Sep 16 2011
From The Space Library
MEDIA ADVISORY: M11-196 NASA ASTRONAUT Ron Garan AVAILABLE FOR MEDIA INTERVIEWS
HOUSTON --NASA astronaut Ron Garan will be available for live satellite interviews one week after returning to Earth from 6 to 7:30 a.m. CDT on Thursday, Sept. 22. Garan completed 164 days in space as a member of the Expedition 27 and 28 crews aboard the International Space Station. The mission included the last space shuttle visit to the station. Garan and his crewmates, Expedition 28 Commander Andrey Borisenko and Flight Engineer Alexander Samokutyaev, both of the Russian Federal Space Agency, landed in their Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft in Kazakhstan Thursday, Sept. 15 at 11 p.m. While aboard the station, they continued work on a variety of microgravity experiments and received provisions from two shuttle missions in order to ensure the orbiting outpost has enough supplies and spare parts until new commercial resupply spacecraft are ready to join a suite of international cargo delivery vehicles. Garan is a graduate of the State University of New York College at Oneonta, and he received a master's degree in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida. He flew on one shuttle mission, STS-124 in 2008. Garan will appear on 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. The interviews and preceding b-roll from 5:30 to 6 a.m. also will air live on NASA TV.
MEDIA ADVISORY: M11-197 MEDIA OPPORTUNITY WITH NASA'S SOFIA DURING WASHINGTON STOPOVER
WASHINGTON -- NASA is inviting journalists to tour and learn more about the world's largest airborne astronomical observatory on Thursday, Sept. 22, from 12 to 2 p.m. EDT at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a highly modified Boeing 747SP aircraft fitted with a 100 inch (2.5 meter) diameter telescope, is making a rare appearance on the East Coast after a deployment to Germany. Media will hear from NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, Leland Melvin, former astronaut and NASA associate administrator for Education, and Paul Hertz, NASA SOFIA program scientist, from 12 to 12:30 p.m. before touring the aircraft. Hundreds of children from military families also will be on-site to tour the aircraft, visit NASA exhibits, and speak with scientists. SOFIA's Washington-area stopover is part of the White House's "Joining Forces" initiative to give service members and their families opportunities they have earned. SOFIA analyzes infrared light to study the formation of stars and planets; chemistry of interstellar gases; composition of comets, asteroids and planets; and supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies. Infrared observations are optimal for studying low-temperature objects in space such as the raw materials for star and planet formation and for seeing through interstellar dust clouds that block light at visible wavelengths. SOFIA is a joint program between NASA and DLR in Bonn, Germany. The SOFIA program is managed at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif. The aircraft is based at the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif. NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., manages the SOFIA science and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association in Columbia, Md., and Deutsches SOFIA Institut in Stuttgart, Germany.
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