UPDATE: The ARISS schoolcontact with 1° Circolo Didattico Nicola Fornelli, Bitonto, Italy planned Friday 24 February at approximately 14.01 UTC (15.01 CEWT), will be broadcast live on streaming video at http://www.cittadellamediterraneascienza.it/webtv/

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ARISS contact planned with students at ESTEC, the Netherlands

An International Space Station school contact has been planned Monday February 27, 2012 with participants at ESTEC, Noordwijk, the Netherlands. This is the European Space Research and Technology Centre of the European Space Agency.

Students from three international schools will ask questions to André Kuipers, Dutch astronaut onboard the International Space Station. The schools are the American school of the Hague, the International School of Amsterdam and the British School in the Netherlands.

The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 12.45 UTC , which is 13.45 CEWT.

The contact will be operated by the ARISS telebridge station IK1SLD located at Casale Monferrato, Italy. The contact should be audible over most of Europe. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.800 MHz FM downlink. The contact will be conducted in English.

The contact will be broadcast on EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and JK1ZRW (node 277 208) Conference servers, as well as on IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010.

The American School of The Hague offers a learner-centered, American curriculum modified for the needs of an international student and parent population. Our student body is comprised of 1,100 students from 70 nationalities, with 30% US, 10% Dutch and 60% representing 66 other nationalities. Students at American School of The Hague are aged 3 to 18 years, with complete Early Childhood, Middle and High School programs, including International Baccalaureate Diploma and Certificate, and Advanced Placement courses. The School prides itself on offering every student the opportunity to fully explore each of their interests with a wide variety of extracurricular activities, such as The Hague Model United Nations, dramatic and musical performances and athletic teams in 10 sports, to name just a few. Graduates from American School of The Hague are highly regarded and are widely accepted at Universities throughout Europe, the United States, their own home countries and indeed and home countries abroad. American School of The Hague is fully accredited by the Council of international Schools and the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, and is located in Wassenaar, The Netherlands.

The International School of Amsterdam is a school of around 950 students of ages 3 to 19 located in Amstelveen, between Amsterdam and Schiphol. The school is an IB world school, teaching the three curricula of the International Baccalaureate: the Primary Years programme, the Middle Years Programme and the IB Diploma Programme. Students of over 50 nationalities attend the school with the largest groups being American, Dutch, British, Japanese and Korean. The teachers also represent a wide mix of nationalities. The language of instruction at ISA is English, except for language classes at higher levels.

The British School in the Netherlands is a co-educational non-selective independent day school of over 800 students serving the international community in The Hague/Leiden. The school has over 80 nationalities represented. The school provides the English and Welsh curriculum and offers both A level and IB Diploma. The core curriculum consists of English, Mathematics and Science with students studying Biology, Chemistry and Physics elements until aged 17.  The extended curriculum includes at least one language from Dutch, French, Spanish and German, Geography, History, Music, Art and Physical Education.

Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows:

1. Eoin (14): Can you light a candle or magnesium in zero gravity?

2. Rachel (11): Do you get homesick?

3. Phoebe (14): After all the time and money invested into space travel what will be the main benefit to mankind?

4. Isaac (14): How long does it take to get to the ISS?

5. Lauren (11): Do you believe in aliens or life out there?

6. Ross (14): Do astronauts feel a temperature increase when re entering the Earth's atmosphere due to the heat increase on the outside of the aircraft?

7. Wout (14): Can you see houses and man-made things from the space station?

8. Joep (11): How does it feel to be launched into space? Is it painful?

9. Saul-Patrick (14): On Earth we use north, south, east and west. How do you determine directions in space?

10. Ellie (11): When you push against the wall of the space station to move around does it change the orbit of the space station?

11. Sarah (11): Do you get to wear your own clothes or are you given special clothes?

12. Jonathan (14): Are there any similarities between space technology at the space station and Star Trek movies?

13. Michelle (14): What is the longest time you have been in space? And how do you communicate with your family?

14. Liam (11): Have you been out of the station and floated around in space?

15. Shaunnak (14): What are your views on commercial space travel?

16. Aidan (11): When did you become interested in space?

17. Igor (13): How does being in space affect your health and thinking processes?

18 Jella (12): After being in space so long and seeing earth from so far away, do you still see mankind in the same way?

19. Alma (12): Are there experiments happening on the ISS that can lead to knowledge about life on Mars? If so, what are they?

20. Miyu (13): Is there jet lag in space?

21. Natalia (12): How does day and night look like in space?

ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the participating space agencies, NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA, with the AMSAT and IARU organizations from participating countries.

ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers on-board the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology, and learning.

Gaston Bertels, ON4WF

ARISS Chairman