5 May 2007

SUNITA WILLIAMS TALKS WITH ITALIAN SCHOOL IN PIACENZA

Saturday 05 May 2007 at 10:29 UTC, i.e. 12:29 local time, the "Liceo Scientifico Statale Lorenzo Respighi" in Piacenza, Italy, established a radio contact with US astronaut Sunita Williams, KD5PLB, on board the International Space Station. Astronaut Sunita Williams answered accurately 11 questions on various topics.

The "Liceo Scientifico Statale Lorenzo Respighi" is an high school for students aged from 14 to 19. At present about 1000 students attend the school and are taught by 90 teachers. The main subjects are foreign languages, maths and sciences.

The school has an amateur radio authorization with the call sign IZ4JSC for activities relating to education, instruction and training of the students. The contact was the first one established in Italy with direct participation of the students and an US astronaut operating NA1SS. The previous contacts were established by amateur radio operators, per telebridge or with an Italian astronaut.

Fabio Valla (IZ4BPH) and Dario Calza (IK4MED), contact coordinators for this ARISS school contact, set up the radio station in the school. They also did a very good job preparing the students. An audience of about 150 attended the event. Italian ARISS mentor Francesco De Paolis, IKØWGF set up a live streaming on the AMSAT Italia website.

Five newspapers and the TV-stations Telelibertà, Teleducato, Telecolor and RAI covered the event.

Congratulations to the “Liceo Scientifico Statale Lorenzo Respighi” team!

73

Francesco De Paolis, IKØWGF

ARISS mentor

Piacenza audio