DOUBLE CONTACT FOR ESA ASTRONAUT LUCA PARMITANO, KF5KDP WITH TWO EVENTS IN ITALY.

Saturday, 26 October, 2013 at 11:55 UTC, 13:55 local time and at 13:33 UTC, 15:33 local time, Convitto Nazionale “Vittorio Emanuele II” di Roma, Rome, Italy and "Ospedale Pediatrico Giovanni XXIII", Bari, Italy established a ARISS contacts with ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano KF5KDP, onboard the International Space Station. This was a direct contact performed by Amateur radio ground station IK0USO, located at "Convitto Nazionale di Roma, and telebridge for "Ospedale Pediatrico Giovanni XXIII", Bari.

The Convitto Nazionale is a State co-educational boarding and day school, with both residential and semi-residential facilities, located in Rome. Our school provides students a top quality all-round education from Primary through Junior High school to High School levels (Liceo Classico - Liceo Scientifico - Liceo Classico Europeo - Sezione Liceo Scientifico a indirizzo sportivo - Liceo Musicale e Coreutico - Sezione Coreutica - Liceo Scientifico Internazionale con opzione Lingua cinese) Aula Confucio Scuol@2.0 – Unesco Associated Schools.

The pediatric hospital "Giovanni XXIII" of Bari is one of the two establishments of the social hospital-university public service corporation "Policlinico di Bari". It is an unique structure in which are located different hospital wards. Since a long time it is leader of the regional program of humanization of the Apulia pediatric wards for the improvement of the quality of the pediatric hospital assistance.

Mentor Francesco De Paolis IK0WGF proposed to the radio coordinators Mr. Marcelo Teruel IK0USO and Mr. Michele Mallardi IZ7EVR the sharing of events and this was accepted. About 200 students, parents, visitors and media attended the events in both contact sites.

Contact was established at 11:55 UTC, 13:55 local time, with IRØISS. Astronaut Luca Parmitano answered 20 questions by students from Convitto Nazionale di Roma and before LOS the radio contact coordinator Mr. Marcelo Teruel IKØUSO proposed to astronaut complete the sequence of the questions during the following orbit. Parmitano agreed. Signals from the ISS was loud and clear during the ISS pass.

At 13:33 UTC, 15:33 local time, contact was established per telebridge via IK1SLD with Luca Parmitano, who answered the additional 15 questions, exchanged the greetings and close the contact. Signals from the ISS was loud and clear during the ISS pass.

Regional Television, local media and newspapers covered the event.

Streaming video on:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/convitto-nazionale-vittorio-emanuele-roma http://www.cittadellamediterraneascienza.it/webtv.php#

The event was announced on ESA Portal - National News:http://www.esa.int/ita/ESA_in_your_country/Italy/Doppio_collegamento_per_Luca_Parmitano

Congratulations to IK0USO, IZ7EVR and IK1SLD Teams!

73

Francesco De Paolis, IK0WGF

ARISS Mentor