Astronaut Zena Cardman. Credits: NASA
Credits: ARISS
ARISS Contact is Scheduled with Students at
Colegio de Cultura Popular, Bogotá, Colombia
October 21, 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 students at the Colegio de Cultura Popular located in Bogotá, Colombia. 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 Colegio de Cultura Popular, is a public institution located in the Puente Aranda district of Bogotá, Colombia. The school has three different campuses, Campus A, where the ARISS contact will occur, has secondary grades (approximately 430 Students) from sixth to eleventh grades.
This year, the school has initiated a cross-curricular astronomy project with different activities for the sixth-grade students.
This will be a telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask their questions of astronaut Zena Cardman, amateur radio call sign KJ5CMN. 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 telebridge station.
The ARISS amateur radio ground station (telebridge station) for this contact is in Hollis, New Hampshire, U.S. The amateur radio volunteer team at the ground station will use the callsign AB1OC, to establish and maintain the ISS connection.
The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for October 23, 2025 at 8:46 am COT (Bogotá, Colombia) (13:46 UTC, 9:46 am EDT, 8:46 am CDT, 7:46 am MDT, 6:46 am PDT).
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As time allows, students will ask these questions:
- How would you describe the feeling of seeing the Earth from space for the first time and how does it change your perspective on our planet?
- How do you handle challenging situations during a mission?
- How do you keep healthy while in space?
- How did you feel the first time you went to space?
- If you do a spacewalk, what will it be like when you are outside the space station?
- As the commander for your SpaceX mission, what criteria do you use for making important decisions?
- In space, without the constant reference of gravity, how does your perception of time and your own body change?
- What changes in the way we see life and humanity after observing the Earth from space?
- How has your astronaut training helped you make important decisions on the space station?
- What is the most wonderful thing you have seen in space?
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.
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