Kari Fluegel
RELEASE: 94-035 May 12, 1994
PRESS CONFERENCES TO PREVIEW FUTURE SPACE OPERATIONS
NASA will provide "A Look at the Future" May 16 with a special series of press conferences that will include a preview of the upcoming joint U.S.-Russian space flights and the International Space Station, as well as discussions with the astronauts and cosmonauts currently training for the joint missions.
Astronauts Norm Thagard and Bonnie Dunbar and Cosmonauts Vladimir Dejourov, Gennadiy Strekalov, Anatoly Solovyev, Nikolai Budarin, Yury Onufrienko and Alexandr
Poleshchuk will arrive at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, on Monday. The astronauts and cosmonauts will begin 2 weeks of life sciences training for experiments that will
take place aboard the Russian Space Station Mir and aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis during the STS-71 flight, currently scheduled for late May 1995. Onufrienko and
Poleshchuk comprise the "third crew" and will be training as backup crew members.
While cooperative science efforts between the U.S. and Russia have been going on for years, the era of joint human space flight began in January 1994 when Cosmonaut Sergei
Krikalev flew on Space Shuttle mission STS-60. The cooperation will continue with the flight of Cosmonaut Vladimir Titov on STS-63, an early 1995 mission which may include a Space Shuttle flying in formation with Mir. Thagard will become the first U.S. astronaut to fly on a Russian launch vehicle in March 1995 when he joins the Mir 18 crew for its
3-month mission in space. Thagard and his Mir crewmates will return to Earth in May 1995 aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, which will dock with the Russian station during
STS-71.
The 10 Shuttle-Mir flights comprise Phase One of the International Space Station program. Phases Two and Three construct the orbiting research laboratory and begin initial operations. As the largest international scientific and technology development ever undertaken, the International Space Station will bring together resources from the U.S.,
Russia, member nations of the European Space Agency, Canada and Japan. Assembly of the station is expected to begin in December 1997 with human-tended operations beginning in June 1998 after the launch of the U.S. laboratory. Assembly will be complete in 2002.
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The briefings, originating from the Johnson Space Center's Public Affairs briefing room (Bldg. 2, Room 135), will be broadcast on NASA TV with interactive question-and-
answer sessions from all participating centers. NASA TV coverage may be accessed on Spacenet 2, Transponder 5, Channel 9, horizontal polarization, located at 69 degrees West longitude, 3880 megahertz.
AGENDA
All times listed are Central
Monday, May 16, 1994
9:00 a.m. Phase One: The Space Station Era Begins
Jim Nise, Phase One Manager, Space Station Program Office
Phil Engelauf, Lead STS-63 Flight Director
Gary Coen, Lead STS-71 Flight Director
Tom Sullivan, Shuttle/Mir Medical Project Mission Scientist
NASA Astronaut Ken Cameron, Manager, Star City Operations
10:30 a.m. Phase Two and Three: A Space Station Preview
Randy Brinkley, Manager, Space Station Program Office
Bill Shepherd, Deputy Manager, Space Station Program Office
Dan Tam, Business Manager, Space Station Program Office
Chuck Lloyd, Deputy Manager, Space Station Program Office
Science and Utilization Office
12:30 p.m. Mir 18 and 19 Astronaut/Cosmonaut Briefing
NASA Astronaut Norm Thagard
NASA Astronaut Bonnie Dunbar
Cosmonaut Vladimir Dejourov
Cosmonaut Gennadiy Strekalov
Cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyev
Cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin
(Translations will be provided)
2:00 p.m. Tour/Briefing of Johnson's New Consolidated Control Center
John Muratore, Chief, Control Center Systems Division
(Not televised -- Houston media only.)
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