Credits: ARISS
ARISS News Release No. 25-42
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ARISS Contact is Scheduled with Youth at
Youngsters On The Air, Summer Camp, Jambville, France
August 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 youth at the Youngsters On The Air summer camp located in Jambville, France. 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.
The Youngsters On The Air (YOTA) Summer Camp is an international gathering of young ham radio enthusiasts held in a different country every year. The goal of YOTA is to support STEM education, to share knowledge, and forge international networks and friendships among the younger generations of radio enthusiasts. France is hosting the 2025 YOTA Summer Camp, August 18th to 25th, in Jambville, Paris, with over 100 participants from more than 30 countries.
During this week, all participants have the opportunity to take part in many radio activities such as operating on all ham bands using a unique special event callsign. Participants also can share their technical knowledge during workshops and interactive lectures, participate in fox hunting (radio directional finding), high altitude balloon launching, communicate via moon bounce (radio signals bounced off the moon), antenna mounting or kit soldering. Participants have also had the opportunity to visit the Cité des Sciences & de l’Industrie (The National technical museum) including the Paris Radio Telescope.
All the participants will also be able to take a U.S. amateur radio FCC exam in order to get a new callsign or upgrade.
This will be a direct contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask their questions of astronaut Mike Fincke, amateur radio call sign KE5AIT. 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 Jambville, north of Paris. Amateur radio operators using call sign FX5YOTA, will operate the ground station to establish and maintain the ISS connection.
The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for August 19, 2025 at 11:18:53 am CEST (Paris, FR) (9:18:53 UTC, 5:18 am EDT, 4:18 am CDT, 3:18 am MDT, 2:18 am PDT).
The public is invited to watch the live stream at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MARkTcR6Njo
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As time allows, students will ask these questions:
- What types of emergencies do you train for on ISS?
- What’s the biggest question/curiosity you had about life before becoming an astronaut?
- What was the most unexpected thing that happened to you in space?
- What is the funniest thing to do in space?
- How are crew and equipment on the ISS protected from solar radiation?
- What were your first thoughts after seeing the Earth from above?
- Can you describe how the ISS sounds like inside?
- How does your body feel when you come back to Earth after being in space?
- Was there an experiment where you had to improvise something?
- How often do you get on the radio to make QSOs with HAMs?
- Is amateur radio important for the ISS?
- Back on Earth, how often are you active on the air and what’s your favorite band/mode?
- How do you cope with being away from family for a long period of time?
- What’s the first thing you would do back on Earth?
- Can you describe your first ham radio contact from the ISS?
- Will humanity be able to live on another planet/moon in the upcoming decades?
- In your opinion, what skills are essential in becoming an astronaut?
- Have you operated in Morse code as part of your amateur radio or other communication activities?
- Does the time passed in space feel any longer or shorter than on Earth?
- Is oxygen depletion highly affected by the growth of plants/micro-organisms on board?
About ARISS:
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the ISS. In the United States, sponsors are the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program (SCaN) and the ISS National Lab—Space Station Explorers. The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics. ARISS does this by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities take part in hands-on learning activities tied to space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see http://www.ariss.org.
Media Contact:
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
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