Jan 17 2017

From The Space Library

MEDIA ADVISORY M17-004 Iowa Students to Speak to NASA Astronaut on the International Space Station

Students from Oskaloosa and Mt. Ayr Community Schools in Iowa will have the opportunity to speak with a NASA astronaut living and working aboard the International Space Station at 10:25 a.m. EST on Thursday, Jan. 19. The 20-minute, Earth-to-space call will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

Expedition 50 Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson, an Iowa native, will answer questions from fourth graders assembled at Iowa Public Television’s studios in Johnston, Iowa. Whitson launched to the space station on Nov. 17 and will live aboard until the spring.

Media interested in covering the event should contact Susan Ramsey at 515-725-9703. The IPTV studio is located at 6450 Corporate Drive in Johnston.

This in-flight education downlink is an integral component of the NASA Office of Education’s efforts to improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teaching and learning in the United States. Linking students directly to astronauts aboard the space station through the agency Office of Education’s STEM on Station activity provides authentic, live experiences in space exploration, space study and the scientific components of space travel, while introducing the possibilities of life in space.

MEDIA ADVISORY M17-006 NASA Hosts Facebook Live to Mark Success, Future of New Horizons Mission

Members of NASA’s New Horizons team will discuss the achievements of the first encounter with Pluto and look ahead to the mission’s next exploration of the Kuiper Belt during a Facebook Live event at 4 p.m. EST on Thursday, Jan. 19 -- the 11th anniversary of the spacecraft’s launch.

The event, live-streamed from New Horizons mission operations at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, will be available on the NASA New Horizons Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/new.horizons1/?fref=ts

The conversation will cover a range of topics, including the top three findings from the spacecraft’s Pluto flyby and what New Horizons is doing on the way to its next science target.

Team members scheduled to appear are:

• Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters
• Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute
• Glen Fountain, New Horizons (encounter) project manager at APL
• Kelsi Singer, New Horizons co-investigator at Southwest Research Institute
• Helene Winters, New Horizons project manager at APL

The team will answer questions from the public during the live event. Media may submit questions before and during the event by emailing Laurie Cantillo at NASA Headquarters, laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov.

New Horizons team members also will be available for interviews through Friday, Jan. 20. Media should contact Michael Buckley in APL Public Affairs at (240) 228-7536 or michael.buckley@jhuapl.edu to arrange interviews with the team.

All data from New Horizons’ flight through the Pluto system in July 2015 has been transmitted safely to Earth, with the last bits arriving last fall. While the team continues to analyze this historic set of images and other materials, it’s planning for the spacecraft’s next encounter – a flyby of Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, on Jan. 1, 2019.