NASA And Japanese Space Agency To Inspire Students

Gretchen Cook-Anderson
Headquarters, Washington July 9, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-0836)

RELEASE: 03-233

NASA AND JAPANESE SPACE AGENCY TEAM TO INSPIRE STUDENTS

NASA and Japan's space agency arranged for five
Japanese students, chosen from 1,861 applicants, and their
parents to participate in a live NASA in-flight space
program. The program was with the International Space
Station Expedition 7 crew.

Astronaut Ed Lu and Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko participated
in the program, which took place at "Tokyo FM" radio station
yesterday. The program airs in Japan, to an audience of
nearly one million listeners in two, two-hour radio programs
in mid-July.

The student group, made up primarily of ten-year olds, was
part of the National Space Development Agency of Japan's
(NASDA) Education Program entitled, "When You Wish Upon a
Star." Following a background lecture from astronaut Mamoru
Mohri, the five students posed questions to the Station crew
concerning the event's theme: "Dreams of the Future Earth."
The students and their parents were able to both listen and
watch as the astronauts responded.

The Space Station event was planned as a way of encouraging
students to think more about space and possibilities for the
future. According to NASDA officials, its Education Program
provides a unique opportunity to foster among Japanese
children the "first strong consciousness and aspects of
oneself as an earthling."

"NASA is grateful for the opportunity to engage young people
from around the world in educational opportunities such as
the International Space Station in-flight program," said
Debbie Brown Biggs, Team Lead for NASA's Teaching from Space
Program. "Perhaps through this kind of event, we can get
young people thinking about how science and technology
transcend national borders. It is our students of today who
will lead the way in the scientific endeavors of tomorrow,"
she said.

The International Space Station program, provided via NASA
downlink, is one in a series of downlinks to educational
organizations across the country and abroad, and an integral
component of NASA's Teaching from Space Program. The
Teaching from Space Program, managed from the Johnson Space
Center, Houston, facilitates educational opportunities that
use the unique environment of human space flight. The
program builds partnerships with education communities to
create unique learning opportunities through the use of NASA
research and educational technology.

For those interested in accessing replays of the NASA TV
broadcast of the downlink with the Expedition 7 crew, NASA
TV programming is available via satellite through AMC-2,
Transponder 9C at 85 degrees west longitude, vertical
polarization, with a frequency of 3880.0 MHz, and audio of
6.80 MHz.

For information about NASA and human space flight on the
Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

For information about NASA Education programs on the
Internet, visit:

http://education.nasa.gov

For information about NASDA's Tsukuba Space Center visit:

http://www.nasda.go.jp/about/centers/tksc/index_e.html


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