NASA will hold a briefing at 11 a.m. EDT, Friday, May 30, to discuss new opportunities to use the International Space Station’s unique research environment. The briefing will originate from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and be broadcast live on NASA Television.
As part of an initiative to use the space station as a national laboratory, NASA is partnering with other government agencies and the commercial sector to utilize the U.S. segment for research that is not directly applicable to NASA’s mission. NASA signed agreements with the University of Colorado’s Bioserve Center of Boulder on May 9 and with SPACEHAB of Webster, Texas, and Zero Gravity Inc. of Stevensville, Md., on May 27.
The briefing participants are:
– John J. Uri, deputy manager, Space Station Payloads Office, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston
– Timothy Hammond, associate chief of staff, research and development, Durham Veterans Administration Medical Center, N.C.
– Louis S. Stodieck, director, Bioserve Space Technologies and Research and professor, aerospace engineer sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder
In May 2007, NASA sent a report to Congress describing how the U.S. segment of the space station can be used as a national lab. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the National Institutes of Health in September 2007 was the first agreement between NASA and another agency for use of the station as a national lab.
The report outlines possible partnerships with other government agencies and private companies to conduct research aboard the station. The report and other information about the space station’s uses as a national laboratory can be found at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/nlab/index.html
For NASA TV downlink, schedules and streaming video information, visit:
For more information about the station and the agreement, visit:
