people had viewed the recording. The event was well covered by media—newspapers Le Progres and L’Est Républicain, TV station France3 (their short video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at8fGjEwXSY), and radio stations France Bleu and RCF.  The school had incorporated many STEM projects into the curriculum. Members of the area and regional amateur radio clubs sponsored workshops for students to introduce them to amateur radio communications, radio direction-finding, amateur radio satellites, wave propagation, and tracking the ISS.

April: Council Rock High School South in Holland, PA is scheduled for their ARISS contact early in May. Teachers prepared the students for the contact through special space-related curriculum and projects. The two photos below show part of the work students did to build and set up ham radio antennas with some of their teachers and members of the area’s Warminster Amateur Radio Club. Students also enjoyed getting on the air to make ham radio contacts.  ARISS learned last week that US Senator Bob Casey plans to attend the school’s ARISS contact.

April 8-15: ARISS-Russia carried out six ARISS radio contacts under the About Gagarin In Space education program. The schools scheduled by MCC-Moscow included Vologda College of Communications and Information Technologies in Vologda with crew member Dimitri Petelin; Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University in Kaliningrad with crew member Sergey Prokopyev; Ural State University of Railway Engineering in Yekaterinburg with Sergey Prokopyev; Admiral D.N. Senyavin Marine Technical Academy in St. Petersburg with crew member Andrey Fedyaev; MBOU School #5 for Students with Disabilities in Shchelkovo with Sergey Prokopyev, and MBOU Secondary School #1 in Vyborg with Andrew Fedyaev.  Two of these contacts, those at Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg, took place on Cosmonautics Day.

March 31: ARISS educator Drew Deskur, director of the Kopernik Observatory and Science Center in Vestal, NY offers space education presentations and classes to area youth. He helped students listen on ham radio to an ARISS radio contact at Stone Magnet Middle School in Melbourne, FL.  His students heard Steve Bowen’s answers to students’ questions as the ISS passed over Vestal, then Vestal students discussed the questions and answers.  Meantime, ARISS educator Kathy Lamont did the same thing with her students at Belmont Elementary School in Prince William County, VA. She had her students read the Stone Magnet Middle School students’ questions, and then her kids listened to Bowen’s replies as the ISS passed overhead. She recorded her students in order to post a video on Twitter; the video got 202 Views!

ARISS Upcoming Events 
Apr 18: Mohammad Bin Rashid Space Centre, Dubai, UAE – ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe Team

March 31: The Stone Magnet Middle School in Melbourne, FL hosted an ARISS radio contact between students and Steve Bowen; he answered 20 questions. The audience at school, students watching a livestream in classrooms, and the 71 people viewing a second livestream totaled 391. A week later, the second livestream listed 488 Views. Some visitors in the room included a school board member, a district science administrator, an educator from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a STEM coordinator from a Daytona Beach school, and a ham operator from Vero Beach who works with a school—the latter three want their schools to write ARISS Education Proposals to possibly earn an ARISS contact. Space Coast Daily ran an item at https://spacecoastdaily.com/2023/03/stone-magnet-middle-school-students-to-speak-with-astronaut-warren-hoburg-on-the-space-station-march-31/.  A WFTV reporter from Orlando aired a story about the event.  649 students had enjoyed a STEAM-based curriculum and special sessions of hands-on math and science courses. Lessons supported by the area Platinum Coast Amateur Radio Society included radio science.

March 30-31: The ARISS-Russia team supported two ARISS contacts in two days’ time. Students at Amur State University in Blagoveshchensk engaging in the About Gagarin in Space program enjoyed a successful ARISS contact with Andrey Fedyaev. 30 people were present for the event. The other ARISS contact involved the About Gagarin in Space program also; youth from Aznakayevo in the Republic of Tatarstan, including children with disabilities, talked with Sergey Prokopyev.  

April 5: ARISS leader Dave Taylor gave a presentation via Zoom to the Montgomery Amateur Radio Club (MARC) whose members are from the Montgomery County, MD area.  His talk featured an ARISS overview and 22 MARC members tuned in.

ARISS Social Media 

ARISS’ social media leader, Jim Reed reported these major highlights for March 2023:

• ARISS Twitter Followers surpassed 18,000!
• An experiment on Facebook and Twitter with a short video on an ARISS contact resulted in 441 Reached (42 minutes viewed) on Facebook and 678 video views on Twitter

March Social Media Top Posts and March Total Metrics and images 

• Top March Tweet–best handheld ham radio for space: Impressions 10,578, Interactions / Engagements 594
• Top March Facebook Post –ARISS’ radio frequencies: Reaches / Impressions 9,691,  Engagements 339
• Top March Instagram Post – NASA video of ARISS contact for St. Lucia & the Caribbean: Reach 203,  Interactions / Engagements 24
• Top March Mastodon Post – ARISS’ radio frequencies: Interactions 28

ARISS Total March Social Media Metrics:

• ARISS Twitter – Total Impressions / Views 167,245,  Interactions / Engagements 4,370  
• ARISS Facebook – Total Impressions 75,798,  Interactions / Engagements 2,174
• ARISS Instagram – Total Reach 3,397,  Interactions / Engagements 325
• Mastodon – Interactions / Engagements 138
• LinkedIn – 36 new followers,  69 Reactions
• ARISS YouTube – Total Subscribers 1.84k

ARISS Upcoming Events

Apr 12: Students in Yekaterinburg, Russia – ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia Team

March 23: Lana’i High and Elementary School in Lana’i City, on one of the smaller Hawaiian Islands, hosted an ARISS contact with Warren Hoburg who answered 20 student questions and one from their lead teacher.  1,285 people came to the school or saw the livestream, and as of now, 479 watched recordings.  The Hawai’i News Network posted a news story with a video and the Hawai’i Public Radio’s online publication, “The Conversation Post,” covered the event. The school’s 572 students engaged in curriculum enhanced with studies in earth and space science and research on astronomy, and lessons on radio communications from the area ham radio club.  The teacher wrote: “The students are still lit up and walking proud, which is the best feeling to see them enjoying themselves and their accomplishments.  We have opened doors for the children of Lana’i that they never knew were possible.” A volunteer ham operator (students had enjoyed her astronomy and radio lessons) said: “You could tell how excited the kids were when the astronaut started talking–you could see the moment they realized he was in space and they were going to talk to him!”

March 27: Excitement showed clearly on youthful faces at Valle de Camargo High School in Revilla de Camargo, Spain when students heard Steve Bowen’s voice from the ISS ham radio station. He answered 18 student questions during their ARISS radio contact. 150 people attended the event while an additional 855 viewed the livestream, which is at  https://www.youtube.com/live/zEf62O4o8pw?feature=share&t=4680. As of today, 3,000 people watched it. The school offered another livestream on its web site for more viewers. Media coverage included RTVE TV (national level and regional level), local Cantabria TV, newspapers—El Diario Montañés and Alerta, and two news agencies: Europapress and the statal agency “EFE.” The faculty wanted the ARISS contact to inspire students in their math, physics, sciences, and technology studies while also enjoying instruction in amateur radio technology. The Santander Amateur Radio Association led the radio technology lessons and had worked with students during the school’s Cultural Week the past 5 years.

March 23-25:  With funding help from the American Radio Relay League, ARISS supported a booth at the National Science Teachers Association National Conference in Atlanta, GA.  ARISS Educator Martha Muir and ARISS volunteer Jim Reed set up the booth and staffed it, reporting that about 300 teachers from elementary schools through colleges “flooded the booth.” They heard about ARISS and ARISS SPARKI—Space Pioneers Amateur Radio Kit Initiative. The kit’s components—Snap Circuits, Morse code key, etc., caught teachers’ eyes. So many people took ARISS flyers that Jim had to get more printed. On day 2 a teacher who stopped at the booth the day before, came back. She had already downloaded and begun filling out an ARISS Education Proposal to submit in hopes of being selected for a future ARISS contact!  ARISS educator Christiana Deeter from Canterbury School in Fort Myers, FL, gave a morning session talk titled “How Would You Like an Opportunity for Your Students to Talk with an Astronaut?” about her December 2022 ARISS contact.  Martha presented an afternoon session on aspects of ARISS. NASA SCaN gave out 250 ARISS flyers at their booth and ran out! Jim gave them more.  A lighter crowd on Saturday made for more in-depth conversations at the booth. One educator learned ideas for hosting an ARISS contact at a large gathering of youth next summer.  Another educator took 15 flyers to bring home for her colleagues.  A pair of teachers who had gotten excited at Martha’s Friday session came by to ask more questions.

March 24: ARISS Educator Melissa Pore and two other Air & Space Forces Association (AFA) ambassadors who have won AFA Teacher of the Year awards heavily supported the 2023 AFA STEM Showcase in Arlington, VA.  AFA President B. Orville Wright welcomed 48 first through twelfth grade educators who took part in the all-day STEM educator workshop. They came from schools in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington DC. Exhibitors from educational groups such as Civil Air Patrol and ARISS had set up display tables. Melissa presented a workshop on the ARISS program, showed a short video on her school’s 2018 ARISS radio contact, and spoke about the ISS National Lab Space Station Explorers and other great STEM programs.

March 26: ARISS Director of Engineering Randy Berger presented a forum titled “What’s New with Amateur Radio on the International Space Station” at the 2023 QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo. This annual exposition for ham radio enthusiasts from all over the world provided multiple simultaneous forums for viewers, resulting in a lot of competition for Randy.  But enthusiasm for ARISS showed through; in addition to a lively Q&A portion at the end of the talk, viewer statistics listed 294 viewers.  Frank Bauer and Jim Reed joined in the Q&A portion to assist Randy.    

ARISS Upcoming Events  
TBD