In the last week of March 2025, students from Maple Bear School will establish the first-ever direct radio contact between Bulgarian students and astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) through the ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) program.

The connection will take place on March 24
Contact time: 16:23 Bulgarian time
Astronaut: Don Pettit (NASA), the oldest currently active astronaut (69 years old)

The program will begin at 3:30 p.m. with the following highlights:

  • Brief greetings from Lilyana Nikolova, founder and manager of Maple Bear School Sofia, and Neven Dilkov, radio amateur with the initials LZ1COM and founder and manager of Neterra
  • Information about the upcoming connection – Marian Rangelov, radio amateur with the call sign LZ3MAR and financial director of Neterra
  • Event host and contact with the ISS – Viktor Marinov, long-time radio amateur with the call sign LZ1NY and radio electronics engineer

The conversation with the astronauts will last about 10 minutes. As the ISS passes over the students, they will ask their questions from Earth and receive answers directly from space.

The event will be streamed live at https://spacecontact.bg/