NASA, Roscosmos Hold Briefings And Interviews Dec. 5 For Yearlong Space Station Mission

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Nov 28, 2012, 02:21 ET

HOUSTON, Nov. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will hold two briefings on Wednesday, Dec. 5, beginning at 8 a.m. CST, to preview the upcoming yearlong expedition by two crew members aboard the International Space Station. NASA Television and the agency's website will carry the briefings live.

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Scott Kelly of NASA and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos will launch to the station in early 2015 to begin a yearlong stay aboard the orbiting laboratory. This will be the longest time an American has spent in space on a single mission.

Both briefings will take place at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and will include participants at Johnson and the Russian Mission Control Center outside of Moscow. Questions will be taken during both briefings from media at NASA centers and the Russian control center. A limited number of questions from media also will be taken via Johnson's phone lines.

The programmatic news conference at 8 a.m. will include:

-- Michael Suffredini, International Space Station program manager
-- Julie Robinson, International Space Station program scientist
-- Robert Behnken, NASA chief astronaut
-- Alexey Krasnov, director of Piloted Space Programs Department, Roscosmos
-- Sergei Krikalev, director, Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
-- Igor Ushakov, director, Institute for Biomedical Problems

The crew news conference at 9 a.m. will include Kelly and Kornienko.

Individual interviews with Kelly and Robinson will be available to media immediately after the crew news conference.

For those attending at Johnson, the deadline for U.S. reporters to request credentials is Monday, Dec. 3. The deadline for international residents is Thursday, Nov. 29. Reporters attending at other centers should contact those centers' newsrooms for specific deadlines.

To participate via the phone, reporters must contact the Johnson newsroom by noon on Tuesday, Dec. 4, at 281-483-5111, to request approval. Approved media will be notified that afternoon and will be required to call the Johnson newsroom at least 15 minutes before the start of the first briefing on Wednesday. Media will not be able to connect after the beginning of that briefing.

Reporters requesting individual interviews with Kelly and Robinson need to contact Gayle Frere in the Johnson newsroom by Friday, Nov. 30.

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

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

Join the conversation on Twitter by following the hashtag #ISS. To learn more about all the ways to Connect and Collaborate with NASA, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/connect

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

http://www.nasa.gov/station

SOURCE NASA