- January 13: The Shigagakuen Junior & Senior High School in Higashioumi, Japan hosted an ARISS contact for students to take part in a Q&A session with Shannon Walker. On site were 60 people social distancing and the school livestreamed the action for more students to participant. The online audience totaled 355. The event began with a 30-minute video on school activities. That was followed by several speakers and an introduction of students chosen to ask the questions. Walker answered 16 questions. Reporters from a TV station and three newspapers prepared media pieces. The video recording was edited down and within seven days had 1,889 views; the URL is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g01fRpf5B8c.
- January 20: A successful ARISS school contact took place for students at the Hisagi Junior High School in Zushi, Japan with Shannon Walker. During the contact, she answered questions from 12 girls and boys. The school livestreamed the event reaching an audience of 539 and 5 days later, another 1,956. Reporters from six newspapers and one cable TV station covered the story. Soichi Noguchi surprised everyone by floating to the ARISS ham station to take a selfie with Shannon as she was finishing with the school. He Tweeted about the ARISS contact, generating a lot of attention—within 2 days, 5.5K Likes and 436 Retweets.
- January 19: ARISS volunteer and teacher Micol Ivancic in Milan, Italy engaged her students in an Italian Space Agency (ASI) project that asked people to do creative writing or drawings, build models, and so on—all tied to the Artemis Lunar Gateway program. Each item was submitted as a proposal to ASI; the agency set up informatics support and stated that the items will be on the initial Lunar Gateway flight to orbit the Moon. Ivancic told her 11- and 12-year-old students, “We’re locked down, but we go to the Moon!” Her students decided how Ivancic should build a spacesuit and instructed her in the process. Students ensured that the spacesuit’s accessories included a hand-held amateur radio.
- January 21: Students from five schools in the Kennebunk, ME, area took part in an ARISS contact with Mike Hopkins, hosted by Maine Regional School. More details will be available next week.
Upcoming Events
- January 28: Students at Newcastle High School in Newcastle, WY, will speak with Victor Glover during an ARISS school contact.
- January 28-29: An SSTV session is tentatively planned by Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI-75) with images downlinked from the ISS Service Module radio.