Twenty students from the "Anna Rita Sidoti" Comprehensive Institute in Gioiosa Marea, a coastal town in Sicily, will have the opportunity to talk with the astronauts of the International Space Station (ISS), as part of the Axiom-3 mission. This is the third commercial space mission of the US company Axiom Space, which will see the participation of a crew composed of four all-European members: Commander Michael López-Alegría (dual citizenship, American to Spanish), Italian Air Force pilot Colonel Walter Villadei, Turkish astronaut and Mission Specialists Alper Gezeravci, and Swede Marcus Wandt, astronaut of the European Space Agency.
As part of these flights, Ariss, an amateur radio company from the International Space Station's partner countries, organised a series of links between the astronauts and schools on the European continent. In Italy, two schools have managed to win this opportunity: the "Anna Rita Sidoti" comprehensive school in Gioiosa Marea and the comprehensive school in Villa Guardia in the province of Como.
When the ISS is in orbit with Earth, students will have the opportunity to talk for about 7-8 minutes with Colonel Walter Villadei. A radio room has been set up in the school to connect to the planned space immediately after the launch. "It is a source of pride for our institute and for the entire Sicilian school system - says the school director - Leon Zingales. We immediately believed in this project and our commitment has paid off." The initiative was also applauded by the director of the Regional School Office, Giuseppe Pierro.
The launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft with the crew on board, through the Falcon 9 rocket, built by entrepreneur Elon Musk's SpaceX, is scheduled for January 17 from the "John F. Kennedy" Space Center in CapeCanaveral, Florida. The mission, in collaboration with the space agencies NASA, Roscosmos, ESA, JAXA and CSA-ASC, will last about two weeks.
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