NASA News: NASA, NSBRI Select 12 Proposals To Support Crew Health On Missions

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Human Research Program (HRP) and the National
Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) of Houston will fund 12
proposals to help investigate questions about astronaut health and
performance on future space exploration missions. The selected
proposals, representing 11 institutions in nine states, will receive
approximately $14 million over a three-to-four year period.

HRP provides knowledge and technologies to improve human health and
performance during space exploration and develops possible
countermeasures for problems experienced during space travel. The
program's goals are to help complete missions successfully and
preserve astronauts' health throughout their lives. HRP quantifies
crew health and performance risks during spaceflight and develops
strategies that mission planners and system developers can use to
monitor and mitigate them.

The 12 projects were selected from 85 proposals received in response
to the research announcement "Research and Technology Development to
Support Crew Health and Performance in Space Exploration Missions."
Scientific and technical experts from academia and government
reviewed the proposals. Ten of the projects will have NASA principal
investigators while two will be managed by NSBRI.

NSBRI is a NASA-funded consortium of institutions studying health
risks related to long-duration spaceflight. The institute's science,
technology and education projects take place at more than 60
institutions across the United States.

A complete list of the selected principal investigators, organizations
and proposals is available at:

http://1.usa.gov/kn4EXG

For information about NASA's Human Research Program, visit:

http://humanresearch.jsc.nasa.gov

For information about NSBRI's science, technology and education
programs, visit:

http://www.nsbri.org

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

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Last Female Shuttle Astronaut Available For Interviews

HOUSTON -- NASA astronaut Sandra Magnus, who will fly on the last
space shuttle mission next month, is available for live satellite
interviews from 7 to 9 a.m. CDT on Monday, June 6. Shuttle Atlantis
is targeted to launch July 8 with Magnus, Commander Chris Ferguson,
Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialist Rex Walheim to deliver
supplies and spare equipment to the International Space Station.

After her first spaceflight in 2002, Magnus became the 34th out of 47
woman to fly aboard the shuttle, which launched the first American
woman into space, Sally Ride, in 1983. With the upcoming STS-135
launch, Magnus will be the last female astronaut to fly on the storied vehicle.

Magnus is a native of Belleville, Ill. She earned a bachelor's and a
master's from the University of Missouri-Rolla and a doctorate from
the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is a veteran of two shuttle
flights and a 4.5-month stay aboard the station as a member of the
Expedition 18 crew. Her first spaceflight was aboard shuttle Atlantis
on the STS-112 mission in October 2002. She later flew to the station
aboard shuttle Endeavour on STS-126 in November 2008 and returned to
Earth aboard shuttle Discovery on STS-119 in March 2009.

To arrange an interview, news media representatives must contact Karen
Svetaka at 281-483-8684, no later than 4 p.m. on Friday, June 3.
Participating media must tune into NASA Television's Live Interview
Media Outlet channel. 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. NASA TV will air the Magnus
interviews live. Video b-roll of STS-135 flight preparations will air
June 6 at 6:30 a.m. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and
scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For Magnus' complete biography, visit:

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

To follow Magnus on Twitter, visit:

http://www.twitter.com/astro_sandy

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

http://go.nasa.gov/STS-135

Source:

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