The recently returned 12th crew of the International Space Station, U.S. Commander Bill McArthur and Russian Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev, will be available for satellite interviews from 7 to 9 a.m. EDT Friday, May 12.
To participate, media should contact the Johnson newsroom at (281) 483-5111 or Stephanie Stoll at (281) 483-9071 or via pager at (713) 508-0581 by 4 p.m. EDT Thursday.
After six months in orbit, McArthur and Tokarev landed in a Soyuz spacecraft in Kazakhstan on April 8. They arrived in the United States last week. During 189 days in space, they conducted two spacewalks, contacted a record number of students via amateur radio and became the first crew to dock a spacecraft to all three Russian station docking ports. For International Space Station information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station
McArthur, a North Carolina native, is a retired Army colonel who has flown on three shuttle missions in addition to his stay on the space station. He has logged more than 224 days in space. Also a veteran space flier, Tokarev was born in Kap-Yar in Russia’s Astrakhan Region. His first flight was aboard the shuttle in 1998, a 10-day mission that delivered four tons of supplies to the station to prepare it for arrival of its first crew, Expedition 1. For more on the Expedition 12 crew, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition12/index.html
The interviews and b-roll of Expedition 12 crew training airs live on the NASA TV analog satellite, AMC-6, Transponder 5C at 72 degrees west longitude, vertical polarization. The frequency is 3800 MHz, with audio at 6.8 MHz. The training b-roll airs from 6:30 to 7 a.m. EDT on May 12. For digital downlink information and links to streaming video, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
