With less than 24 hours to go for our live on-air contact between the students of All Saints Academy and Astronaut Jeff Williams aboard the International Space Station, we are happy to report that our final practice session was glitch free.  Both primary and secondary stations were verified as well as the event sound gear.  The students had another walkthrough practicing their questions.  In fact, things went so smoothly that we had keyboard QSOs with two hams during our second pass:  K8OE and WB3CSY.

Rick, WB3CSY posted this to the AMSAT Bulletin Board this afternoon:

RICK WALTER <WB3CSY@xxxxx.com> 3:00 PM (1 hour ago)
to amsat-bb

Just made a packet contact via the ISS with N1ASA on the last pass. This is
the student station that will be making contact with the astronaut on board
the ISS tomorrow.

*N1ASA>CQ,RS0ISS*,FN41IM,+/ [05/05/16  17:38:15] <UI C>:*

*N1ASA>CQ,RS0ISS*,FN41IM,+/ [05/05/16  17:39:59] <UI C>:**All Saints
Academy*

*WB3CSY-11>CQ,RS0ISS* [05/05/16  17:40:29] <UI R>:**N1ASA DE WB3CSY-11*

*N1ASA>CQ,RS0ISS*,FN41IM,+/ [05/05/16  17:40:38] <UI C>:**WB3CSY Hello*

*WB3CSY-11>CQ,RS0ISS* [05/05/16  17:41:03] <UI R>:**N1ASA DE WB3CSY-11
HELLO QSL?*

*N1ASA>CQ,RS0ISS*,FN41IM,+/ [05/05/16  17:41:12] <UI C>:**QSL WB3CSY*

*WB3CSY-11>CQ,RS0ISS* [05/05/16  17:42:21] <UI R>:**N1ASA DE WB3CSY-11 TU
73*

73,

Rick WB3CSY

Jim, KA1ZOU, spoke with host Will Gilbert of Channel 12’s Rhode Show about the upcoming Space Chat with the International Space Station this Friday May 6th.

You can watch the interview here:  http://wpri.com/2016/05/03/newport-radio-club-space-talk/

Remember, you can listen to the event live beginning at 11:45:
livestream.com/accounts/9685187/events/5301163

Free Tickets to attend the event in person are available at:
https://spacechat2016.eventbrite.com

All Saints Academy (ASA), N1ASA, received a QSL card from the International Space Station (ISS) for digital messages that were successfully received by the ISS and retransmitted to earth by the Packet Repeater, RS0ISS.

The QSL was dated on 23 April 2016 at 16:51:48 UTC, on 145.825 MHz.

Of course N1ASA will be receiving the most rare of QSLs in the future when ASA students and students from across RI have the first direct radio contact with an astronaut aboard the International Space Station this Friday, May 6.  The pre-event show beings at 11:45 AM, and will conclude shortly after 1 PM.

You may see and hear the event live, beginning at 11:45 AM, by using this link:
livestream.com/accounts/9685187/events/5301163

Free Tickets to attend the event in person are available at:
https://spacechat2016.eventbrite.com

You can follow the latest news on the event by using this link:
http://www.rispacestation.com/

Or click the ISS-News tab on our own webstie