It will be a case of one small step for man, one giant leap for the students of Cork Education and Training Board school, Glanmire Community College, this Thursday, October 26, when they make history as one of two Irish schools who will make direct radio contact with the International Space Station (ISS) while in orbit.
This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is part of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station programme (ARISS), which will see pupils of both Glanmire Community College and Tallaght Community School partake in a conversation with American astronaut Joe Acaba, while he orbits the Earth.
Innovation at the school in the area of science and particularly, space science, putting them light years ahead of competing schools. Their jam-packed education plan, which has been integrated into students’ curriculum over the past six months in preparation for event take-off, helped set them apart from other competitors.
LIVE LINK-UP TO ISS
During Expedition 52 and 53, astronaut Acaba and the rest of the crew on the ISS will be traveling at 27,600 km/h South West from the New York horizon towards Italy and Poland and for 6 to 12 minutes will be passing directly over Glanmire Community College.
As the space station flies closer to Glanmire Community College, the connection and audio feed will become stronger and clearer. In fact, at one point during this fantastic feat of broadcast engineering, the ISS will be 400km in the sky directly above the school.
This exciting space contact on Thursday will start at 9.45am with a Q&A with a panel of space exerts, space themed entertainment from Glanmire Community College Choir along with a wide range of other activity. The actual contact with the ISS is scheduled to take place at 10.50am.
This historic event will be live streamed on www.tog.ie, so that members of the public can also tune in. To stay updated on the journey of the students of Glanmire Community College you can follow them on FacebookGlanmire-Community-College or Twitter @GCCGuidance.
