Observation on a special ISS pass – Wednesday 18th October 2023, 10:57UTC.

On Saturday, April 23, 2016, at 1210 GMT I was privileged to be present to witness the contacts by students at the Wellesley House School, Broadstairs with British Astronaut Tim Peake on the International Space Station. This contact was arranged & supported by my local radio club, Hilderstone Radio Society. Truly I believed it to be a once in a lifetime experience.

Present that day was the club’s youngest member, two-year-old Isabella Payne, daughter of Matt Payne, M0LMK. She was sat at the side of the hall on her father’s knee as she watched the older children exchange question & answer with Tim.

Matt had been monitoring the activities of Astronaut Kjell Lindgren, KO5MOS, who had been making spontaneous contacts from the ISS as NA1SS over several days. On the 2^nd of August 2022 Isabella had just gone to bed, but Matt noted a potential pass was about to take place & it was during one of the scheduled rest periods for Kjell, so he took the now eight-year-old ‘space mad’ Isabella back out of bed & sat her in front of his radio. The reports of the subsequent forty-five second QSO went viral! It was reported on news networks worldwide, father & daughter making several recorded interviews.

A recording of the contact is here with other links.

Isabella Media

Kjell tweeted:
I’ve had a lot of fun using the #ARISS amateur radio station #NA1SS on the @Space_Station to talk with ham radio operators all over the world. I’ve even (unofficially) worked stations on all continents! But this may be my favorite contact so far. Thanks Isabella and @m0lmk !

A couple of days after the interview went out on the national evening news Matt was dropping Isabella off at school when the Headmaster Mr Whitehouse saw them & exclaimed “I saw you on the news!” A short conversation then took place during which Matt casually said, “would you like the opportunity for the school to talk to the International Space Station”. To say My Whitehouse was keen, would be an understatement.

Matt along with John Hislop, G7OHO then assisted the very enthusiastic Science lead Nathan Williams, go through the necessary bureaucratic process of applying to arrange a school contact. Matt & John then set about assisting the school with a number of amateur radio based activites. Once it was confirmed that the school was on the list for ISS contacts an after-school club based on space was formed partially just to educate & entertain the children on space topics but also without their knowledge to quietly prepare them for the ISS contact. It was the members of the space club who were asked to prepare a question they would like an astronaut to answer. From those questions the best were selected to be asked, once it was revealed to the children that the contact was to happen.

The contact was finally confirmed to be on Wednesday 18^th October 2023 with Astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, amateur radio call sign KI5WSL. The after-School club has been a roaring success with the children engaging in the various activities. The children were also very lucky to have a personal zoom call with Kjell who was very happy to set aside some time to talk with Isabella again & her class-mates now he was back on earth a few weeks before their school contact.

I have had no input in facilitating this event other than being the club secretary supporting the efforts of Matt & John, acting as a sounding board for ideas during planning, as well as being an enthusiastic cheerleader. Both John & Matt are STEM Ambassadors, I have followed their example & am now also an accredited Ambassador with an enhanced DBS certificate to work with children.

Additionally on the day of the contact the school was very fortunate to have a British Astronaut present to talk with them in person. Dr Meganne Christian gave a very inspiring talk on her background which when you looked at it made you realise why she has been selected to be an astronaut.

The approach to 10:57UTC was very well managed by the ARISS UK team, but the moment when Isabella was called forward to make the initial call from GB4SPT to NA1SS was a tense time especially as she had to repeat the call a few times before Jasmin on the ISS replied. Contact established a cheer went up; flags were waved & nineteen of the 22 prepared questions were asked & answered before a final cheer was sent to Jasmine before she passed out of range eleven minutes later. The final three questions were asked & Dr Meganne answered them from the stage, so all the children had their questions heard & answered by an astronaut.

The Children were extremely lucky to have had this opportunity especially as Dr Meganne agreed to stay on after lunch (Why are school dinners so much better than in my days at school?) & talk with each class.

Thanks must go out to the ARISS UK team who brought all the technical equipment & knowledge to establish the earth station that allowed the children to talk to the space station using amateur radio, along with links to other back up earth stations (just in case!). They also provided the sound system that enable everyone in the room to hear clearly what was going on & a live video stream that not only was being piped into every classroom in the school but to at least eight local schools & over three hundred individual locations worldwide during the event.

So, I now have two ‘once in a lifetime’ experiences of being part of a schools contact with the ISS could it be a third?

We have national & international organisations that will facilitate a contact.

We at the HRS have the experience, knowledge & enthusiasm to support a school.

We need a supportive school head.

We need a both enthusiastic, willing & tireless teacher who will put in the hard yards.

It is a given that the children will engage, only limited by being given the opportunity.

We will continue to reach out to local schools, so watch this space….

The ARISS video of the event