May 28, 1998

Debbie Rahn/Jennifer McCarter
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone: 202/358-1639)

Rob Navias
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone: 281/483-3671)

Release: N98-37

News Conference Set for U.S. Astronaut on Mir

U.S. Astronaut Andrew Thomas will hold a news conference from the Mir Space Station on Monday, June 1, starting at about 9:40 a.m. CDT to discuss the end of his four-month research mission on the Russian complex and the upcoming end of the Shuttle-Mir program.

The news conference, to be broadcast on NASA Television on the eve of the launch of Discovery on the STS-91 mission to bring Thomas home, is expected to last about 30 minutes. There will be multicenter question-and-answer capability for reporters at participating NASA centers.

The news conference will be carried through the Russian Altair satellite to be transmitted to the U.S. from the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev, outside Moscow.

Thomas is wrapping up the final flight of a U.S. astronaut to Mir. If he lands on June 12 as is currently scheduled, American astronauts will have spent almost 1000 days in space over the past three years as part of the Shuttle-Mir program.

NASA Television is carried on GE-2, Transponder 9C at 85 degrees West longitude, vertical polarization, frequency 3880 Mhz, audio 6.8 Mhz.

text-only version of this release