As he wrapped up his last successful Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) school group contact before heading home, Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao, KE5BRW, also set a new ARISS record. Chiao’s contact April 19 with youngsters at Schulhaus Feld 1 in Richterswil, Switzerland, marked his 23rd ARISS school group contact. That tops the previous record of 22 QSOs set by Expedition 3 Crew Commander Frank Culbertson, KD5OPQ, in 2001-2002. Chiao safely returned to Earth with crewmate Salizhan Sharipov and ESA Astronaut Roberto Vittorio, IZ6ERU, on April 24. During the contact between NA1SS and HB9IRM, Chiao told the eight, nine and ten-year-old youngsters that the ISS is still growing.
“There will be a few more modules added to the ISS. As soon as the shuttle starts flying again, we’ll resume major construction,” Chiao explained. “There will be a European module, the Columbus, of course, and also the Japanese module, the JEM module, and a few other smaller ones.” NASA announced this week that it’s postponed the space shuttle “return to flight” mission to a date no earlier than mid-July.
The last ARISS school group contact of Chiao’s duty tour was the first for Switzerland. Chiao told the youngsters that he had a nice view of the Swiss Alps and the Zurich region from his vantage point some 350 km above Earth. Before the ISS went out of range, Chiao was able to answer all 20 questions the Richterswil pupils had prepared. As he went over the horizon, he wished the students “all the very best of luck,” and -as he’d urged other school groups in previous contacts – told them to “reach for the stars and keep on dreaming.” At least two newspapers published reports of the Richterswil contact.
Chiao, who said he enjoyed getting to answer questions about life in space posed by students on Earth, shifted into an accelerated schedule of ARISS school contacts as his duty tour drew to a close. His penultimate school QSO occurred April 15 with students at Fort Ross Elementary School in Cazadero, California, some 90 miles north of San Francisco. The school has an enrollment of just 50 students in kindergarten through grade 8.
Apparently the forest of tall redwoods surrounding the small school blocked signals, causing a slight delay in the start of the Fort Ross event as the ISS came over the horizon. Once contact was established, however, signals were reported to be excellent, and seventh and eighth graders at Fort Ross managed to get 15 of their 20 questions asked and answered. During the direct VHF contact between NA1SS and WA6M, students wanted to know – among other things – how small an object Chiao could view from the ISS, how high the spacecraft was flying and how many space walks he’s done.
Bob Dickson, WA6M, served as the Earth station control operator, with assistance from David Horvitz, KD6BPS, and John Sperry, KE6IRX. The ARISS contact received news coverage in the Independent Coast Observer.
Chiao and Sharipov will spend several weeks in Star City, Russia – near Moscow -for debriefings and medical examinations. Now aboard the ISS is the Expedition 11 crew of Commander Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR, and NASA ISS Science Officer John Phillips, KE5DRY. The ARISS school group schedule is on hiatus until May 4 while the new team settles in.
ARISS is an international educational outreach with US participation by ARRL, AMSAT and NASA.