ESA ASTRONAUT PAOLO NESPOLI, IZ0JPA CELEBRATES 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ITALIAN UNIFICATION

Saturday, 19 March, 2011 at 08:44 UTC and 10:17 UTC, i.e. 09:44 and 11:17 local time, "Cossar / Da Vinci” Institute in Gorizia AND “Elena Guerra” Middle School in Rome, Italy, established a double contact with Italian astronaut PAOLO NESPOLI, IZ0JPA on board the International Space Station. Astronaut NESPOLI operated with the special Italian callsign IR0ISS that he will use during his mission. The contact took place at both schools that operated the contact with callsigns IW3QKU and IK0USO respectively.

For celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Italian unification before LOS of second contact Nespoli received from earth the greeting form Italian students located in several Italian regions.

On March 17, 1861 the Kingdom of Italy was officially proclaimed. The Italian nation was united under one flag. The regions that participated to celebration are Piemonte, Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, Lazio, Sardegna, Campania and Puglia regions. These regions represent some of the states existing before the unification of Italy. Piemonte and Sardegna regions were a part of the Kingdom of Sardegna, Campania and Puglia regions were a part of the Kingdom of Naples, Lazio region was a part of the Papal States and Friuli-Venezia-Giulia regions were under Austrian domination.

At 10:25 UTC, two minutes before LOS of the second contact, NESPOLI received sequentially the greeting form Italian youngsters located in different regions. All attended the celebration by teleconference established via phone line and VoIP between all sites involved. ARISS Telebridge station IK1SLD provided the link with ISS for Piemonte, Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, Sardegna and Campania. IK0USO station installed at “Elena Guerra” Middle School in Rome provided the ISS link for the Lazio region. IZ7RTN, permanently installed at “Cittadella Mediterranea della Scienza” for ARISS and educational activities, provided the ISS link for the Puglia region. From Sardegna island the "A. Maccioni" middle school in Nuoro participated to the event with about 50 students and 4 teachers. Here the Media covered their participation also. From Puglia region, the ITIS “Enrico Fermi” at Franca Villa Fontana (Br) participated to the event at “Cittadella Mediterranea della Scienza” with about 80 students, teachers and visitors.

Streaming video was on:

http://www.livestream.com/AMSAT_Italia

Congratulations to ARISS Puglia Team (Bari), IK8YSS (Naples), IS0MRA (Nuoro), IW3QKU Team (Gorizia), IK0USO Team (Rome) and IK1SLD Team (Casale Monferrato).

73

Francesco De Paolis, IK0WGF

ARISS mentor

Photo Bari
Photo IK1SLD
Audio recording