High School Students to Chat With Space Station Crew

To highlight International Educational Week, NASA and the U.S Department of Education will host a live, ultra-long distance call with the crew of the International Space Station at 9:21 a.m. EST Tuesday, Nov. 14 at the U.S. Department of Education, Washington.

NASA Assistant Administrator for Education Joyce Winterton, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Ray Simon, and Educator Astronauts Barbara Morgan and Ricky Arnold, will give remarks at 9 a.m. Morgan is the first educator astronaut and will travel to space next year on shuttle mission STS-118. Her mission will continue assembly of the station and include educational aspects to spark the imagination, dreams and curiosity of the next generation of explorers.

Media that attend the event must be in place by 9 a.m. Morgan, Arnold and Simon will be available for media interviews immediately following the call.

Students from McKinley Technology High School, Washington; Walt Whitman High School, Bethesda, Md.; and Washington-Lee High School, Arlington, Va., will have the opportunity to ask questions of the Expedition 14 crew as it orbits 220 miles above the Earth.

Between the three crewmembers, NASA astronaut and Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Russian cosmonaut Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and European Space Agency astronaut and Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter, five languages can be spoken aboard the world’s only orbiting laboratory: English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish.

This year’s International Education Week theme is “International Education: Engaging in Global Partnerships and Opportunities.” International Education Week runs from Nov. 13-17.

This joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education is part of an effort to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences in the United States.

The station crew’s call will be broadcast live on NASA TV. For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about NASA’s education programs, the STS-118 mission and Expedition 14 on the Internet, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/home

For more information about International Education week on the Internet, visit: http://iew.state.gov/