Tuesday, May 4, 2010

NASA Flight Directors Available For Interviews On Shuttle Atlantis' Last Scheduled Mission

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NASA Flight Directors Michael Sarafin of Herkimer, N.Y., and Emily Nelson of Austin, Texas, are available for live satellite interviews from 6 to 7 a.m. CDT Friday, May 7. Nelson and Sarafin will discuss the upcoming space shuttle Atlantis STS-132 mission to the International Space Station and their roles as flight directors.

The shuttle and its crew are scheduled to lift off at 2:20 p.m. EDT, Friday, May 14 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission currently is the last flight scheduled for Atlantis. Including STS-132, there are only three remaining shuttle missions scheduled before the fleet is retired.

To participate in the interviews, reporters should contact Jeremiah Maddix at 281-483-8631 before 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 6.

Sarafin will be available from 6 to 6:30 a.m. He is the lead shuttle flight director for STS-132. Sarafin, a NASA flight director since 2005, has supported 10 shuttle missions, including three as the lead shuttle flight director. He served in NASA's Mission Control as a shuttle flight controller for 10 years and graduated from Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y.

Nelson will be available from 6:30 to 7 a.m. She is the lead space station flight director for STS-132 and has been a NASA flight director since 2007. Since 1998, Nelson served as a flight controller overseeing the station's thermal systems. She is a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin.

The six astronauts for the mission will deliver the Russian-built Mini Research Module, also known as Rassvet (dawn in Russian) to the station. The flight also will deliver critical spare parts and cargo. During the 12-day mission, three spacewalks are planned.

The NASA Television 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 3, transponder 9C, located at 87 degrees west, downlink frequency 3865.5 Mhz based on a standard C-band, horizontal downlink polarity, FEC is 3/4, data rate is 6.0 Mbps, symbol rate is 4.3404 Msps, transmission DVB-S, 4:2:0.

The NASA TV Live Interview Media Outlet channel will air b-roll footage of preparations for the STS-132 mission beginning at 5:30 a.m. The interviews also will be broadcast live on NASA TV. For streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the STS-132 mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

For more information about the space station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

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