Former Space Station Astronauts Available for Live TV Interviews

Former Space Station Astronauts Available for Live TV Interviews

NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Sandra Magnus, who recently returned to Earth after several months living aboard the International Space Station, will be available for television interviews via satellite Thursday, April 30.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO )

Fincke, a Pittsburgh-area native, will be available for live interviews from 6 a.m. to 7:25 a.m. CDT April 30. He commanded the Expedition 18 mission, during which the station began water supply recycling and gained a full power supply from four solar arrays. He spent 178 days in orbit and conducted two spacewalks. Combined with the 187 days he served as an Expedition 9 flight engineer in 2004, Fincke has accumulated a year in space during his career.

Magnus, from Belleville, Ill., near St. Louis, will be available for live interviews from 7:35 a.m. to 9 a.m. April 30. She was an Expedition 18 flight engineer for 129 days, returning to Earth on March 28. During her mission, Magnus wrote journal entries, which included details on her efforts to spice up traditional space food. Her entries are available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/sandymagnusjournals

To participate in the interviews, reporters should contact Derek Sollosi by phone at 713-884-5845 or by e-mail at derek.sollosi-1@nasa.gov before noon Wednesday, April 29. Expedition 18 b-roll feeds will air immediately following each set of interviews at 5:30 a.m. and 7:25 a.m.

The NASA Live Interview Media Outlet channel will be used for the interviews. The channel is a digital satellite C-band downlink by uplink provider Americom. It is on satellite AMC 6, transponder 5C, located at 72 degrees west, downlink frequency 3785.5 Mhz based on a standard C-band 5150 Mhz L.O., vertical polarity, FEC is 3/4, data rate is 6.00 Mhz, symbol rate is 4.3404 Mbaud, transmission DVB, minimum Eb/N0 is 6.0 dB.

The interviews also will be broadcast live on NASA Television. For streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

   http://www.nasa.gov/ntv    For more information about the International Space Station, visit:    http://www.nasa.gov/station    For more information about the space shuttle, visit:    http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle   

CONTACT: Katherine Trinidad, Headquarters, Washington, +1-202-358-1100, katherine.trinidad@nasa.gov, or James Hartsfield, Johnson Space Center, Houston, +1-281-483-5111, james.a.hartsfield@nasa.gov, both of NASA.

/PRNewswire-USNewswire -- April 27/

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Source: NASA

Web Site: http://www.nasa.gov/

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