HOUSTON – Three NASA astronauts who will fly aboard the last space shuttle mission in July are available for live satellite interviews next week. STS-135 mission Commander Chris Ferguson is available from 3 – 4:50 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, June 15. Pilot Doug Hurley is available from 10 – 11:50 a.m. and Mission Specialist Rex Walheim from 1 – 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday, June 14.
Shuttle Atlantis is targeted for launch July 8 with Ferguson, Hurley, Walheim, and Mission Specialist Sandra Magnus to deliver supplies and spare equipment to the International Space Station.
This will be Ferguson’s third shuttle flight and his second as commander. He is a native of Philadelphia and earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Drexel University in 1984 and a Master of Science in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1991.
A colonel in the Marine Corps, Hurley will make his second trip to space. In July 2009, he completed his first spaceflight as pilot on STS-127. Born in Endicott, N.Y., Hurley considers Apalachin, N.Y., his hometown. He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Tulane University.
STS-135 will be Walheim’s third trip to space. He previously served as a mission specialist and spacewalker on STS-110 in April 2002 and STS-122 in 2008. Born in Redwood City, Calif., Walheim considers San Carlos, Calif., his hometown. He is a retired Air Force colonel and received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1984, and a master’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Houston in 1989.
To arrange an interview with Ferguson, news media representatives must contact Stephanie Stoll by sending an email to stephanie.r.stoll@nasa.gov, no later than 3 p.m. on June 14. To arrange an interview with Hurley or Walheim, news media representatives must contact Stoll no later than 3 p.m. on Monday, June 13.
Participating media must tune into NASA Television’s Live Interview Media Outlet channel. The channel is a digital satellite C-band downlink by uplink provider Americom. It is on satellite AMC 3, transponder 9C, located at 87 degrees west, downlink frequency 3865.5 MHz based on a standard C-band, horizontal downlink polarity.
FEC is 3/4, data rate is 6.0 Mbps, symbol rate is 4.3404 Msps, transmission DVB-S, 4:2:0. NASA TV will air the interviews live. Video b-roll of STS-135 flight preparations will air at 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on June 14 and at 2:30 p.m. on June 15. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:
For complete biographies of Ferguson, Hurley and Walheim, visit:
http://www11.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/ferguson.html
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/hurley-dg.html
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/walheim.html
To follow Ferguson, Hurley and Walheim on Twitter, visit:
http://www.twitter.com/Astro_Ferg
http://www.twitter.com/Astro_Doug
http://www.twitter.com/Astro_Rex
For more information about the STS-135 mission and crew, visit:
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Michael Curie
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
michael.curie@nasa.gov
Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
nicole.cloutier-1@nasa.gov