June 17, 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 participants at the Youth on the Air (YOTA) 2025 Summer Camp located in Denver, CO. 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.

YOTA Summer Camp is a week-long event for young amateur radio operators (ages 15 to 25 years) that come from North, Central, and South America, including several exchange campers from Europe. This is the 5th year of operations of the YOTA Camp, which allows young people to learn more about amateur radio communications and participate in STEM activities.

During this week-long camp (June 15th – 20th), participants will have operated on high frequency radio bands from portable and permanent stations, learned to solder and build electronic kits, launched high altitude balloons, learned how to log radio contacts, learned antenna theory and built antennas, communicated through amateur radio satellites, and visited the WWV radio station.

This is the 4th ARISS radio contact hosted by YOTA allowing each of the licensed ham radio campers to use their skills, and inspire them to take these skills they’ve learned to pursue their passions.

This will be a direct contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask their questions of astronaut Nichole Ayers, amateur radio call sign KJ5GWI. 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 Denver, Colorado. Amateur radio operators using call sign WØY, will operate the ground station to establish and maintain the ISS connection.

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for June 19, 2025 at 11:32 am MDT (Denver, CO) (17:32 UTC, 1:32 pm EDT, 12:32 pm CDT, 10:32 am PDT).

The public is invited to watch the live stream at: https://youtube.com/live/I7JFXlzjrKc?feature=share and https://www.youtube.com/@yotaregion2/streams

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As time allows, students will ask these questions:

1. What is the most exciting activity you’ve gotten to do onboard?

2. Which aspect of your research has proven most challenging and how do you think you have or could have prepared for them?

3. What event in your life led to you deciding to become an astronaut?

4. What do you spend most of your time doing in space?

5. How often do you do amateur radio on the ISS?

6. What did it feel like being in space for the first time?

7. Could poultry like chickens or geese be kept in space during long travel as a source of eggs for food?

8. What were your expectations about living in space before your first flight and were they fulfilled?

9. Are there any routine jobs on ISS that you don’t like to do?
10. What is it like to have the sun rise and set so many times in 24 hours?
11. What does it smell like on the space station?
12. What is the best part of being on the ISS?
13. What is the coolest ongoing experiment on the ISS right now?
14. How do rogue radio waves from outside the solar system affect communication in space?
15. What do you think you’ll miss the most about space once you’re back on earth?
16. What’s something you hope to never forget from your spaceflight?