Students from Kuss Middle School spoke to astronaut John Phillips KE5DRY on the ISS. Image credit: NASA

Kuss Middle School ISS Success

I am pleased to report that the Matthew J. Kuss Middle School, Fall River Massachusetts, had an extremely successful contact with astronaut John Phillips on the ISS.

With an audience of well over 100 looking on from two Kuss Middle School locations, 12 students from two NASA Explorer Schools asked astronaut Phillips 22 inquisitive questions before the ISS set at the Fall River school.

The students, family, faculty and local dignitaries watched the events unfold in the school library, where the amateur radio station, W1ACT, was set up. A hundred yards away, a secondary site was set up at a church with audio and video using amateur radio television where students, friends and
the community gathered to watch the contact.

Of the 12 students selected to ask questions, 6 of them--all young ladies--were ham radio operators. As the student hams asked their questions, they announced their names and proudly stated their ham radio callsign before asking the question.

Ten of the students asking questions were from the Kuss Middle School. In a NASA Explorer School (NES) partnership, teacher Danielle Hartkern, from the Central Park Middle School, Schenectady, NY brought several of her students to Fall River to witness and participate in the contact. Two of the Central Park 7th grade science students, Kathryn and
Brionna, were among the twelve that talked to astronaut Phillips.

The event drew a great deal of media attention with television stations including NBC affiliate, WJAR (Channel 10), Fox affiliate WPRI (Channel 12), ABC affiliate WLNE (Channel 6), Comcast Local Channel 9, and Fall River Educational Television (FRED-TV). Newspapers in attendance included the Fall River Spirit and the Fall River Herald News. In addition, the Museum of Science, Boston, was doing a documentary of the school contact.

Long after the contact was successfully completed and the school was letting out for the day, the 12 students, Kuss faculty members Joe Cote, KB1LJG and Pam Tickle, the local ham volunteers from the FallRiver A.R.C./ Bristol County Repeater Association led by Roland Daignault Jr, N1JOY, all
were beaming from ear to ear. As one faculty member stated, "this is an event that will stay with all of us for a lifetime."

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