The International Space Station crew, Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka and NASA Station Science Officer Mike Fincke, will discuss their flight with news media at
9:40 a.m. CDT Oct. 4.

Nearing the end of their six-month mission aboard the Station, Padalka and Fincke will field questions from media at participating NASA centers during the 20-minute news conference. The event highlights a day of briefings broadcast live on NASA TV focusing on the change of Station crews.

Station program managers and scientists will recap the Expedition 9 flight in a briefing at 2 p.m. EDT. That briefing will be followed by a look ahead at the plans for the Expedition 10 crew at 3 p.m. EDT.

Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov launch next month aboard a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. With them will be Russian Space Forces Test Cosmonaut Yuri Shargin. He will spend about a week aboard the Station. He will return to Earth with Padalka and Fincke, landing in Kazakhstan. Chiao and Sharipov will spend six months aboard the Station and return in April 2005.

Briefing schedule and participants:

Expedition 9 Inflight Crew Press Conference (10:50 a.m. EDT)Gennady Padalka, Expedition 9 commanderMike Fincke, Expedition 9 NASA Station science officer and flight engineer.

Expedition 9 Recap Briefing (2 p.m. EDT):

Matt Abbott, Expedition 9 lead flight director Dr. Don Thomas, ISS program scientist Dr. Steve Hart, Expedition 9 lead flight surgeon

Expedition 10 Preflight Briefing (3 p.m. EDT):

Mark Geyer, ISS manager for integration and operations Susan Brand, Expedition 10 increment manager Annette Hasbrook, Expedition 10 lead flight director

NASA TV is available on the Web and via satellite in the continental U.S. on AMC-6, Transponder 9C, C-Band, 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, at 137 degrees west longitude. The frequency is 4060.0 MHz. Polarization is vertical, and audio is monaural at 6.80 MHz.

For NASA TV information and schedules on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

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

http://www.nasa.gov