NASA Features Internet Webcasts/Chats for World Space Week

John Bluck

NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA

650/604-5026 or 604-9000

jbluck@mail.arc.nasa.gov

RELEASE 00-64AR

NASA female scientists, engineers and technicians will be the focus of
Internet chats and webcasts on Oct. 5 during World Space Week, which also
coincides with the next Space Shuttle mission.

Webcasts enable students to watch live video, listen to audio and interact
in real-time with experts participating in NASA programs.

“This is part of an on-going series of Internet webcasts and other
activities that provide students with first-hand contact with women and men
involved with the Space Shuttle, as well as with making the International
Space Station a reality,” said Linda Conrad, space team online manager for
the NASA Quest website at Ames Research Center in the heart of California’s
Silicon Valley. “Each webcast is designed to engage the classroom in
science and mathematics, including lesson plans and curricula developed by
NASA.”

Additional Internet activities also are slated for the rest of World Space
Week, Oct. 2 – 6, as NASA experts interact with K-12 students worldwide at:

http://quest.nasa.gov/space/events/cc

“Perhaps the most fun part of my job is the day-to-day contact with crew
members and the opportunity to learn something new about the most complex
flying machine in the history of mankind,” said support engineer for flight
crew operations Lonnie Moffitt of NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX.
Moffitt is scheduled to kick off the Internet chat sessions on Mon., Oct.
2, from 10:00 a.m. -11:00 a.m. PDT (1:00 p.m.- 2:00 p.m. EDT).

On Oct. 5, “Women of NASA” will host a day-long series of interactive
events, featuring female scientists and engineers involved in launching the
Space Shuttle and in processing International Space Station hardware for
launch. Girl Scouts across the country will be able to complete components
of the Girl Scout space badge by participating in interactive events.

“NASA’s Back-to-School Special” will feature women at NASA Kennedy Space
Center, FL, in interactive Internet chats and forums. NASA women will
participate in video interviews during the October launch and also will
serve as on-line mentors.

“Girl reporters shadowed and videotaped interviews with NASA female
scientists and engineers involved with Space Shuttle launches and the
International Space Station,” said Terri Hudkins of NASA Headquarters,
Washington, DC. The resulting 3-to-4-minute videotapes are scheduled for
broadcast during the Oct. 5 webcasts, if the Shuttle launches as planned,
according to Hudkins.

NASA will add video profiles of the women to NASA Quest web pages to give
young women a more personalized feeling of space-related careers. The web
pages also will feature several of the girl reporters, who will relate
their Shuttle launch experiences. Launch day will culminate in a live
webcast from NASA Kennedy starting one-and-a-half hours before the STS-92
liftoff, scheduled for an optimal launch time of *6:38 p.m. PDT (9:38 p.m.
EDT) on Oct. 5.

NASA Quest and Classroom Connect, an Internet company that writes
curricula, will produce “NASA: A Shuttle Mission,” webcasts for World Space
Week. Guest scientists, engineers and educators will take part in the
webcasts. A complete schedule for this and other webcasts is on the Quest
website, at http://quest.nasa.gov/common/events

Educational web events will continue this month and will run through May
2001. These activities, including “Under Construction-The International
Space Station,” will originate from the Kennedy Space Center. The webcasts
will offer tours of space center locations typically not open to the
public, with insights from the people who work there.

“Classrooms will have a direct connection to NASA experts while student
questions are being answered ‘in living color,’ broadcast live via the
Internet to desktop computers and a worldwide audience,” said Conrad.
“Feedback from teachers shows that NASA Quest’s showcasing of careers that
use science and math increases student enthusiasm for studying these
subjects.”

For more information about the Internet webcasts and chats slated for the
Oct. 5 “Women of NASA Back to School Special Series,” please telephone
Hudkins at 202/358-1977. For more details about the rest of the week’s
Internet activities, including the “launch” webcast, please call Conrad at
408/230-4560, while she is on location at Kennedy Space Center from Oct. 2
– 6. She also can be reached via e-mail, lconrad@mail.arc.nasa.gov, during
the week.