Station spacewalk briefing Feb. 24; live TV coverage Feb. 26

Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington February 20, 2004
(Phone: 202/358-4769)

James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 281/483-4934)

NOTE TO EDITORS: N04-031

STATION SPACEWALK BRIEFING FEB. 24; LIVE TV COVERAGE FEB. 26

This month, for the first time, an International Space
Station crew will conduct a spacewalk with all crewmembers
working outside the vehicle. This milestone event will be the
subject of a televised news briefing Feb. 24 at 2 p.m. EST at
NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The spacewalk will be covered live on NASA Television Feb. 26.
Coverage will begin at 3 p.m. EST with commentary and available
downlink television.

Expedition 8 Commander and NASA Science Officer Mike Foale and
Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri will work outside the Station
for a five-and-a-half hour excursion to replace technological
experiments and survey the exterior of the complex. Foale and
Kaleri have a total of seven spacewalks to their credit. It
will be the 52nd spacewalk in support of the assembly and
maintenance of the Station.

The Feb. 24 briefing will be carried live on NASA Television.
Officials will preview the spacewalk and discuss the latest
work being conducted by Foale and Kaleri on the Space Station.
Reporters at participating NASA centers will be able to ask
questions.

The panel will include:
-- Mike Suffredini, ISS Manager for Integration and Operations
-- Joel Montalbano, Expedition 8 Lead Flight Director
-- Pete Hasbrook, Expedition 8 Increment Manager
-- Sally Davis, ISS EVA Lead Flight Director
-- Mike Hembree, Expedition 8 Lead EVA Officer
-- Dr. Janice Voss, ISS Increment Scientist

For the International Space Station, a spacewalk involving all
crewmembers is a first. However, the Russian and U.S. space
programs are very experienced in spacewalks of this kind. From
the Russian Salyut and Mir space stations, cosmonauts performed
about 50 two-person crew spacewalks without a crewmember
inside.

When American astronauts walked on the moon, no one was inside
the lunar modules. Also, during the first four Space Shuttle
missions, which had only two crewmembers each, astronauts were
prepared to do two-person spacewalks in the event of a
contingency.

For more information about NASA on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

NASA Television 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 information about NASA TV on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html


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-------------------

Jacques :-)

Editor: www.spacepatches.info