NASA Schedules Interviews for April Shuttle Mission Flight Directors
HOUSTON -- NASA Flight Directors Richard Jones and Ron Spencer are
available for live satellite interviews beginning March 30 at 6 a.m.
CDT. Jones and Spencer will discuss the challenges of space shuttle
Discovery's upcoming STS-131 mission that will deliver science
equipment and supplies to the International Space Station. The flight
is targeted for launch on April 5.
To participate in the interviews, reporters should contact Karen
Svetaka at 281-483-8684 before 1 p.m. on Monday, March 29.
Discovery's flight, one of only four remaining space shuttle missions,
will carry a logistics module packed with eight tons of cargo to the
station. The mission also will include three spacewalks to replace a
tank assembly on the station's backbone that provides ammonia for use
in the complex's cooling system.
Jones will be available from 6 a.m. to 6:45 a.m. He is the lead space
shuttle flight director for STS-131 and has been a NASA flight
director since 2005. A native of El Paso, Texas, he earned a
bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from Texas A&M University.
He previously has served as a flight director overseeing two shuttle
launches and four landings.
Spencer will be available from 7 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. He has been a
flight director since 2006. He is a native of Decatur, Ill., and also
earned a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from Texas A&M
University. Before becoming a flight director, he helped develop the
assembly sequence used to build the space station.
NASA Television will air B-roll footage of preparations for the
STS-131 mission beginning at 5:30 a.m. CDT.
The NASA TV 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 interviews also will be broadcast live on NASA Television. For
streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
For more information about the International Space Station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
For more information about the space shuttle, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle
Source: NASA
