I heard part of the I.S.S.contact with Christian Life Elementary school in Rockford Ill. today at 19:30 utc.
I made a short recording of it and will try to upload it when I get more time.

An International Space Station Expedition 15 ARISS school contact has been planned with students at Samuel-von-Pufendorf Gymnasium, Floeha, Germany on 28 April. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 14:19 UTC.

The contact will be a direct between stations NA1SS and DL0GYM. The contact should be audible in most of Europe. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English.

Samuel-von-Pufendorf Gymnasium leads the pupils to the Abitur in a 8 year course beginning with grade 5. More than 600 young people in all grades are taught by 65 teachers. The school amateur radio club DL0GYM was founded in 2003. The main purpose is to prepare pupils to pass the amateur radio examination and become licensees. The club station supports education by demonstrating the possibilities of modern amateur radio technologies like packet radio, satellite communication via the "OSCARs", ATV, SSTV and so on. The club cooperates with the German Amateur Radio Club "DARC e.V." and the "Arbeitskreis Amateurfunk in der Schule - AATiS e.V."

ISS Ham Radio Enthusiasts,

I wanted to provide a progress report on the ISS Ham Radio activities. And to address some questions that have come up related to ARISS operations and equipment upgrade and repair.

With the successful Shuttle return to flight, the International Space Station Program construction has moved into high gear with delivery and assembly of new ISS modules. If all goes well, the new European Columbus Module and Japanese Kibo module will be installed on ISS in the next 12 months. This substantial workload on the crew is impacting ARISS operations directly.

The launching of any new or replacement radios or computers has been significantly curtailed due to the extremely limited upmass capability. There are just too many higher priority activities from an international space agency perspective and frankly we are a lower priority. The extra workload on the crew has taken its toll on ARISS - they have had very little extra time for Amateur Radio activities beyond school contacts. This is somewhat frustrating to the general ham radio community and the ARISS International Team, though the team is pleased that the crew has been able to speak so often with youth groups worldwide, piquing their interest in Amateur Radio, science, technology, engineering and math.

Hi, I would like to know if there are on bord of ISS the usualy Fortis Official Cosmonauts 38mm. watches for testing. If so could someone tell about the sapphire glass partculary watches of these watches, how thick is the sapphire glass of these watches to survive in space and under water 200M. ?
Some people say 1,2mm., other people say 2,00mm. and others say 2,70-3,00mm..
Can you belive that no one say it right?
Thank you,
I hope that ISS and all crew go well.

An International Space Station Expedition 15 ARISS school contact has been planned with students at Christian Life Elementary School, Rockford, Illinois, USA on 25 April. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 19:21 UTC.

The contact will be a direct between stations NA1SS and N9SH. The contact should be audible in central and Eastern portions of North America. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English. Additional listening options are listed below.

Christian Life Schools is a nationally accredited private school that serves Pre-K through 12th grade students and its staff and faculty are certified teachers. The school is located in the northeast side of Rockford, Illinois which is 90 miles west of Chicago. The student body is made up of students from the surrounding Rockford area; as well as, southern Wisconsin families. Students participate in several after school activities such as: Football, Basketball, Track, Baseball, Softball, Scholastic Bowl, Chess Club, Math Olympics, Science Olympiad, Cheerleading, and Student Council. Graduates from Christian Life have moved on to: community colleges, state universities, and the military.