SPACE STATION LOGS HISTORIC FIRST ARISS CONTACT WITH KENYA

The voice from space belonged to astronaut Sophie Adenot KJ5LTN, using the callsign OR4ISS. Back here on Earth, the voices were those of students at a school in Nairobi, Kenya, selected earlier this year to be the first in an African country to participate in Amateur Radio on the International Space Station. It was hosted by the Kenya Space Agency on the 5th of August with the help of a telebridge via ON4ISS in Belgium.

The students posed 11 questions, ranging over a variety of topics.

The event was a big moment, not just for the students but Kenya's relatively young space agency, established in 2017 to advance that nation's agenda for using space technology to boost socioeconomic development.

To view the QSO, visit the link to the Kenya Space Agency's YouTube channel in the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org.