Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne performed a double ARISS contact during the same orbit

Frank De Winne performs two ARISS contacts during same orbit

On Thursday September 10, 2009, astronaut Frank De Winne, ON1DWN first contacted Atheneum Middenschool Keerbergen in Belgium at 09:30 UTC, 11:30 local time (CEST).

The telebridge ground station for this contact was W6SRJ, located in Santa Rosa, California and operated by Herb Sullivan, K6QXB.

Signals were excellent and
Frank De Winne answered all 20 questions of the Dutch speaking students.

Twenty minutes later, at 09:55 UTC, 11:55 CEST, when the ISS was in reach of ARISS ground station LU1CGB, located in Buenos Aires, Argentina, operator Adrian Sinclair contacted Frank De Winne for a second scheduled contact, this time with UNICEF World Classes at Euro Space Center, Belgium.

De Winne answered 18 questions, some in French, others in Dutch.

Both ARISS contacts were distributed on EchoLink by John Spasojevich, AG9D.

Audio recordings of both ARISS contacts will be available at
www.ariss-eu.org/archive.htm

ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the participating space agencies, NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA, with the AMSAT and IARU organizations from participating countries.

ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers onboard the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology and learning.

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Gaston Bertels, ON4WF
ARISS Chairman