• 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 1st to 3rd grade, 4th and 5th grade, and 6th to 9th 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

• 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, Alabama
  

 
 

• 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

• May 7: Partnering with Green Bank (WV) Observatory (GBO—an NSF facility), the Green Bank Elementary and Middle School (GBEMS), hosted an ARISS contact for students with Mark Vande Hei. An audience of 40 listened as he answered 15 student questions. Prior to the radio contact, programming featured greetings taped by National Science Foundation Director Sethuraman Panchanathan, GBEMS Principal Julie Shiflet who said the project was a good way to encourage students to pursue STEM careers, and US Senators Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin. (He posted his words online, too.)  GBEMS augments STEM curricula with student clubs: computer coding, engineering, robotics; GBO provides educational support. The GBEMS Ham Club was formed for grades 6-8 last year by GBO and Eight Rivers Amateur Radio Club (ERARC). The latter acted as radio mentors for youth activities—antenna building, radio direction-finding, and high-altitude balloon launch and tracking. School staff had added pursuits in communications, wave physics, orbital mechanics, electronics, Doppler, signal processing. Staff highlighted the ISS’s example of international cooperation as a goal. Livestreams of the radio contact were:
  

     * GBO:  Facebook—697 live, 6.5K later, 24K Reaches; YouTube—166 live, 280 later; Zoom live—40 staff.  (YT link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=aZElXlwzC0c)  

     * ARISS: YouTube—22 live, 279 later; ARISS worked on PR with ARRL—Facebook 12,124 Reaches, 233 Responses

     * WDTV, Clarksburg news program & online post—1,249 live views.

• In addition to ARISS distributing a news release, GBO released theirs to 67 contacts and posted it on the GBO website, resulting in 1,025 visitors that day to their page. WDBJ-TV (Roanoke, VA) ran broadcast and online stories. Other online stories were by Metro News, Pocahontas Times, and Allegheny Mountain Radio.
  

• May 11: The Collège Descartes in Antony, France hosted an ARISS radio contact; students asked 17 questions of Thomas Pesquet.  Nearly 200 people attended including city officers, regional academy leaders, and reporters from newspapers Le Parisien and City Bulletin and Regional TV France-3. The school created fine video programming for the contact, which began with a real-time tracking map showing the ISS’s position approaching the ARISS ground station location. Next, the program offered a collection of clips of students engaged in STEAM projects and a piece on amateur radio’s role in ARISS. Links for the livestream were sent to all of the region’s colleges. Total views 3 days later were 1,938 on Twitch; the link is (begin at 9 minutes): (493) Space Chat - Collège Descartes, Antony, France - YouTube. ARISS’s You Tube total views 5 days later were 2,057. Students’ physics studies included the solar system, space probes, observing the sky to study relativity of movements, and organization of matter in the universe. The school encourages students to augment science- and math-learning by joining the nature, astronomy, and space clubs, with activities being electronic module-building, communications experiments, computer coding, and Morse code. The school partners with the Radio Club de Clamart.
  

• May 14:  ARISS thanks SCaN for its Facebook post about the Green Bank Elementary Middle School ARISS contact. The post garnered the top SCaN Facebook spot for the week, reaching 804 people.
  

         Upcoming Events

• May 19 Monaro High School, Cooma NSW Australia, ARISS contact, ARISS Japan team
  
• May 20 Lycée Jean Moulin, Les Andelys France, ARISS contact, ARISS Europe team
• May 22 Education group in Ufa, Russia, ARISS-Russia team
• May 24 Ecole Elémentaire de Saint Leu Centre, France, ARISS contact,  ARISS-Europe team

• May 5: Classes were outside for the day at the Savannah (GA) River Academy. Students, with help from the National Weather Service and Amateur Radio Club of Columbia County, engaged in hands-on weather balloon launches, part of their lessons related to an autumn ARISS radio contact. The balloons carried a camera and a ham radio Automatic Packet Reporting System unit so students could track the balloons. A fifth grader recited the goals: track, record scientific data, and recover balloons when they pop and fall to earth.  More of the day’s STEM activities included students using ham radios to talk on the air and tapping out words on Morse code keys. ARISS-US Education Committee member Martha Muir and others supported the activities with the big hit being youth experimenting with a two-foot long Morse code key!  The Augusta Chronicle published an item about the outdoor lessons. TV station WRDW ran a story during a two news programs and in an online posting, with a teacher quote being: “The launch definitely caught the interest of many students … they have a passion for weather and space.”  Links are:

https://www.wrdw.com/2021/05/05/columbia-county-students-launch-weather-balloon/
and   
https://www.augustachronicle.com/story/news/education/2021/05/06/columbia-county-radio-club-partners-grovetown-students-launch-weather-balloons-talk-astronauts/4962559001/

• May 6: The French publication, REF Magazine, carried an article titled “Discover the IK1SLD Telebridge,” by a French ARISS team member. The write-up contained many photos of the ARISS telebridge ham radio ground station in Casale Monferrato, Italy, including the station room, the radio equipment used for ARISS contacts, and the volunteers who run the operations. The author had driven with his family from France to Italy to visit the station and the trip inspired his daughter to study for and earn her ham radio license.
  

• May 7: The Green Bank (WV) Elementary Middle School ARISS contact was successful. Details will be in next week’s report.
  
  

Social Media
 
Facebook – February 2021

Twitter:

• As of April 30, 2021, ARISS Twitter followers totaled 14,625, a slight gain over March.
  

 
Instagram:

• As of April 30, 2021, Instagram followers had a 6% gain over the end of March, and now total 314.
  

 
YouTube Members:

• As of April 30, YouTube members totaled over 1,320. Four months ago, the total was a little over 800. 
  

 
ARISS Web Unique Pageviews:

• In April ARISS Web Unique Pageviews totaled 44,749, an increase over March.
  

         Upcoming Events

• May 11  College Descartes, Atony France, ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe Team