October 22, 2025 – Imagine the excitement of having your K-16 students not only learning about space but getting to talk to an astronaut on the International Space Station! You can do it, and the time is now.

​ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) is accepting proposals for U.S. schools to score an amateur radio contact with the International Space Station (ISS) during the second half of 2026 (July-December). Contacts last about 10 minutes during which the students get to ask pre-approved questions to one of the astronauts on board. We’ve got a lot of experience doing this: ARISS has been linking kids with astronauts using amateur radio for 25 years. We generally connect about 200,000 students, educators and enthusiasts every year with people in orbit.

We ask for proposals this far in advance because there’s a lot of prep work to do, including the teaching of space and communication concepts in advance of the contact. We have four proposal windows per year, and this one expires on midnight November 14th, 2025.

It’s a highly competitive process, judged by the members of the ARISS Education Committee. The committee rates the proposals based on multiple factors, including the school’s ability to integrate space and communication concepts into multiple areas of the curriculum in the 4-6 months leading up to the contact. We also consider and how the ARISS contact will enhance the curriculum and experiences not for one class, but for the entire school or organization. If you are accepted into the program, the contacts will be scheduled 4-9 months into the future!

Find out more can about the proposal access helpful guidance including our proposal guide here or through the links on the ARISS website.

Good luck – Ad Astra!

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