Media Invited to Meet Astronaut Rick Mastracchio, Next Station Crew

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Aug 12, 2013, 05:52 ET

WASHINGTON, Aug. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and two crewmates who are scheduled to travel to the International Space Station in November will conduct a news conference and be available for news interviews and social media opportunities Wednesday, Aug. 28, at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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Mastracchio, Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and veteran cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin of the Russian Federal Space Agency, make up space station Expedition 38.

Their crew news conference will air live on NASA Television at 2 p.m. EDT (1 p.m. CDT). Journalists attending in person will receive priority. Those wishing to participate by telephone should call Johnson's newsroom at 281-483-5111 no later than 1:45 p.m. Questions by phone and social media will be taken as time permits.

Following the interactive news conference, interview opportunities are available in person, by phone or through the Internet. To reserve an interview opportunity, news media representatives must contact Johnson's newsroom by 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 26.

Media interested in attending these activities in person must request credentials by 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 26. The deadline for international journalists is 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 19.

Mastracchio grew up in Waterbury, Conn., and graduated from the University of Connecticut. He holds master's degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Mastracchio worked as an engineer in the space industry before joining NASA in 1990 as an engineer in the Flight Crew Operations Directorate. Selected as an astronaut in 1996, he is a veteran of three spaceflights.

This will be Wakata's fourth flight into space and second long-duration mission on the station. In March 2014, he will become the first Japanese commander of the space station. The mission marks Tyurin's third long-duration stay on the space station.

Mastracchio has been sharing his mission training and preparations via Twitter. He's encouraged followers to join his training via the "Ride with Rick" monthly trivia question series. Winners will have their photos sent to space and photographed in orbit with Mastracchio.

The trio will launch in their Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Nov. 6. They are scheduled to return to Earth in May 2014.

For Mastracchio's full biography, visit:

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/mastracc.html

To see training and mission posts from Mastracchio on Twitter, follow:

@AstroRM

For more information regarding "Ride with Rick" Twitter trivia program, visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/XWoP2c

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

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the International Space Station and its crews, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

SOURCE NASA