Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a program that facilitates radio communications between licensed amateur radio operators and crew members aboard the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

using the amateur-satellite service. The primary goal or ARISS is "to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics topics" and inspire individuals to pursue careers in

STEM Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

. ARISS was established in 1996 and is managed by an international consortium of amateur radio organizations and space agencies including

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, Russia's space agency

Roscosmos The State Corporation for Space Activities "Roscosmos", commonly known simply as Roscosmos (), is a State corporation (Russia), state corporation of the Russian Federation responsible for space science, space flights, List of space agencies, c ...

, Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Japan Aeronautics Exploration Space Agency (JAXA), and

European Space Agency (ESA) The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 in the context of European ...

. ARISS was previously called the Space Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX), and before that the

Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment The Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX), later called the Space Amateur Radio Experiment, was a program that promoted and supported the use of amateur ("ham") radio by astronauts in low Earth orbit aboard the United States Space Shuttle to co ...

. Students and amateur radio operators all over the world are able to speak directly to

astronauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

and

cosmonauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spacecraft. Although generally reserve ...

via handheld, mobile, or home radio stations. Low power radios and small antennas can be used to establish communications. It is also possible to send digital data to the ISS via laptop computers, similar to an email communication, using radio frequencies instead of telephone or cable connections . On November 12, 2000 the first amateur radio contacts were made from the International Space Station during

Expedition 1 Expedition 1 was the first long-duration expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). The three-person crew stayed aboard the station for 136 days, from 2 November 2000 to 19 March 2001. It was the beginning of an uninterrupte ...

. Sometime between 06:30 and 10:10 UTC

Sergei Krikalev Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev (, also transliterated as Sergei Krikalyov; born 27 August 1958) is a Russian mechanical engineer and former cosmonaut and head of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. As a prominent rocket scientist, he ...

(callsign U5MIR) contacted the ARISS team in Russia. At 10:55 UTC Kiralev and

William Shepherd William McMichael "Bill" Shepherd (born July 26, 1949), (Capt, USN, Ret.), is an American former Navy SEAL, aerospace, ocean, and mechanical engineer, and NASA astronaut, who served as commander of Expedition 1, the first crew on the Internatio ...

(callsign KF5GSL) operating as NA1SS contacted the amateur radio club at NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center. A few minutes later they would talk to the Johnson Space Center club, W5RRR. The team noted in the mission log, "Comm quality of the VHF circuit was excellent. Signal to noise and readability of the ham radio is better than our other comm circuits." In 2011,

Kenwood Electronics is a Japanese brand of consumer electronics. Since October 2008, Kenwood has been owned by JVCKenwood as a result of a merger between Kenwood Corporation and JVC. Kenwood has manufactured electronic equipment such as Radio receiver, AM/FM stere ...

launched an advertising campaign capitalizing on the fact that their TM-D700A transceiver is currently in use on the ISS. Many of the space station crew are also amateur radio operators. After their standard work day (based on UTC time), they might use their evening free time to communicate with family and other hams via amateur radio. Crew member Kjell N. Lindgren spoke with a young operator in the UK during the summer of 2022 and later they exchanged photos and cards. Crew members from ISS

Expedition 69 Expedition 69 was the 69th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station. The expedition began with the uncrewed departure of Soyuz MS-22 in March 2023 with Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev continuing his ISS command from Expedit ...

and

Expedition 70 Expedition 70 was the 70th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station. The expedition began with the departure of Soyuz MS-23 on 27 September 2023 with Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen taking over the ISS command. It ended wit ...

as well as Axiom 1 and Axiom 2 have made recent space to ground contacts with schools via Amateur Radio.

Interoperable Radio System (IORS)

Interoperable Radio System (IORS) is the foundation element of the ARISS next-generation radio system on ISS. A total of four flight units and ten total units are being built by the ARISS hardware team. This first IORS radio was flown to ISS on

SpaceX CRS-20 SpaceX CRS-20, also known as SpX-20, was a Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched on 7 March 2020. The mission was contracted by NASA and flown by SpaceX. It was the final flight of Dragon 1 and ...

and installed in the ISS

Columbus module ''Columbus'' is a science laboratory that is part of the International Space Station (ISS) and is the largest single contribution to the ISS made by the European Space Agency (ESA). Like the ''Harmony'' and ''Tranquility'' modules, the ''Col ...

Expedition 63 Expedition 63 was the 63rd long duration mission to the International Space Station, which began on 17 April 2020 with the undocking of the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft and continued until the undocking of the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft on 21 October 20 ...

Commander,

Chris Cassidy Christopher John "Chris" Cassidy (born January 4, 1970) is a retired NASA astronaut and United States Navy SEALs, United States Navy SEAL. Chris Cassidy achieved the rank of Captain (United States O-6), captain in the U.S. Navy. His first spacefl ...

on September 2, 2020. System activation was first observed at 01:02 UTC on September 2 by ARISS control station and amateur radio ground operators. Initial operation of the new radio system began as an FM cross band repeater. A second flight unit has launched on a later 2020 cargo flight for installation in the Russian Service module. Since 2022 ARISS has been using IORS radios in both the Columbus and Service Modules. The Columbus Module radio typically functions as the crossband voice repeater when not being used for contacts with students. The Service Module IORS radio typically is used for packet radio operations like

Automatic Packet Reporting System Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) is an amateur radio-based system for real time digital communications of information of immediate value in the local area. Data can include object Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates, non-directi ...

activities or

Slow-scan television Slow-scan television (SSTV) is a picture transmission method, used mainly by amateur radio operators, to transmit and receive static pictures via radio in monochrome or color. A literal term for SSTV is narrowband television. Analog broadcast t ...

events. The IORS consists of a special, modified JVCKenwood D710GA transceiver, an AMSAT-developed multi voltage power supply and interconnecting cables. The IORS has a higher power radio, an enhanced voice repeater, updated digital packet radio (APRS) capabilities and slow scan television (SSTV) capabilities for both the US and Russian segments.

Notes

External links

* ARISS amateur radi
website
*

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency radio spectrum, spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emer ...

operator
ISS Fanclub

Station to Saly : short documentary about an ARISS contact with French School in Senegal
{{Spaceflight Amateur radio organizations Articles containing video clips