Bob Jacobs
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-1600)

Ann Hutchison
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
(Phone: 650/604-3039)

RELEASE: 02-138

NASA today initiated a new service designed to extend
its reach and share the agency’s mission of discovery with
more people around the world. The agency now provides
Russian-language translations of select NASA news and
information.

This new service, provided by NASA Ames Research Center,
Moffett Field, Calif., is called Ames-novosti, “novosti”
being the Russian word for “news.” It delivers a variety of
NASA news and media-related products to Russian-speaking
reporters, educators and members of the general public who
sign up for the free electronic service. People can subscribe
or unsubscribe from the system through their own Internet e-
mail providers.

“NASA plays an important role in helping unravel the
mysteries of the universe and our entire home planet,” said
Glenn Mahone, Assistant Administrator of Public Affairs at
NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Our vision and missions
extend far beyond our borders and we have a responsibility to
do whatever we can to breach language barriers so the people
of the world can share in our incredible stories of
accomplishment.”

Russia is a major partner in the construction of the
International Space Station, the largest and most complex
scientific cooperative program in the history of exploration,
drawing on the resources and scientific expertise of 16
nations.

“Russians have a great interest in space exploration, and a
long and accomplished history in space,” said Ames’ Veronika
Soukhovitskaya, who did the groundwork for the new outreach
effort and provides some of the translation services. “This
is an excellent way to reach out to Russians in the United
States who typically are very interested in NASA’s space
programs.”

“NASA and Ames are breaking new ground in eliminating
barriers that prevent access to, and participation in, the
nation’s space and aeronautics programs by all of our
citizens,” said David Morse, Ames’ Public Affairs Director.
“It is a NASA priority to reach out and engage minority and
non-traditional audiences, and the news outlets that serve
those populations. This is another small, but important,
forward step in that process.”

“Increasing coverage of NASA programs by ‘minority’ and non-
traditional news media proves the interest of the non-English
speaking segment of the American public in what NASA does,”
said Victoria Steiner, Ames’ minority media outreach program
manager. “Now we can watch reports about the space shuttle
on Univision, and read articles about nanotechnology research
in the Asian America Times. The next logical step would be to
expand the program even further, and that is exactly what we
are doing here at NASA Ames.”

To receive selected NASA news releases in Russian via e-mail,
send an electronic mail message with the word “subscribe” (no
quotations) in the subject line to: ames-novosti-
request@lists.arc.nasa.gov
To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to
the same address with “unsubscribe” in the subject line. NASA
Ames has a similar e-mail self-subscribe distribution list
for Spanish-language news releases.

Ames plays an important role in NASA’s information technology
research and development, a key, enabling capability with
respect to virtually all on-going and future NASA missions.
Ames also conducts vital NASA research in astrobiology; life,
Earth and space sciences; and in aviation systems, safety and
capacity.

Additional information about Ames and some of NASA’s foreign
language web portals is available on the Internet at:

www.amesnews.arc.nasa.gov

http://www.nasa.gov/hqpao/espanol.html