ARISS Radio Contact Tuesday, October 30, 2012 with school in NY – Downlink audible in Europe

Tuesday October 30 at 16:16 UTC, which is 17:16 CEWT, an ARISS contact is scheduled for Southern Tier Catholic and Archbishop Walsh Academy, Olean, NY.

STCS originally opened in 1923 as St. Mary's Academic School next to St. Mary of the Angels parish and has remained open continuously since then. In 1998 St. Mary's School was renamed Southern Tier Catholic School when it became a regional school serving all of the Catholic parishes from Cuba to Salamanca to Ellicottville. STCS is now the only remaining Catholic elementary school in the Southern Tier of western New York between Wellsville to the east and Jamestown to the west.

Southern Tier Catholic School’s mission is to provide a high quality of education in this tradition. We stresses Catholic Values and Christian Community as a lived experience.

In light of this priority, all dimensions of the school (administration, faculty, students and families) make every effort to bring to reality the following:

A deep reverence for the unique giftedness of each person.

An appreciation of the traditions of all ethnic cultures with an expectation of mutual respect.

An environment that provides character development and responsible citizenship.

A policy of effective social action which is intended to bring about peace and justice in the larger community.

A place of stability in a challenging world.

In October of 1957, hundreds of people gathered at Christ the King Seminary to hear Bishop Leo R. Smith announce that a central Catholic high school was to be established in Olean. The school was to be named after Archbishop Thomas J. Walsh, who had died five years earlier. He also had deep roots in the Southern Tier.

Archbishop Walsh is a high school that, in the Franciscan tradition, inspires students to achieve their full potential in spiritual, academic and athletic growth.

The radio contact will be a telebridge operated by IK1SLD, located in northern Italy. Downlink signals will be audible on 145.800 MHz FM.

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 conversation will probably be conducted by astronaut Sunita Williams. Students will ask as many of following questions as time allows.

1. What does space look like?

2. Where do you put your garbage?

3. What powers a moon rover?

4. If there is any life on Mars would you want to discover it yourself?

5. What are your thoughts about dark matter?

6. What type of exercise equipment do you have in space?

7. What sacrifices did you have to make to become an astronaut?

8. What happens if you get sick in space?

9. What do you think about some of the space program being shifted to the

private sector?

10. How do you celebrate holidays on the ISS?

11. Do you have a time limit for being in space?

12. Is it hard to sleep in space?

13. What do you do for fun on the ISS?

14. What is the strangest thing you have seen in space?

15. What is the hardest part of being in space?

16. What is it like to be floating above the Earth?

17. What was your first reaction when you entered space?

18. What is your favorite thing about being in space?

19. How do spacecraft dock with the ISS?

20. What made you want to be an astronaut, and how old were you?

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 onboard 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.

73

Gaston Bertels, ON4WF

ARISS Chairman