Consider this: It is now four decades ago that astronaut Owen Garriott, callsign W5LFL, pioneered amateur radio communication from space. He was a crewmember on the space shuttle program's STS-9 mission.
During that space shuttle flight in 1983, Garriott became the first-ever person in space to communicate with amateur radio operators on the ground. He was also the first person to be heard directly from space by members of the public using simple radio receivers and scanners.
