NASA Astronaut Ed Lu will celebrate his 40th birthday on July 1 while orbiting 240 miles above the Earth in the International Space Station. In honor of his birthday, Hawaii's governor, Linda Lingle, proclaimed July 1 'Edward Tsang Lu Day' in Hawaii.

Lu currently lives on the Space Station as the Expedition 7, NASA Space Station Science Officer along with Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko. Expedition 7 arrived at the Station April 28 to begin its six-month mission.

Lu considers Honolulu his hometown and has a great fondness for Hawaiian aloha shirts. Lu and Malenchenko have been seen sporting colorful new aloha shirts that arrived earlier this month on a Russian resupply spacecraft as a gift from their support team in Houston. Tuesday the Mission Control flight control team will wear aloha shirts to honor Lu's birthday.

A videoconference with Lingle is scheduled for 5:17 p.m. EDT, June 30. Video of the conference with Expedition 7 and Lingle will air in the NASA TV Video File July 1, beginning at noon, EDT. NASA TV is broadcast on AMC-2, Transponder 9C at 85 degrees west longitude, vertical polarization, with a frequency of 3880 MHz, and audio of 6.8 MHz.

For information about NASA, human space flight, astronauts, and the International Space Station on the Internet, visit: http://www.nasa.gov

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