Former Astronaut Roger Crouch, NASA Langley Research Center Director Lesa Roe and NASA's Wallops Flight Facility Senior Manager John Campbell will visit Arcadia Middle School, Oak Hall, Va., on Friday, Dec. 2, to kick off the newly established educational partnership between NASA and the school and to bring the Vision of Space Exploration to students and their families.

Crouch, Roe and Campbell will encourage students to study math and science so they can pursue careers in aeronautics and space as they discuss NASA's plans to return to the moon and go on to Mars.

• What: Student Assembly
• When: 2:00 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2
• Who: Former Astronaut Roger Crouch, NASA's Langley Research Center Director Lesa Roe and NASA's Wallops Flight Facility Senior Manager John Campbell
• Where: Arcadia Middle School

Media interested in covering the events or arranging an interview with Crouch, Roe or Campbell should contact Lindsay Crouch at 757-864-3189 or 757-870-6912 (mobile) by 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 2.

Roger Crouch served as a payload specialist on Space Shuttle missions STS-83 and STS-94 (both in 1997), and has logged over 471 hours in space. He has also been NASA Headquarters' senior scientist for the International Space Station and has served as program scientist on five different Spacelab flights.

Roe has more than 20 years of experience in engineering, technical and managerial positions, working for both government and private industry. Her background includes two years in NASA center leadership, four years in International Space Station program management, nine years in technical management and project engineering and five years experience in radio frequency communications test and payload systems engineering.

Campbell has served as senior manager of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility and the director of Suborbital and Special Orbital Programs for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center since 2002. He began his career with NASA in 1987 and has managed a variety of projects for the Hubble Space Telescope program.

Arcadia Middle School was named one of NASA's 2005 Explorer Schools in May. The school started the program this fall and will continue the partnership for the next three years.

The NASA Explorer School (NES) program is sponsored by NASA to help educators and students join NASA's mission of discovery through educational activities and special learning opportunities tailored to promote science, mathematics and technology applications and career explorations.

Over the next three years, students in the NES program will participate in digital conferences with scientists and engineers at NASA. Educators will also take the hands-on activities to their students to provide exciting learning experiences in the science, mathematics and technology fields.

To learn more about the NES program, please visit:

http://explorerschools.nasa.gov

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/home

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