NEWS

WIRES

OTHER

NASA Sets Interviews With Flight Director for Next Shuttle Mission

International Space Station Flight Director Derek Hassmann will be available for satellite interviews from 6 to 8 a.m. CDT Friday, Oct. 19. Hassmann will lead NASA's Mission Control Center during the next space shuttle mission, which will involve the first expansion of the station's living and working space in more than six years.

Hassmann is a native of San Antonio and a graduate of the University of Texas. He is the lead flight director for space shuttle Discovery's STS-120 mission to the station. Countdown for Discovery's mission is targeted to begin Saturday, Oct. 20. The launch is targeted for 10:38 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 23.

Discovery will deliver a new connecting module named Harmony to the station and continue assembly of the complex's solar power system. Harmony will provide attachment points for new laboratories from Europe and Japan that will be launched to the station on upcoming missions.

To participate in the interviews, media should contact producer Stephanie Stoll at 281-483-9071 or pager 713-508-0581 by 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18. B-roll of preparations for the mission will be broadcast starting at 5:30 a.m., immediately prior to the interviews.

The NASA Television low-latency channel will be used to conduct the interviews with the least audio delay. The NASA TV low-latency channel is on satellite AMC 6, transponder 5C, located at 72 degrees west, downlink frequency 3785.5 Mhz, vertical polarity. The interviews also will be broadcast live on NASA TV. For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For STS-120 crew and mission information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

Source: NASA