Amateur Radio and space have a long history together, with a new chapter evolving next year. On April 3 NASA announced the astronauts for the Artemis II mission to the moon in 2024. Hams Reid Wiseman KF5LKT, Victor Glover KI5BKC, and Jeremy Hansen KF5LKU will fly on that mission. Christina Koch will also be on board.
They're going to the Moon! Introducing the #Artemis II astronauts:
Reid Wiseman (@astro_reid), Commander
Victor Glover (@AstroVicGlover), Pilot
Christina Koch (@Astro_Christina), Mission specialist
Jeremy Hanson (@Astro_Jeremy), Mission specialisthttps://t.co/Hy1110MOEi pic.twitter.com/SeETL5iURu— NASA's Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) April 3, 2023
Wiseman and Glover have both participated in the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program. This STEM program pairs educational groups and ISS crew members. The students talk to the crew member in space via ham radio, asking questions about science and life on the ISS.
Wiseman was on the ISS during the 2014 Field Day event and he told AMSAT-UK about his experience. Which of course was a pile up!
https://amsat-uk.org/2015/06/23/ham-radio-field-day-from-space/
Glover made several ARISS contacts during his trip aboard the ISS in 2020. In this video you can hear him operating the radio from space during a contact with a school in Italy.
It was 1961 when ham radio started in space with the OSCAR 1 satellite. That was a low earth orbit mission that sent “HI” in Morse code during its 3 week mission. The first contact during human spaceflight was nearly 40 years ago. Astronaut Owen Garriott took an HT up during shuttle mission STS-9 and made contacts with an antenna in the window of the orbiter.
Image credit: NASA
