Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Photo courtesy of NASA
KUALA LUMPUR: Twenty-four students from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UITM), Shah Alam’s Faculty of Applied Sciences had the opportunity to communicate live with a Japanese astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS) early today.
The Information Department newsroom in a statement today said the students who are also members of the university’s Physics Society conversed with Takuya Onishi at 2.24am, using an amateur radio station facility available at the National Planetarium.
“The Amateur Radio station with the call sign 9M2RPN, is the only station in Malaysia allowed to communicate with astronauts at ISS since the launch of the first Malaysian astronaut, Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, to ISS, in 2007.
“9M2RPN communicated live with ISS at between 330km and 435km from the surface of the earth while it was moving at a speed of 26,700km per hour and capable of circling the earth 15 times day and night,” it said.
According to the newsroom, the duration of the communication was between 10 to 15 minutes after which ISS faded from view below the eastern horizon.
The programme, organised for the tenth time by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and National Space Agency aimed to expose the public to aspects of satellite communication while giving them the opportunity to share the experience of astronauts exploring outer space while on duty at ISS. – Bernama