Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Spacewalk Planned to Try to Get ISS Ham Station Back on the Air


One of the two amateur radio stations aboard the International Space Station has been off the air since late January, after the crew replaced a decade-old feedline during a spacewalk. The new cable, it appears, doesn't work. The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program has been working with officials from NASA and the European Space Agency to try to resolve the problem with the Columbus module ham rig. As this item was posted, a second spacewalk was planned for March 13 to reconnect the old cable, which had been working fine. ARISS contacts with schools and other groups have continued, using the ham station in the ISS Service Module. (This story will be updated.)