International Space Station

The International Space Station is a joint project between many nations and is currently in low earth orbit. It is manned and has been since November 2000

On a periodic basis, SSTV (Slow Scan TeleVision) pictures are broadcast from the Russian Zarya module. These are often to commemorate events and typically occur every 2-3 months for a few days at a time.

A series typically has 10-20 images in a set and are broadcast in order with about 2-3 images (or part images) being available to download over each pass.

This example image is from a set of images commemorating the life of Owen Garriott. He was an American astronaut who was the pioneer of amateur radio broadcasts from space.

There is also a ham (amateur) radio on the ISS and this can be used by astronauts in their free time to communicate with ham radio operators on the ground.

There is also a programme where astronauts will talk with students in schools are they pass overhead.