Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a program that facilitates radio communications between licensed amateur radio operators and crew members aboard the International Space Station using the amateur-satellite service. The primary goal or ARISS is "to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics topics" and inspire individuals to pursue careers in STEM.

ARISS was established in 1996 and is managed by an international consortium of amateur radio organizations and space agencies including NASA, Russia's space agency Roscosmos, Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Japan Aeronautics Exploration Space Agency (JAXA), and European Space Agency (ESA).

ARISS was previously called the Space Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX), and before that the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment.

Students and amateur radio operators all over the world are able to speak directly to astronauts and cosmonauts via handheld, mobile, or home radio stations. Low power radios and small antennas can be used to establish communications. It is also possible to send digital data to the ISS via laptop computers, similar to an email communication, using radio frequencies instead of telephone or cable connections .

On November 12, 2000 the first amateur radio contacts were made from the International Space Station during Expedition 1. Sometime between 06:30 and 10:10 UTC Sergei Krikalev (callsign U5MIR) contacted the ARISS team in Russia. At 10:55 UTC Kiralev and William Shepherd (callsign KF5GSL) operating as NA1SS contacted the amateur radio club at NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center. A few minutes later they would talk to the Johnson Space Center club, W5RRR. The team noted in the mission log, "Comm quality of the VHF circuit was excellent. Signal to noise and readability of the ham radio is better than our other comm circuits."

In 2011, Kenwood Electronics launched an advertising campaign capitalizing on the fact that their TM-D700A transceiver is currently in use on the ISS.

Many of the space station crew are also amateur radio operators. After their standard work day (based on UTC time), they might use their evening free time to communicate with family and other hams via amateur radio. Crew member Kjell N. Lindgren spoke with a young operator in the UK during the summer of 2022 and later they exchanged photos and cards. Crew members from ISS Expedition 69 and Expedition 70 as well as Axiom 1 and Axiom 2 have made recent space to ground contacts with schools via Amateur Radio.