Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Saudi astronauts Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali Al-Qarni have used the Amateur Radio on board the International Space Station (ISS) to talk with a group of students.
The astronauts made the call when the ISS flew over the ground station in Riyadh.
The call, made in coordination with the Saudi Space Commission (SSC), the Ministry of Education, Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST) and the Saudi Amateur Radio Society (SARS), aimed at raising students’ awareness about space sciences and technology.
Barnawi and Al-Qarni answered students’ questions which were centered around life in space and the daily routine on board the ISS. The astronauts also shared with students the information and the feelings experienced in space.
The SARS has used call signal for the Kingdom, HZ0ISS, through radio communication technology that uses very high frequencies (VHF) for Amateur Radio. It operates through a transmission and reception connection in audio mode between a ground station and the ISS when it passes over the ground station, and in coordination with the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS).
The Saudi astronauts arrived at the ISS last Monday in a scientific mission during which a total of 14 research experiments in a microgravity environment will be conducted.