June 21:   Day 1 of the Space Port Area Conference for Educators (SPACE) featured a special ARISS radio contact at the Center for Space Education in the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. For this contact, instead of having students talk with the astronaut, ARISS invited educators to prepare and ask questions. Sultan Al Neyadi answered 12. Staff from the Astronauts Memorial Foundation livestreamed a YouTube for the public and projected views on the meeting room wall.  40 guests and on-line viewers saw: 1) the teachers asking questions, 2) amateur radio operator Shane Lynd at his home radio station in Australia downlinking Sultan’s ham radio audio from the ISS, 3) an image of Al Neyadi, and 4) an image of the Earth as seen from the ISS.  A reporter taping the action represented Space Coast Daily.  Ground News out of Titusville picked up the story. The URL is https://www.facebook.com/SpaceCoastDaily/videos/1573829529811488. Next week’s ARISS report will cover other ARISS activities tied to the conference—our exhibit booth, an ARISS forum, and a two-day ARISS Educate the Educator Workshop.
 
May 26: ARISS educator Melissa Pore of Vienna, VA, won a grant from the Air & Space Forces Association (AFA) D.W. Steele Chapter in Arlington, VA.  The AFA’s grant will enrich her students’ STEM experiences through providing funding that supports what students have been asking for: to get their hands on drones and learn about them. AFA’s Steele Chapter Vice President for Aerospace Education Mike Maxwell presented the award to Melissa at her school, Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington. 
 
June 20: The fourth of seven planned ARISS radio contacts with Sultan Al Neyadi and students took place at Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in Dubai, UAE.  The MBRSC has invited different UAE schools’ students to each radio contact, and this time, from Mushairif School, Cycle 1-Ajyal in Ajman. A several-minute video posted on MBRSC social platforms showed clips from the contact, garnering 919 views.  The Emirates Amateur Radio Society and Emirates Literature Foundation collaborated on activity for this radio contact. The MBRSC works to promote space science and research in the region. MBRSC does this through educational programs designed to promote a culture based on discovery and exploration in future generations at all education levels.   
 
June 8: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) in Daytona Beach, FL created an education initiative where the school and undergrads will invite 500 area sixth through eighth graders to engage them in a year of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) activities. The target: students in socioeconomically challenged conditions. The program has the support of Nicole Stott. The capstone will be an ARISS contact. The school will involve Embry-Riddle student groups, the Daytona Beach Amateur Radio Association, and the educational non-profit group Tier One Two Aspire Leap Inc..  Pamela Peer, Embry-Riddle Director of Community Outreach & Summer Programs said activities like the ARISS initiative are essential for bringing young people into science and technology.  Dr. Jim Gregory, College of Engineering Dean at Embry-Riddle said, “Through the ARISS radio project, Embry-Riddle will work to foster relationships with underserved students in our community to open meaningful pathways to STEM education and professions.” ERAU’s great web story about all of this is at  https://news.erau.edu/headlines/stem-outreach-embry-riddle-to-connect-students-astronauts.
 
June 23-25: Three people on the ARISS-Europe team represented ARISS at Ham Radio 2023, the largest European amateur radio convention. Sponsors of the event (in Friedrichshafen, Germany) expected 14,000 people.  ARISS-Europe supported a booth and a forum. More details will be shared when available.
 
ARISS Upcoming Events  
 TBD                                       

June 13: ARISS team member Ana Guzman gave a presentation to 13 junior high and high school teachers; she described activities she and others on the staff manage at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) ISS Research office. Some of their many duties include those tied to ARISS and ham radio. Kjell Lindgren came by to share with teachers some aspects of his ARISS school contacts and ham radio experiences on the ISS. Ana’s presentation was just one activity at JSC for these teachers during a week-long program that offered Continuing Education Credits. They received tours and presentations about many areas of JSC including the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, Moon Rock Lab, and visits to other fascinating departments. The program, sponsored by the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, focused on teachers from many neighboring municipalities in the Houston metropolitan area.
 
May 27: At the Griffith Observatory Public Star Party in Mt. Hollywood, CA, ARISS volunteer Liam Kennedy set up a tent from 1:00 pm to 9:30 pm to capture the attention of some of the day’s 7,000 visitors. He arranged his table with monitors showing ARISS activities, the ARISS-Pi software-defined radio equipment, everything needed from the ARISS SPARKI kit for people to monitor amateur radio (and other) satellite activity, and small posters in English and Spanish about the ISS,. As people walked near, they stopped to watch how to monitor satellites and ask questions. Liam reported that at least 900 of the public—parents, youth, teachers, and radio and space enthusiasts—interacted with him. He said, “Other people heading to or from the observatory listened a few minutes.”  An observatory staffer told Liam they had never seen so many of the public so attentive to actions at a tent.
 
February-March-April: ARISS learned that educators and students at Augusta Preparatory School in Augusta, GA have been readying quite a while for their upcoming ARISS contact. Technology teacher Mary White, who took part in an ARISS Educate the Educator workshop in March, worked with faculty and ARISS volunteers to devise a variety of monthly workshops for the Lower, Middle and Upper schools’ students to introduce them to communications, ham radio, and electronics. ARISS volunteer Rachel Jones with members of the Amateur Radio Club of Columbia County (ARCCC), helped plan exciting hands-on activities. The first month, the club guided kids in listening to Morse code, researching codes, and trying Morse code for themselves.  ARCCC members led the next session, “Radio Day,” helping teachers introduce students to radio waves and to reinforce the lesson by having students “make radio waves” with Slinkies. Youth put together and tried tin-can-and-string telephones and then explored getting on the air using ham radio equipment and making radio contacts with area ham operators.  The next month was declared “All School Picnic Day;” ARCCC members led students in building VHF antennas and then trying out their antennas by making radio contacts and participating in a hidden radio transmitter “Fox Hunt.”
 
May 28-June 2: After John Stoffner delighted ham radio operators and space enthusiasts by making radio contacts with them before heading back to earth, Warren Hoburg got on the mic to do the same. Hams reported their excitement about making radio contacts with both crew members using the ISS’s ham radio station.  One ham operator posted this to the ARISS

Facebook page: “Talked with Woody yesterday! Too Cool!”  Reports showed 13 crew contacts were made on one particular day. Ham operators love “meeting” crew members on the air.
 
ARISS Upcoming Events  

June 20: Youth at Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, Dubai UAE–ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe Team
June 21: Space Port Area Conference for Educators, KSC, FL–ARISS contact, ARISS Educator Forum, ARISS Educate-the-Educator Workshop, ARISS-US Team
June 22: Youth at Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, Dubai UAE–ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe Team

May 28:  ARISS educator Kathy Lamont, a Prince William County Schools (VA) gifted-education teacher at Belmont Elementary School in Woodbridge, was nominated and selected as the 2023 Air & Space Forces (AFA) Gabriel Chapter Teacher of the Year awardee. That made her eligible as a candidate, among other educators, for the 2023 Air & Space Forces Virginia Teacher of the Year—and she won!  AFA officials presented the state-level award to her at her school.
 
June 5: Students at Harbor Creek High School in Harborcreek, PA, have an ARISS contact late this year and recently, launched a weather balloon with ham radio equipment on board. Youth in the school’s Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) carried out the balloon project as a learning mission in preparation for the ARISS contact.  A student said, “We are using this event as a first-round test of our [radio] systems to shake out any bugs.” The payload consisted of an APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) unit that transmitted position, a Morse code radio beacon for tracking, and a digital Amateur TV transmitter experiment for youth to view and monitor the launch. Youths hope to launch two balloons in the fall; over 20 students enjoy the ATG. The past three years, many developed a keen interest in ham radio, earning ham licenses. The instructor said, “Five recently took and passed FCC exams, with another dozen studying. A few who graduated last year come back to launches.”  The school honors students with a display on the school radio room wall, recognizing those who earn FCC licenses. On this “Wall of Call Signs,” each student has a special brick celebrating their achievement, showing name and call sign, level of license earned, and date.
 
June 1: The ARISS-Russia Team carried out an ARISS contact and taught the About Gagarin from Space set of lessons at the Amur Mission Control Center area of the Amur State University in Blagoveshchensk.  This contact benefited the city’s students from the MAOU Ust-Ivanovo Secondary School.  16 students, a teacher, and a parent took part, along with university staff who gave tours and talks about the university’s space programs and careers. Sergey Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin supported the ARISS radio contact.
 
June 4: Another ARISS radio contact sponsored by the ARISS-Russia team was hosted during the Children’s Creative Competition for the Day of Cosmonautics held in Orel, Russia. Eleven youth communicated with Andrey Fediaev during this ARISS radio contact; 30 people attended the event.  Youth learned lessons from the About Gagarin from Space program. Mission Control-Moscow scheduled this contact.
 
May 31 & June 1: Students from over 50 schools in many parts of the United Arab Emirates visited the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in Dubai. They commented happily about their tour of the facility, glimpsing labs and workstations, seeing a presentation on space stations, and taking part in ARISS contacts. The MBRSC reported that:      

“Students received comprehensive training on ham radio, unravelling the complexities of the critical communication tool used since the 20th century. The highlight of the programme was the live ARISS contact, one each day, with Sultan Al Neyadi. Youth were spellbound.”

The UAE Astronaut Programme mission manager said, “Through these ham radio sessions with Sultan, we strive to ignite a passion for space and science in the next generation.” A short video created for MBRSC featured smiling girls and boys of various ages asking Al Neyadi their questions. A video of the action posted on Facebook earned 255 views.  A Centre web story is at https://www.zawya.com/en/press-release/people-in-the-news/sultan-alneyadi-engages-in-live-interaction-with-students-during-ham-radio-sessions-from-the-iss-ac6dn5p6. MBRSC planned more events like these.
 
ARISS Social Media
 
ARISS social media leader Jim Reed reported these highlights for May 2023:

• 332,663 impressions on ARISS social media for May, surpassing 300,000 for the second time this year.
• 249 posts created, averaged 1,688.6 impressions per post. 
• Post volume was driven by a higher number of reported ARISS events for May (11 school contacts, a convention, Ax-2 crew actions, and crew members making radio contacts with hams in addition to the scheduled school contacts).

 
 
ARISS Total May Social Media Metrics:

• ARISS Twitter – Total Impressions / Views 236,933,  Interactions / Engagements 6,824 
• ARISS Facebook – Total Impressions 91,541,  Interactions / Engagements 3,229
• ARISS Instagram – Total Reach 4,189,  Interactions / Engagements 545
• ARISS Mastodon – Interactions / Engagements 198
• ARISS LinkedIn – 10 new Followers,  27 Reactions     
• ARISS YouTube – 30 new Subscribers, Total Subscribers 1.95k

 
May Social Media Top Posts & April Total Metrics and images 
 

• Top May Tweet–on ARISS contact at Saudi Space Commission: Impressions 21,787, Interactions / Engagements 433
  
• Top May Facebook Post – list of ARISS radio frequencies: Reaches / Impressions 9,535,  Engagements 435
  
• Top May Instagram Post – viewers favorite radio to use for ARISS contacts: Reach 124,  Interactions / Engagements 31, 30 Likes
  
• Top May Mastodon Post – viewers’ favorite software to track the ISS: Interactions 16

 
 
ARISS Upcoming Events  

June 20: Youth at Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, Dubai UAE–ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe Team
June 21: Space Port Area Conference for Educators, KSC, FL–ARISS contact, ARISS Educator Forum, ARISS Educate-the-Educator Workshop, ARISS-USA Team
June 22: Youth at Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, Dubai UAE–ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe Team

May 26: The Children’s Inn at National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD hosted an ARISS radio contact with Axiom Ax-2 crew member John Shoffner. 10 very special children ages 6 through 16 talked with him and he answered 17 of their questions. ARISS leaders Frank Bauer and Dave Taylor engaged with 22 people taking part in this contact, including the youth, children’s parents, The Inn’s administrators, and professionals helping to coordinate the event. Staff had taught some STEM lessons and ARISS reviewed aspects such as orbital mechanics, radio communications, and details about the ISS and astronauts.  The Inn posted Social Media items and a nice web story; the latter is at https://childrensinn.org/stories/ariss/.  
 
May 26:  St. Francis Xavier High School students took part in an ARISS contact in Gloucester, ON, Canada.  Warren Hoburg answered 16 questions. The school gym held a few hundred youth and faculty, and the other 2,000 students watched via livestream.  CFRA talk radio posted a story after interviewing two ninth-grade girls. One said she was “fascinated about everything up there” [space]. The other wants a career that is “something in space science.” Go to 
https://www.iheartradio.ca/580-cfra/audio-podcasts/oaw-local-students-connect-with-us-astronaut-on-iss-via-ham-radio-1.19710775?mode=Article. Grade nine students had participated in special lessons on radio communications and the ISS and had engaged in the school’s “Study of the Universe and Space Exploration” science curriculum.
 
May 25: Students at Middlesboro Middle School asked questions of John Shoffner during an ARISS contact; he answered 14 questions. Despite school having closed for the summer and some friends and family not back yet from Shoffner’s SpaceX launch, a mix of 80 watched---youth, parents, faculty, ARISS team members, and some of Shoffner’s boyhood teachers. WATE-TV, St. Charles Herald Guide, Lexington Herald-Leader, Pineville Sun-Cumberland Courier, and AOL ran stories about the event. About 30 companies in town decorated front windows in space themes.  Middlesboro School District STEM director Chris Stotts said, “We have plans to build a STEM lab that MIT will help design [for] middle and high school. There’ve been great things that have been channeled through John’s generosity.”  The school became a Verizon Innovative Learning School, receiving technology and unique learning tools for students and faculty. They joined STEM initiatives connected to NASA and Axiom Space. Youth engaged with rocket launches, robots, and lunar and Martian habitat design. Shoffner gave middle and high school students an inside look at life on the ISS and his required launch preparations, and taught lessons such as how to “play catch” with a ball in microgravity versus on Earth and how water and power are generated on the ISS.
 
May 27-28: The ARISS-Russia team led by Sergey Samburov supported two ARISS contacts for youth and taught them the series of lessons titled About Gagarin From Space. The SBEI Secondary School No. 285 of the Krasnoselsky District of Saint Petersburg hosted the first ARISS contact, which was in conjunction with the children’s festival “Die Hard.”  About 2,000 watched as youth talked to Andrey Fediaev. The second contact involved students of the village of Muslyumovo in the Republic of Tatarstan. They engaged in talking with Dmitry Petelin during their ARISS contact.  As with other ARISS-Russian sponsored ARISS contacts, Mission Control Center-Moscow scheduled these contacts.
 
May 21:  Axiom Ax-2 crew members Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi engaged in an ARISS contact with selected students hosted by the Saudi Space Commission (SSC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The youth had 14 questions for the two crew members who took turns answering. The activity was part of Saudi Arabia’s first sustainable Human Space Flight program designed to, among other things, conduct research in many areas of science. The SSC posted a Tweet with a video that is a little over a minute in length, highlighting the ARISS contact and featuring a few of the students—it has garnered 156.4k viewers as of June 2!  See https://twitter.com/saudispace/status/1661452020237193222?s=20.
 
May 20: ARISS educator Kathy Lamont and her daughter traveled to The Plains, VA for the American Rocketry Challenge National Finals, a major competition for middle school and high school youth. The two set up an exhibit table with the ARISS slide show, an ARISS roll-up banner, brochures, and ham radio station equipment that would attract kids' attention and entice them to handle it. Kathy talked to 60 people, and said, "It was non-stop talking for over five hours—a lot of techy kids, their rocket team leaders, and parents." 
 
May 18-21: ARISS volunteers put on a show at Hamvention 2023 (the world’s largest ham radio convention—33,000 people!) in Xenia, OH.  Ten ARISS team members, including two SIP interns, set up and staffed a two-space booth featuring ARISS hardware and education programs and a giant poster kicking off a year-long anniversary celebration of 40 years of amateur radio contacts made from a human spaceflight vehicle. All told, ARISS volunteers talked to over 1,460 people.  ARISS felt honored to garner an official Hamvention forum for the third year in a row; 130 people attended. They listened to Frank Bauer and Rosalie White give introductions of speakers including ARISS Director of Engineering Randy Berger and three high school youth. One, a SIP intern, presented his part in the development of ARISS’ new telerobotics education program. The other two spoke on their paths after taking part in an ARISS contact (one girl wants to be an astronaut—the other girl plans a STEM career).  An attendee Tweeted about the forum: “There’s a good size crowd here for this interesting topic; I learned some things to bring back to my school.” A surprising number of folks stopped at the booth the next two days to express compliments on the forum. ARISS hosted four mini-forums next to the booth; topics covered ARISS education, ARISS engineering, ARISS operations, and a Q&A with a meet-and-greet of ARISS volunteers. At both the Hamvention educator forum and the Hamvention youth forum, a team member gave cameos about ARISS.
 
May 22: ARISS Director of Education Kathy Lamont, ARISS Technical Mentor Fred Kemmerer, and Frank Bauer led an ARISS Orientation Webinar with 45 attendees. This webinar focused on next steps for the 11 newest educational institutions selected to host ARISS radio contacts. The educators and informal educators will plan when to move forward with their education activities and be assigned ARISS Operations Team members to give assistance with equipment plans. The ARISS radio contacts would be scheduled between January and June 2024.  
 
May 31: The ARISS contact with students at Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai, UAE was successful. More details will be in next week’s report, which will cover a second contact at the Centre, which was hosted on June 1.

ARISS Upcoming Events  
June 4: Children’s Creative Competition for Cosmonautics, Orel Russia–ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia Team
June 10: Youth in Saint Petersburg, Russia–ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia Team