Bauer spearheaded the ham radio program for the International Space Station. Amateur radio made its first foray into space aboard shuttle Columbia in November 1983. Owen Garriot, the astronaut who brought the first radio, held an antenna up to the window and talked to other hams on Earth. This contact was the first communication between astronauts and people on the ground outside official channels, which are usually reserved for presidents and heads of state. Today, astronauts routinely take ham radios into space and speak with schoolchildren, family members and the occasional lucky amateur in the right place at the right time.
Ham operators use radio transmitters and receivers to talk to other hams all over the globe.
There are more than 1.5 million licensed ham operators worldwide, including more than 400,000 in the United States.