20 April 2005

FROM ISS ROBERTO VITTORI TALKS TO SCHOOLCHILDREN AT ESRIN, FRASCATI

Wednesday 20 April 2005 at 12:37 UTC, ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori answered questions form schoolchildren gathered in a hall at the European Space Research Institute (ESRIN) based in Frascati, Italy.

The European Space Agency (ESA) had invited over 120 pupils of primary schools of the Lazio region to this special event.

The meeting was planned in the afternoon whereas the passes of the ISS over Italy were very early in the morning. Therefore a “telebridge” was set up between the ARISS ground station NN1SS in Maryland, USA and Frascati, courtesy of MCI, the world telephone company.

NN1SS was operated by Dave Taylor, W8AAS and the telebridge operator at ESRIN was Stefano Badessi, I0WTD.

Roberto Vittori, IZ6ERU answered 12 questions. The signals from NA1SS were loud and clear.

An audio recording of the spacetalk is hereto appended.

Gaston Bertels, ON4WF

ARISS-Europe chairman

audio