Fresh from flight training and their first head-over-
heels sample of weightlessness, NASA’s astronaut candidates
are available to meet with the news media Thursday in Houston
at 3 p.m. EDT.

To attend the event at Houston’s Ellington Field or to
arrange telephone interviews, contact NASA’s Johnson Space
Center (JSC) newsroom at: 281/483-5111 by 4 p.m. EDT
Wednesday. Video and still imagery of the new astronauts’
flight training, including their first experience aboard
NASA’s “Weightless Wonder” aircraft, is also available.

NASA TV will air astronaut training video files beginning at
noon EDT Thursday. NASA TV is available in the continental
U.S. on AMC-6, Transponder 9C, C-Band, located at 72 degrees
west longitude. The frequency is 3880.0 MHz. Polarization is
vertical, and audio is monaural at 6.80 MHz. In Alaska and
Hawaii, NASA TV is available on AMC-7, Transponder 18C, C-
Band, located at 137 degrees west longitude. Frequency is
4060.0 MHz. Polarization is vertical, and audio is monaural
at 6.80 MHz.

The class includes three educator astronauts, three military
pilots, a Navy SEAL, an astrophysicist, two physicians, and
an engineer. Also training with the 11-member astronaut
candidate class are three Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
(JAXA) astronauts. The new astronauts are:

  • Pilot Randy Bresnik, born in Fort Knox, Ky.
  • Pilot Jim Dutton, of Eugene, Ore.
  • Mission Specialist Shane Kimbrough, from Atlanta
  • Educator Mission Specialist Joe Acaba, from Dunnellon, Fla.
  • Educator Mission Specialist Ricky Arnold, of Bowie, Md.
  • Mission Specialist Chris Cassidy, from York, Maine
  • Mission Specialist Jose Hernandez, who grew up in Stockton, Calif.
  • Mission Specialist Tom Marshburn, of Atlanta
  • Educator Mission Specialist Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, of Vancouver,Wash.
  • Mission Specialist Bobby Satcher, who grew up in Hampton, Va.
  • Mission Specialist Shannon Walker, a Houston native
  • JAXA Astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, a medical doctor from KanagawaPrefecture, Japan
  • JAXA Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, an engineer from Tokyo
  • JAXA Astronaut Naoko Yamazaki, an engineer born in Chiba Prefecture, Japan

Full biographies of the U.S. astronaut candidates are
available on the Web at: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/preparingtravel/ascan2004.html

For information about the Japanese astronauts on the
Internet, visit: http://iss.sfo.jaxa.jp/astro/profile_e.html

For still images of the flight training in Houston (available
Thursday) on the Internet, visit:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/behindthescenes/tr aining/ascan2004/ndxpage1.html

For information about NASA and agency programs on the
Internet, visit: http://www.nasa.gov