June 24, 1997

Debra Rahn
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone: 202/358-1639)

Eileen Hawley
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone: 281/483-5111)

Release: 97-142

Jett Assumes NASA Manager Position in Russia

Astronaut Brent W. Jett, Jr. (Cmdr., USN) will replace Michael Lopez-Alegria (Cmdr., USN) as the NASA manager of operational activities at Star City, Russia, near Moscow.

The eighth astronaut to serve in this rotational position, Jett will continue to support the training and preparations of NASA astronauts at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Star City. He will be the primary liaison between NASA and cosmonaut training center management, and will continue the operational and personal relationships with Star City management and the cosmonauts, as American astronauts live and work in Russia.

Jett, who departed for Russia on June 22, joins fellow astronauts Wendy Lawrence (Cmdr., USN), David Wolf, M.D., William S. Shepherd (Capt. USN), and Andrew S. W. Thomas (Ph.D.), currently training in Star City. Lopez-Alegria will return to the Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, to begin training as an extravehicular activity crew member for STS-92, the second U.S. mission to assemble the International Space Station.

Jett, 38, is a two-time Shuttle veteran, having flown previously on Endeavour's STS-72 mission in January 1996, and most recently on the fifth Shuttle/Mir docking mission, STS-81 in January 1997.

For complete biographical information on Jett and other astronauts, see the NASA Internet astronaut biography home page at URL:

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/.

text-only version of this release