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 6th 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 1,000th 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