The five crewmembers spending nine days together aboard the International Space Station will discuss the status of their current mission Friday during an in-flight crew news conference. The media event begins at 7:41 a.m. CDT April 23.

Media at participating NASA centers will be able to ask questions of the crew, as will reporters in the Netherlands, the home of European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers, the visiting researcher on the Station.

The two crews aboard the Station will be Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka, NASA ISS Science Officer Mike Fincke, Kuipers and Expedition 8 Commander Mike Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri. Foale and Kaleri are completing six months aboard the orbiting laboratory. Padalka and Fincke are beginning a six-month stay. Kuipers will return to Earth April 29 with the Expedition 8 crew.

Friday's news conference will be broadcast live on NASA TV; however, video from the Station is only expected during the U.S. portion of the event, with the Dutch portion continuing with audio only.

NASA Television is available on AMC-9, transponder 9C, C-Band, located at 85 degrees west longitude. The frequency is 3880.0 MHz. Polarization is vertical, and audio is monaural at 6.80 MHz. For information about NASA TV on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

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