An 8-year-old girl from England used her father’s amateur radio to chat with astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Isabella Payne, with the help of her father Matt, an amateur radio enthusiast from Kent, England, was able to catch a quick conversation with the ISS. The two tried to contact the amateur radio station NA1SS on the ISS late in the evening of August 2. With some luck and some technical knowledge, they managed to reach Kjell Lindgren, the commander of NASA SpaceX Crew-4, which launched to the ISS in April.
“Welcome to the International Space Station,” Lindgren greeted the caller after exchanging some technical formalities for radio communications.
“My name is Isabella, I am 8 years old,” said Isabella.
Lindgren replied, “Isabella, it’s so nice chatting with you, thank you for picking up the radio and saying hello.”
The conversation lasted a little over 30 seconds, but Matt and Lindgren had a brief conversation again on Twitter later that day.
Radio on the ISS is part of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) project, an initiative designed to encourage people to engage in science, technology, engineering and mathematics through amateur radio communications.
The ISS crew uses the radio to conduct question-and-answer sessions with schoolchildren dozens of times a year, and in theory, anyone with the right equipment can communicate with the astronauts. But Isabella was quite lucky to have this opportunity. Because his meeting was not planned, it was a random meeting.
In an interview with IFLScience, Matt said, “It’s extremely rare to talk to an Astronaut outside of a planned training theme. There are several factors that must come together for this to happen,” he said. There must be an astronaut actively using Amateur Radio equipment to establish contacts.”
Although Isabella shares her father’s passion for radio and wants to work as a communications specialist at a space agency when she grows up, she has no aspirations to become an astronaut.
Matt said, “Isabella was surprised that Kjell answered her call. Imagine, for Kjell, it must be like standing on a giant stage where hundreds of people are shouting his name and he has to choose one out of all the noise,” she concludes with Isabella’s words: “It was wonderful and very special that we lived…’”
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