[sarex] NASA Holds Briefing With First Female Station Commander and Crew

[Arthur Rowe]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

> July 17, 2007
>
> Allard Beutel
> Headquarters, Washington
> 202-358-4769
>
> Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters
> Johnson Space Center, Houston
> 281-483-5111
>
>
>
> NASA HOLDS BRIEFING WITH FIRST FEMALE STATION COMMANDER AND CREW
>
> HOUSTON - The next visitors to the International Space Station will 
> discuss their upcoming flight during a news conference at 2 p.m. CDT 
> Monday, July 23. The Expedition 16 crew includes Commander Peggy 
> Whitson, the first female to lead a long-duration spaceflight. 
>
> The news conference from NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, will be 
> broadcast live on NASA Television with questions taken from media at 
> other NASA facilities. Reporters should call their local NASA center 
> to confirm its participation in the event.
>
> In October, Whitson, Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko 
> and spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, who is from 
> Malaysia, will launch on a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur 
> Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Shukor is flying under an agreement with 
> Russia. Shukor will return to Earth with Expedition 15 crew members 
> Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov after nine days aboard the station. 
>
> During their six months in space, veterans Whitson and Malenchenko 
> will be joined by Expedition 16 flight engineers Dan Tani, Leopold 
> Eyharts of the European Space Agency and Garrett Reisman. 
>
> After Monday's news conference, Expedition 16 crew members will be 
> available for round-robin interviews. Shukor will take part in the 
> news conference but not the interviews. 
>
> Tani will begin his work with the expedition during space shuttle 
> Discovery's STS-120 mission, targeted for launch Oct. 20. Space 
> shuttle Atlantis' STS-122 mission, which is targeted for launch Dec. 
> 6, will deliver Eyharts to the outpost and return Tani to Earth. 
> Reisman will head to the station on space shuttle Endeavour's STS-123 
> mission, targeted for launch Feb. 14, 2008. He will replace Eyharts 
> and return to Earth on a later shuttle flight. 
>
> For NASA TV downlink, schedules and streaming video information, 
> visit: 
>
> http://www.nasa.gov/ntv 
>
> For more about the crew's activities and station sighting 
> opportunities, visit: 
>
> http://www.nasa.gov/station
>
> 	
> -end-
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