How We Do It

ARISS has decades of experience  connecting kids with astronauts in space. Our international organization relies on three pillars to ensure continuing success: Education, Engineering and Operations.  (or should this be Spaceflight Operations, Spaceflight Hardware Development and STEM Outreach and Workforce Development, per ScAN preso April 2026). The following video shows what a successful contact looks like through the eyes of ISS astronaut, Nicole Ayers, whose call sign is KJ5GWI.

The timeline for a contact actually starts as much as a year ahead of time when schools or organizations apply with the ARISS Education team to host a contact. Once selected, ARISS works with the school and mentors to teach the children about amateur radio and space flight through a curriculum that ARISS approves as part of the application process. ARISS Engineering works in the background to ensure that the amateur radio equipment on board the ISS or other space vehicles is safe and mission ready. The ARISS Operations team links the schools to the space vehicle to make the contact happen.