This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: Hardware failure following a January 2021 spacewalk,[1] and updates on planned 2020 changes. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(January 2021)
A student speaks to crew on the International Space Station using Amateur Radio equipment, provided free by volunteers of the ARISS program..Astronaut Doug Wheelock operating ham radio from the ISS
Amateur radio operators all over the world are able to speak directly to astronauts/cosmonauts via their handheld, mobile, or home radio stations. Low power radios and small antennas can be used to establish communications.
It is also possible to send digital data to the space station via laptop computers hooked up to the same radio and antenna, similar to an email communication, except that it uses radio frequencies instead of telephone or cable connections.
On November 12, 2000 the first amateur radio contacts were made from the International Space Station during Expedition 1. Sometime between 06:30 and 10:10 UTC Sergei Krikalev (callsign U5MIR) contacted the ARISS team in Russia. At 10:55 UTC Kiralev and William Shepherd (callsign KF5GSL) operating as NA1SS contacted the amateur radio club at NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center. A few minutes later they would talk to the Johnson Space Center club, W5RRR. The team noted in the mission log, "Comm quality of the VHF circuit was excellent. Signal to noise and readability of the ham radio is better than our other comm circuits."[2]
In 2011, Kenwood Electronics launched an advertising campaign capitalizing on the fact that their TM-D700A transceiver is currently in use on the ISS.[3]
One example of digital communications with the station was a YouTube channel known by the name "Retro Recipes" but instead of using a laptop he used a Commodore 64 along with a modem and a terminal. The experiment was successful and the international space station even broadcast the message back to earth.
Many of the space station crew are also amateur radio operators. After their standard work day (based on UTC time), they might use their evening free time to communicate with family and other hams via amateur radio. Crew member Kjell N. Lindgren spoke with a young operator in the UK during the summer of 2022 and later they exchanged photos and cards.[4] Crew members from ISS Expedition 69 and Expedition 70 as well as Axiom 1 and Axiom 2 have made recent space to ground contacts with schools via Amateur Radio.
Interoperable Radio System (IORS)
Interoperable Radio System (IORS) is the foundation element of the ARISS next-generation radio system on ISS. A total of four flight units and ten total units are being built by the ARISS hardware team. This first IORS radio was flown to ISS on SpaceX CRS-20 and installed in the ISS Columbus module by Expedition 63 Commander, Chris Cassidy on September 2, 2020.[5][6] System activation was first observed at 01:02 UTC on September 2 by ARISS control station and amateur radio ground operators. Initial operation of the new radio system began as an FM cross band repeater.
A second flight unit has launched on a later 2020 cargo flight for installation in the Russian Service module.[7] Since 2022 ARISS has been using IORS radios in both the Columbus and Service Modules.[8] The Columbus Module radio typically functions as the crossband voice repeater when not being used for contacts with students. The Service Module IORS radio typically is used for packet radio operations like Automatic Packet Reporting System activities or Slow-scan television events. The IORS consists of a special, modified JVCKenwood D710GA transceiver, an AMSAT-developed multi voltage power supply and interconnecting cables.
The IORS has a higher power radio, an enhanced voice repeater, updated digital packet radio (APRS) capabilities and slow scan television (SSTV) capabilities for both the US and Russian segments.
Daniel Christopher Burbank is a retired American astronaut and a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions. Burbank, a Captain in the United States Coast Guard, is the second Coast Guard astronaut after Bruce Melnick.
AMSAT is a name for amateur radio satellite organizations worldwide, but in particular the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) with headquarters at Washington, D.C. AMSAT organizations design, build, arrange launches for, and then operate (command) satellites carrying amateur radio payloads, including the OSCAR series of satellites. Other informally affiliated national organizations exist, such as AMSAT Germany (AMSAT-DL) and AMSAT Japan (JAMSAT).
STS-106 was a 2000 Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle Atlantis.
Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev is a Russian mechanical engineer, former cosmonaut and former head of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.
Col. Yuri Ivanovich Onufrienko is a retired Russian cosmonaut. He is a veteran of two extended spaceflights, aboard the space station Mir in 1996 and aboard the International Space Station in 2001–2002.
Gennady Ivanovich Padalka is a Russian Air Force officer and a Roscosmos cosmonaut. Padalka currently holds the world record for the most time spent in space, at 879 days. He worked on both Mir and the International Space Station.
Mikhail Vladislavovich Tyurin is a former Russian cosmonaut who flew several missions to the International Space Station and completed four spacewalks during his career. He was awarded the title Hero of the Russian Federation for his work as a cosmonaut.
Yury Vladimirovich Usachov is a former cosmonaut who resides in Star City, Moscow. Usachov is a veteran of four spaceflights, including two long-duration missions on board the Mir Space Station and another on board the International Space Station. During his career, he also conducted seven spacewalks before his retirement on April 5, 2004.
Expedition 1 was the first long-duration stay on the International Space Station (ISS). The three-person crew stayed aboard the station for 136 days, from November 2000 to March 2001. It was the beginning of an uninterrupted human presence on the station which continues as of 2023. Expedition 2, which also had three crew members, immediately followed Expedition 1.
Spacecraft call signs are radio call signs used for communication in crewed spaceflight. These are not formalized or regulated to the same degree as other equivalent forms of transportation, like aircraft. The three nations currently launching crewed space missions use different methods to identify the ground and space radio stations; the United States uses either the names given to the space vehicles or else the project name and mission number. Russia traditionally assigns code names as call signs to individual cosmonauts, more in the manner of aviator call signs, rather than to the spacecraft.
An amateur radio repeater is an electronic device that receives a weak or low-level amateur radio signal and retransmits it at a higher level or higher power, so that the signal can cover longer distances without degradation. Many repeaters are located on hilltops or on tall buildings as the higher location increases their coverage area, sometimes referred to as the radio horizon, or "footprint". Amateur radio repeaters are similar in concept to those used by public safety entities, businesses, government, military, and more. Amateur radio repeaters may even use commercially packaged repeater systems that have been adjusted to operate within amateur radio frequency bands, but more often amateur repeaters are assembled from receivers, transmitters, controllers, power supplies, antennas, and other components, from various sources.
Clayton Conrad Anderson is a retired NASA astronaut. Launched on STS-117, he replaced Sunita Williams on June 10, 2007, as a member of the ISS Expedition 15 crew. He is currently an author, a motivational speaker, and a Professor of Practice at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. In 2022 he became the president and CEO of the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum.
D-STAR is a digital voice and data protocol specification for amateur radio. The system was developed in the late 1990s by the Japan Amateur Radio League and uses minimum-shift keying in its packet-based standard. There are other digital modes that have been adapted for use by amateurs, but D-STAR was the first that was designed specifically for amateur radio.
The Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX), later called the Space Amateur Radio Experiment, was a program that promoted and supported the use of amateur ("ham") radio by astronauts in low earth orbit aboard the United States Space Shuttle to communicate with other amateur radio stations around the world. It was superseded by the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program. SAREX was sponsored by NASA, AMSAT, and the ARRL.
Aleksandr Mikhailovich Samokutyaev is a Russian politician and former cosmonaut. Samokutyaev served as a Flight Engineer for the International Space Station (ISS) long duration Expedition 27/28 missions. He also served as the Soyuz TMA-21 commander. He most recently served on the Soyuz TMA-14M Expedition 41/42 crew aboard the ISS. He was hired as a cosmonaut in the summer of 2003.
Serena Maria Auñón-Chancellor is an American physician, engineer, and NASA astronaut. She visited the ISS as a flight engineer for Expedition 56/57 on the International Space Station.
Soyuz TMA-12M was a 2014 flight to the International Space Station. It transported three members of the Expedition 39 crew to the International Space Station. TMA-12M was the 121st flight of a Soyuz spacecraft since the first in 1967 and the 38th Soyuz mission to the ISS.
An amateur radio satellite is an artificial satellite built and used by amateur radio operators. It forms part of the Amateur-satellite service. These satellites use amateur radio frequency allocations to facilitate communication between amateur radio stations.
SpaceX CRS-20 (CRS-20), also known as SpaceX-20, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched on 7 March 2020. The mission was contracted by NASA and was flown by SpaceX using Dragon. This was SpaceX's last flight for Dragon 1 and concluded the NASA Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-1) contract extension.
Expedition 64 was the 64th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), that began on 21 October 2020 with the undocking and departure of Soyuz MS-16. The Expedition started with the three crew members launched onboard Soyuz MS-17 and reached its full complement with the arrival of SpaceX Crew-1, the first operational flight of NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP). As Crew-1 consists of a crew of four instead of three like the Soyuz, Expedition 64 marks the beginning of operations for crews of seven on the ISS. In the final week of the mission, Soyuz MS-18 and its three cosmonaut crew joined the mission. The expedition ended on 17 April 2021 with the departure of Soyuz MS-17.
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