Bellefontaine City Schools set to Communicate with International Space Station

Students at Bellefontaine City Schools are gearing up for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Students will be speaking with astronaut Kayla Barron on the International Space Station (ISS) by amateur radio on Thursday 21st April 2022, at 1:13 p.m.

Nine students from Bellefontaine Elementary, Intermediate, and Middle School have been selected to ask questions about space.

Kayla Barron is part of the 2017 Astronaut Class. She has a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Cambridge and served as a submarine warfare officer before joining NASA. She was part of the NASA SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station, which launched on November 10, 2021. She has done two spacewalks as part of this mission. She is part of the Artemis Team, which is tasked with sending the first woman and the next man to walk on the moon in 2024.

Kayla Barron - https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/barron-kayla

The direct radio link will be between the Bellefontaine High School Amateur Radio Club (W8BCS) and Kayla Barron (KI5LAL). Members of the Champaign Logan Amateur Radio Club (W8FTV) provided equipment and worked with students to set up the antennas and radios to make this contact possible. The contact will last about 10 minutes as the ISS passes overhead

A live stream of the contact will be available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t5ZQOw2j68