NASA Previews Yearlong Space Station Mission in Jan. 15 Briefing

NASA will hold two briefings Thursday, Jan. 15 at the agencys Johnson Space Center in Houston, to preview the upcoming Expedition 43 mission aboard the International Space Station and the launch of the crew embarking on a yearlong mission. NASA Television and the agencys website will broadcast the briefings live.

At noon EST, an International Space Station Program and Science Overview briefing will cover mission priorities and objectives, which include hundreds of research experiments, numerous spacewalks and international and commercial cargo deliveries to the complex.

The briefing participants are:

Michael Suffredini, International Space Station program manager

Emily Nelson, International Space Station expedition flight director

Julie Robinson, International Space Station program scientist

Steve Gilmore, lead flight surgeon for Scott Kelly

At 2 p.m., NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will discuss their upcoming mission. B-roll video of the crews training will air at 1:30 p.m.

The trio is set to launch to the space station aboard the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft March 27. Padalka will return to Earth in September while Kelly and Kornienko will remain onboard until March 2016.

Kelly and Kornienko are embarking on a first-ever yearlong mission to the station. The valuable scientific data collected will provide insight into how the human body responds to longer durations in space, supporting the next generation of space exploration.

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NASA Previews Yearlong Space Station Mission in Jan. 15 Briefing