March 21, 2025—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact between an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and students at the Maple Bear Elementary School located in Sofia, Bulgaria. ARISS conducts 60-100 of these special amateur radio contacts each year between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses aboard the ISS.
Maple Bear Sofia School, established in 2020 in Sofia, Bulgaria, is part of the global Maple Bear network, which encompasses over 400 schools across 39 countries, serving more than 60,000 students. The school follows a hybrid curriculum, combining the Maple Bear curriculum—developed by over 200 education experts in Canada and regularly updated with the latest research in education—and the local Bulgarian curriculum, which is taught during the other half of the school day. Maple Bear school serves about 250 students with more than 180 actively participating in STEM activities. STEM activities are integrated in their curriculum starting at 2nd grade and extending through their 7th grade. Students have access to their STEM center which serves as a hub for innovative hands-on learning and cutting-edge research opportunities. Maple Bear Elementary School has partnered with the amateur radio club (LZ1KRN) and the Bulgarian Federation of Radio Amateurs (BFRA) for this ARISS contact.
This will be a direct contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask their questions of astronaut Don Pettit, amateur radio call sign KD5MDT. The downlink frequency for this contact is 145.800 MHz and may be heard by listeners that are within the ISS-footprint that also encompasses the relay ground station.
The amateur radio ground station for this contact is in Sofia, Bulgaria. Amateur radio operators using call sign LZ1KRN, will operate the ground station to establish and maintain the ISS connection.
The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for March 24, 2025 at 4:23:27 pm EET (Bulgaria) (14:23:27 UTC, 10:23 am EDT, 9:23 am CDT, 8:23 am MDT, 7:23 am PDT).
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As time allows, students will ask these questions:
1. I heard you do experiments with fish in aquariums. What happens to them because of gravity?
2. Where do you keep your ice cream?
3. What do you do in your free time on the International Space Station?
4. Which subject in school helped you the most to become an astronaut?
5. What is the most interesting experiment you have conducted on the International Space Station?
6. Have you seen something that nobody else has seen?
7. How do you sleep in space?
8. How many years did you train to go to the ISS?
9. How powerful is the engine of your spacecraft?
10. Does your voice sound the same in space as it does here?
11. Did you find space interesting as a child?
12. What was the most interesting thing you learned during your training? And how long did you train?
13. What kind of physical challenges did you have to overcome on Earth to prepare for space?
14. How do you have access to electricity and wi-fi?
15. What is the strangest thing you’ve seen orbiting the Earth?
16. Does time feel like it passes by faster in space?
17. What is the furthest you would want to go in space?
18. What does the ISS smell like?
19. Does every spacecraft fly out of NASA?
20. Is there trash in space, where does it accumulate, and how much is there?
21. What do you drink there?