NASA’s commercial partner SpaceX is launching its seventh cargo delivery to the International Space Station, and experiments from NASA’s Silicon Valley center are onboard. Researchers from NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, will be available Thursday, June 25, and Friday, June 26, for interviews about their experiments bound for the International Space Station. The launch is currently scheduled for June 28. 

The research includes a validation flight of WetLab-2, a system for real-time measure of gene expression in space, a microbiology study of yeast, and a study of microorganisms aboard the space station. The available experts include the following:

– Jeffrey Smith, space biology project manager, available to provide an overview of Ames experiments and discuss the significance of life science research on the station;              

– Eduardo Almeida, project scientist, available to explain WetLab-2, a new system to measure gene expression in space that will deliver data in near real time, allowing researchers to better study how the spaceflight environment affects living organisms;

– Fathi Karouia, project scientist, available to describe the Micro-9 investigation, which studies how spaceflight affects the biological characteristics and function of yeast cells grown in multicellular colonies, and also Microbial Tracking-1C, which is the third in a series of studies investigating microorganisms aboard the station; and

– Daniel Berrios, data architect for NASA’s GeneLab Project, available to provide an overview of the new GeneLab Data System. Micro-9 and Microbial Tracking-1C that will share data with the scientific community via NASA’s GeneLab Data System.

Interested media should contact sharon.k.lozano@nasa.gov to request phone or in-person interviews.

For more information about space biosciences research at Ames, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ames/research/space-biosciences 

For launch countdown coverage, prelaunch briefing and tour schedules, NASA’s launch blog, and more information about the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/content/spacex-crs-7-briefings-and-events

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

For more information about Ames, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ames