International Space Station Program, Science Briefing Set

NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will host a news conference and social media event at 1 p.m. CDT (2 p.m. EDT) Wednesday, May 22, to preview the upcoming Expedition 36 mission aboard the International Space Station.

NASA Television and the agency's website will carry the briefings live. Social media followers, who will be at Johnson for a NASA Social focusing on scientific research aboard the space station, will participate in the briefing and ask questions.

The International Space Station Program and Science Overview briefing will cover mission priorities and objectives. The two expeditions will involve increasing research on the orbital laboratory; up to six spacewalks (four Russian and two U.S.); arrival of the next European, Japanese and Russian cargo ships; and the maiden flight of the U.S. commercial resupply vehicle, Cygnus, from Orbital Sciences Corp.

The briefing participants are:

-- Michael Suffredini, International Space Station Program manager

-- Gary Horlacher, Expedition 36 lead flight director

-- Tara Ruttley, International Space Station Program associate program scientist

NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano are scheduled to launch to the station May 28 on a Soyuz spacecraft from Kazakhstan. They will join Expedition 36 crew members Chris Cassidy of NASA and cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, who have been aboard the station since late March.

Nyberg, Yurchikhin and Parmitano will remain in orbit until mid-November and will be joined in September by three additional crew members, Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian Federal Space Agency and NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins, who will replace Vinogradov, Cassidy and Misurkin after they return to Earth in mid-September.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

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International Space Station Program, Science Briefing Set