Kari Fluegel June 5, 1995
RELEASE: 95-041
NOTE TO EDITORS: THAGARD TO TALK TO REPORTERS AS NEW U.S. DURATION RECORD SET
News media at the Johnson Space Center and Kennedy Space Center will have a chance to talk to U.S. Astronaut Norm Thagard on the Russian Mir Space Station June 6 as he sets a new American record for time spent in space.
The news conference will begin at 10:30 a.m. Central time Tuesday morning and will last approximately 42 minutes. Reporters wishing to participate should be in place at either JSC or KSC no later than 10:20 a.m. Central.
As part of a cooperative U.S./Russian space mission, Thagard, along with crew mates Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennady Strekalov, was launched to the Russian Mir Space Station on a Soyuz rocket on March 14, and arrived at Mir two days later. As of June 6, he will have spent 85 days in space.
The previous record was 84 days set by Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson and William Pogue on the Skylab 4 mission from November 16, 1973, to February 8, 1974.
Thagard will remain in space conducting experiments to help investigators understand the effects of long duration space missions on the human body until early July when the Space Shuttle Atlantis and the STS-71 crew docks with Mir to bring the Mir 18 crew home. Depending on the actual STS-71 launch, he will spend more than 110 days in space.
NASA Television will carry the news conference live on Spacenet 2, Transponder 5, Channel 9 at 69 degrees West longitude. The transponder frequency is 3880 MHz and the audio subcarrier is 6.8 MHz. The polarization is horizontal.
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