NASA Flight Directors Available for Interviews for Final Shuttle Mission

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Jun 29, 2011, 02:16 ET

HOUSTON, June 29, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA Flight Directors Kwatsi Alibaruho (KWAT-see Ah-lee-buh-roo-hoe) of Maywood, Ill., and Chris Edelen of Martinsville, Va., are available for live satellite interviews from 6 to 7:50 a.m. CDT on Wednesday, July 6. Just two days later, they will support the scheduled launch of space shuttle Atlantis on its STS-135 mission, the final flight of the 30-year Space Shuttle Program.

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On July 8, Atlantis and four NASA astronauts are scheduled to lift off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the 12-day mission, they will transfer tons of supplies to the station from the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module.

Alibaruho, the lead space shuttle flight director for STS-135, and Edelen, the lead International Space Station flight director, will discuss their roles and the shuttle mission. To participate in the interviews, reporters must contact Stephanie Stoll at 281-483-9071 or at [email protected] before 3 p.m. on Tuesday, July 5.

Alibaruho became a NASA flight director in 2005. He will be available from 6 to 6:50 a.m. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.

Edelen, a NASA flight director since 2007, will be available from 7 to 7:50 a.m. He is a graduate of Virginia Tech and the University of Houston, Clear Lake.

NASA Television will air b-roll footage of STS-135 mission preparations beginning at 5:30 a.m.

The NASA Live Interview Media Outlet (LIMO) used for the interviews and preceding b-roll 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.

Alibaruho's interviews will be simulcast on NASA TV's Public and Media Channels. Edelen's interviews will be simulcast on the Media Channel only due to other programming on the NASA TV Public Channel at that time.

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the STS-135 mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

For more information about the space station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

SOURCE NASA