A student practices his questions with Roberta Keis (right - President of the Peconic Amateur Radio Club) and Charles Burnham (another Radio Club member).

(RIVERHEAD, New York - January 24, 2006) Ten students of the Riverhead School District will have the opportunity to speak "live" via ham radio to the astronauts aboard the International Space Station (cosmonaut Valery I. Tokarev, Expedition 12 flight engineer and Soyuz commander, and astronaut William S. McArthur Jr., Expedition 12 commander and NASA space station science officer) January 24, 2006 at 1:48 P.M. at the Aquebogue Elementary School (Route 25 - East of Riverhead). Listen LIVE on WRIV.

The students will come from different schools in the district. They will gather on the stage of the Aquebogue school in front of a painting of the galaxy, under a floating replica of the ISS and in front of two large posters of the astronauts with whom they will be speaking. Given the nature of space flight (the space station circumnavigates the earth at 17,000 miles per hour), the contact will only be 10 minutes in length.

Members of the Peconic Amateur Radio Club will provide the equipment, expertise and guidance for a successful event. They have been traveling to each of the schools to practice with the students. Charlie, a fourth grader at the Riley Avenue School and the youngest member of the student team, will ask the astronauts, "Do you ever feel scared?".

In the last 5 years, space station astronauts have only spoken to 210 groups of students worldwide. Past contacts on Long Island included students in Quogue (2002) and Westhampton Beach (2004). Riverhead School District made application to ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) and NASA over three years ago. They have been eagerly preparing for this exciting event by preparing art projects, traveling to the Air and Space Museum where they watched an IMAX movie on the space station, reading, researching, and editing their questions. THEY'RE READY!