After months of preparation and hundreds of hours of coordination and hard work, the long-planned ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) contact took place on 12 June 2003, with ARISS team member Flight Engineer Ed Lu, KC5WKJ. From the ARISS station NA1SS, Lu answered questions from the group of students assembled at Lively District Secondary School (near Sudbury, Ontario).

This particular ARISS session was a milestone for the program, in that it was the 100th school group contact since the inception of the ARISS program.

The Control Op for the session was Sudbury Amateur Radio Club member Steve Gorecki, VE3CWJ, who has put in a tremendous effort to bring this project to fruition. Without Steve's efforts, this project would never have gotten off the ground (no pun intended!)

The results of the ARISS contact are widespread: many young eyes have been opened to the hobby of amateur radio, and the wonders of science and technology have been demonstrated to these schoolkids on a first-hand basis.

Exposure for the hobby in general, and our region and Club in particular, have also been manifest since the successful ARISS project was completed. Local news coverage was extensive (everyone has seen the pieces on the local Evening News, and in the Sudbury Star). This project has even been featured on the ARRL "News" page, complete with photos and quotes. To check out the ARRL story, follow this link:

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2003/06/19/2/?nc=1

Congratulations to Steve and to all of the other SARC volunteers who worked so hard to make this happen. Well done!

Above: Natalie Sgoifo asks her question, while Steve Gorecki, VE3CWJ, holds the microphone, and other students wait in the queue for their turns.

Click here to listen to a MP3 file of the ARISS contacts made from Lively District Secondary School on June 12, 2003.

(The file is 3.8 MB and runs 9.5 minutes. It may take a while to download.)