Bellefontaine City Schools Set to Communicate with International Space Station

Students at Bellefontaine City Schools are gearing up for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Students will be speaking with astronaut Kayla Barron on the International Space Station (ISS) by amateur radio on Thursday, April 21, 2022, at 1:13 p.m.

Nine students from Bellefontaine Elementary, Intermediate, and Middle School have been selected to ask questions about space.

Kayla Barron is part of the 2017 Astronaut Class. She has a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Cambridge and served as a submarine warfare officer before joining NASA. She was part of the NASA SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station, which launched on November 10, 2021. She has done two spacewalks as part of this mission. She is part of the Artemis Team, which is tasked with sending the first woman and the next man to walk on the moon in 2024.

You can see more about Kayla Barron at:

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/barron-kayla

The direct radio link will be between the Bellefontaine High School Amateur Radio Club (W8BCS) and Kayla Barron (KI5LAL). Members of the Champaign Logan Amateur Radio Club (W8FTV) provided equipment and worked with students to set up the antennas and radios to make this contact possible. The contact will last about 10 minutes as the ISS passes overhead.

A live stream of the contact will be available at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t5ZQOw2j68

The radio contact will be streamed live into each Bellefontaine City Schools classroom Thursday, April 21, 2022, from 12:50 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The community is invited to watch this special event, too. You can stop by the Bellefontaine High School auditorium Thursday around 12:30 p.m.

Students also had the opportunity to participate in space-themed lessons and create art in their classrooms.

This contact is part of the amateur radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program. Bellefontaine is one of only nine groups in the United States to talk to ISS astronauts using amateur radio through the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program in the spring of 2022. ARISS inspires students worldwide to pursue interests and careers in science, technology, engineering, and math through amateur radio communications opportunities with the International Space Station (ISS) on-orbit crew. ARISS provides opportunities for the school community to become more aware of the substantial benefits of human spaceflight and the exploration and discovery that occur on spaceflight journeys.

For more information about the ARISS program, visit www.ariss.org