Texas Students To Chat Live With Space Station Crew Members

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Mar 29, 2012, 04:05 ET

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Students at O. Henry Middle School in Austin, Texas, will learn about living and working in space by speaking with Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank and Flight Engineers Don Pettit and Andre Kuipers aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday, April 3. The live question-and-answer session will take place at 11:20 a.m. EDT and be broadcast live on NASA Television. Media representatives are invited to attend.

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More than 100 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students will participate through their science classes. Texas Congressman Lamar Smith is expected to join the group for this special event.

Reporters planning to attend should contact Helena Wright, media relations contact for the Austin Independent School District, at [email protected] or 512-414-0024. O. Henry Middle School is located at 2610 West 10th St. in Austin.

The students will participate in a variety of space-focused science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) educational initiatives and explore other NASA resources in preparation for the space station downlink.

This in-flight education downlink is one in a series with educational organizations in the United States and abroad to improve STEM teaching and learning. It is an integral component of NASA's Teaching from Space Program, which promotes learning opportunities and builds partnerships with the education community using the unique environment of space and NASA's human spaceflight program.

The exact time of the downlink could change. For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For information about NASA's education programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/education

For information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

To follow Twitter updates from Burbank and Pettit, visit:

http://twitter.com/AstroCoastie

-and-

http://twitter.com/Astro_Pettit

SOURCE NASA