The pictures on the diploma show three events and people associated with them:
35 years ago, astronaut Owen Garriott, W5LFL took his amateur radio equipment into the Space on the Columbia STS-9 shuttle (November-December 1983). He became the first radioamateur to talk to hams while orbiting Earth. This event gave rise to the SAREX program (Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment, later called the Space Amateur Radio Experiment).
Sergey Samburov, RV3DR is the Chief of Cosmonaut Amateur Radio Department, RSC Energia. Thirty years ago, he was the founder and head of the MAREX program (Mir Amateur Radio EXperiment) and MIREX (Mir International Amateur Radio EXperiment) which were formed to handle prescheduled Mir school contacts. He is currently the head of the Russian Segment amateur radio activity on the International Space Station.
William Shepherd, KD5GSL commanded the first expedition on board the ISS in 2000-2001. Using the callsign NA1SS – Shepherd completed the first-ever ARISS contact on December 21, 2000. During a ten-minute radioamateur connection, he talked to 14 students of grades 1 to 8 plus a science and math teacher Rita Wright at Luther Burbank Elementary School near Chicago. We have recently celebrated the 18th anniversary of this event
Greetings,
Slawek SQ3OOK
ARISS SSTV Award Manager
