Successful direct contact with Istituto Comprensivo Statale "E. Fermi - A. Oggioni" in Villasanta, Italy

16 September, 2013 at 08.04 UTC, 10.04 local time, Istituto Comprensivo Statale "E. Fermi - A. Oggioni" in Villasanta, Italy established a direct contact with ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano KF5KDP, onboard the International Space Station.

The Fermi-Oggioni Middle School is located in the centre of Villasanta, near Monza (Milano). There are 403 students and 43 teachers. One class (25 students) is involved in the project named "Space to Space". These students are thirteen years old and they are attending the third and final year of middle school.

Gianpietro Ferrario IZ2GOJ, ARISS mentor and radio contact coordinator, managed for a direct contact from the school in Villasanta, assisted by the ARISS Lombardia team. The questions were read by students at school. More than 100 students, parents, visitors and media attended the event (indirect attendance about 300).

The contact was established by IZ2GOJ in Villasanta. ARISS telebridge station IK1SLD in Casale Monferrato was connected per phone line with the school, ready to take over the radio link in case of problem. Contact was established with IRØISS at 08.04 UTC, 10.04 local time. Immediately after AOS, astronaut Luca Parmitano switched to backup channel following some noise heard onboard. Luca Parmitano answered 15 questions, and exchanged greetings with the school administrator before LOS. Signals from the ISS were loud and clear during most of the pass.

National Television and newspapers covered the event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj-KK5gwmZI

Streaming video is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDkg0PYPY2o

Congratulations to ARISS Lombardia and IK1SLD teams!

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Gianpietro Ferrario, IZ2GOJ

ARISS Mentor

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