Space Station Crew Media Events

Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington October 20, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-4769)

James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 281/483-5111)

NOTE TO EDITORS: N03-106

SPACE STATION CREW MEDIA EVENTS

The two crews of astronauts and cosmonauts, sharing time
aboard the International Space Station, will take questions
from reporters Thursday, Oct. 23 at 11 a.m. EDT.

The space-to-ground news conference will last about 20
minutes. Because of limited time, only reporters at NASA's
Johnson Space Center, Houston, NASA's Kennedy Space Center,
Fla., and the Russian Mission Control Center near Moscow will
be able to ask questions. The entire event will be carried
live on NASA Television.

The event takes place during the crew transition on board the
Space Station. The Expedition 7 crew, Russian cosmonaut Yuri
Malenchenko and NASA astronaut Ed Lu, are handing over command
of the Station to the Expedition 8 crew, NASA astronaut
Michael Foale and cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri. Expedition 8
will spend approximately six months in orbit. Spanish astronaut
Pedro Duque is also aboard the Station on a research mission
for the European Space Agency. Duque made the outbound trip
with Expedition 8 on Oct. 18 and will return to Earth with
Expedition 7 on Oct. 27.

NASA TV will carry the official change-of-command ceremony
Oct. 24. Live coverage begins at 2 p.m. EDT. These two events
are part of the coverage of the Expedition 7/8 Space Station
crew exchange. Coverage runs through Oct. 30.

NASA TV is available on AMC-9, transponder 9C, C-Band,
located at 85 degrees west longitude. The frequency is
3880.0 MHz. Polarization is vertical, and audio is monaural
at 6.80 MHz. For the full NASA TV schedule on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasat..._Breaking.html


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