ISS Fan Club

Students take a microphone in hand and start speaking into it.

They're not making an announcement over their school's PA system; they're talking with crew members aboard the International Space Station. For an incredible few moments, students communicate with the space inhabitants, asking questions about what it's like living and working in space.

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, or ARISS, is a program supported by a team of volunteer radio operators formed to build and operate radio equipment to facilitate communication between the orbiting outpost and Earth.

Since the discovery of wireless transmission, amateur, or ham radio operators, as they're often called, have been able to reduce the expanse of the globe by talking with radio enthusiasts in other countries who share their hobby.