April 2, 2003

ARISS SCHOOL CONTACT SCHEDULED WITH UK NATIONAL SPACE CENTRE

The Rushey Mead secondary school is located in Leicester, UK. It is a State Secondary Comprehensive School for the 11-16 years old age range. It has a large number of pupils from ethnic minorities.

The school has an excellent examination record and is particularly successful in science. The amateur radio club has been established in the Science Department for 20 years and has previously listened into the space shuttle including the very first Amateur Radio operations and also listened to the UK astronaut Helen Sharman when she was aboard MIR.

The ground station to be used is the amateur radio club located in the nearby National Space Centre. This club was established in 2000 with the express purpose of demonstrating the amateur radio aspects of Space Communications to the many thousands of visitors to the Space Centre. By its efforts it is hoped that many new recruits will be made to the ranks of radio amateurs.

The station holds the special exhibition callsign GB2NSC as well as M1NSC. It is active on VHF, UHF and Microwaves via the various amateur satellites.

An ARISS School Contact has been scheduled with the students of Rushey Mead at the National Space Centre next Friday April 4, 2003 at 19:26 UTC, which is 20:26 UK time and 21:26 continental time.

The students at Rushey Mead have prepared the following questions:

1. My name is Kirsty. What made you interested in being an astronaut and do you like your job? OVER

2. My name is Victoria. How long have you been interested in going into space and is your job good or bad? OVER

3. My name is Rahul. How do you know what time to go to sleep? OVER

4. My name is Kishan. How do you wash yourself and keep clean in space? OVER

5. My name is Jatin. What does space look like from up there, what colour is it? OVER

6. My name is Bhavin. How many years training do you have to do to be an astronaut? OVER

7. My name is Vishal. What entertainment do you have up there, can you watch TV? OVER

8. My name is Mitchell. What is the food like, (5 star)? Do you eat proper meals and if not how do you eat? OVER

9. My name is Dhaval. What is the view like when you take off and how fast roughly are you travelling? OVER

10. My name is Mehul. When you are in 0% gravity do you bang about on the equipment and do you break it? OVER

11. My name is Neeraj. What kind of qualifications do you need to be an Astronaut? OVER

12. My name is Trishan. Have you ever seen a mysterious object like a UFO? OVER

13. My name is Suraj. Can you see the planets and how does it feel to see these things? OVER

14. My name is Jitesh. What parts of the Space Station do you have to complete before returning to Earth? OVER

15. My name is Rajesh. Will there be a party when you get back? OVER

16. My name is Raahul. Have you ever bumped your head on the ceiling and does it hurt? OVER

17. My name is Kishan. What time is it on the space station, do you keep the same time as America or Russia? OVER

18. My name is Bhavin. Have you got any pets on the space station? OVER

19. My name is Jitesh. What experiments are you doing on the space station? OVER

Interested parties are invited to listen to the astronaut answering these questions on 145.800 MHz.

Gaston Bertels, ON4WF
ARISS Vice Chairman