NASA Schedules Interviews for April Shuttle Mission Flight Directors

HOUSTON — NASA Flight Directors Richard Jones and Ron Spencer are available for live satellite interviews beginning March 30 at 6 a.m. CDT. Jones and Spencer will discuss the challenges of space shuttle Discovery’s upcoming STS-131 mission that will deliver science equipment and supplies to the International Space Station. The flight is targeted for launch on April 5.

To participate in the interviews, reporters should contact Karen Svetaka at 281-483-8684 before 1 p.m. on Monday, March 29.

Discovery’s flight, one of only four remaining space shuttle missions, will carry a logistics module packed with eight tons of cargo to the station. The mission also will include three spacewalks to replace a tank assembly on the station’s backbone that provides ammonia for use in the complex’s cooling system.

Jones will be available from 6 a.m. to 6:45 a.m. He is the lead space shuttle flight director for STS-131 and has been a NASA flight director since 2005. A native of El Paso, Texas, he earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Texas A&M University. He previously has served as a flight director overseeing two shuttle launches and four landings.

Spencer will be available from 7 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. He has been a flight director since 2006. He is a native of Decatur, Ill., and also earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Texas A&M University. Before becoming a flight director, he helped develop the assembly sequence used to build the space station.

NASA Television will air B-roll footage of preparations for the STS-131 mission beginning at 5:30 a.m. CDT.

The NASA TV Live Interview Media Outlet channel will be used for the interviews. 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.

The interviews also will be broadcast live on NASA Television. For streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the International Space Station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

For more information about the space shuttle, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle