March 25, 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 Yonezawa 5th Junior High School located in Yonezawa, Japan. 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.

Yonezawa 5th Junior High School is a public school with about 200 students in Yamagata Prefecture, located in the Tohoku region of Japan. The school will be closing this March due to its merger and subsequent move to another school in the area. Culmination of the students’ school experience at Yonezawa JHS (after also learning about the ISS, space exploration and amateur radio) will be 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 Yonezawa, Japan. Amateur radio operators using call sign 8N7Y5JH, will operate the ground station to establish and maintain the ISS connection.

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for March 28, 2025 at 6:56 pm JST (Yonezawa, Japan) (9:56 UTC, 5:56 am EDT, 4:56 am CDT, 3:56 am MDT, 2:56 am PDT).
The public is invited to watch the live stream at: https://www.youtube.com/live/V2bcwHEEigY
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As time allows, students will ask these questions:
1. When painting a picture of the space, I often use black or navy blue, but what color does it actually appear?
2. Is the view from the space station different in the morning, afternoon, and night?
3. What is the most fun thing about living on the space station?
4. What do you do during your free time?
5. Do you get motion sickness in space and what remedies do you have when you get sick in space?
6. Has your way of thinking and living changed since becoming an astronaut?
7. Is there an expiration date for space food? How long does it last?
8. I hear that bones and muscles weaken in space stations. How is this measured, and what is being done to prevent it?
9. What happens to tears if you cry in a space station?
10. What is the toilet like on the space station? And how is the waste managed?
11. What kind of study and training did you do to become an astronaut?
12. Why doesn’t the space station collide with other satellites?
13. Have you ever felt scared in space? When was that?
14. What was the most beautiful sight you saw from the space station?
15. Can you see how a season changes on the Earth from space? For example, can you see snow?