International Space Station plans contact with Ivujivik School

Students at Nuvviti school in Ivujivik will get an out-of-this-world experience when they make contact with the International Space Station later today.

The school welcomes a group called the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, an education program that partners with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency.

The group visits schools across the country to contact the space station through the Johnson Space centre in Houston, Texas.

At roughly 1 p.m., students will get a chance to talk to astronaut David C. Burbank as the space station passes over Nunavik.

Students have prepared 20 questions to ask the astronaut in less then 30 minutes. It’s a small window of opportunity since the space station travels 355 kilometres above the earth at the speed of 28,000 km/hour.

At that speed, the station orbits the earth 16 times per day.

It won’t be the first Arctic space contact — students in Nunavik and Nunavut have participated in the program before.

In Nunavik, the contact is sponsored by Makivik Corp., First Air and Air Inuit, which covers the travel, accommodation, and equipment costs for Amateur Radio on the International Space Station.

The group plans to do another space contact in Iqaluit in February 2012.

Last week Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques planned to visit Iguarsivik School in Puvirnituq and Kiluutaq School in Umiujaq but was only able to fly into Puvirnituq where he met with students Nov. 28.

Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques speaks to students at Puvirnituq’s Iguarsivik School Nov. 28. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE KSB)