Fresh from supporting three spacewalks by Space Shuttle Discovery’s astronauts, the residents of the International Space Station (ISS) will take a spacewalk of their own next Thursday. NASA managers will preview that spacewalk at a news conference Tuesday. Both events will be carried live on NASA TV.

NASA’s Johnson Space Center hosts the news conference at 2 p.m. EDT Aug. 16. Media at participating NASA centers may ask questions. News conference participates:

  • Kirk Shireman, ISS Manager for Operations and Integration
  • Dr. Don Thomas, ISS Program Scientist
  • Sally Davis, ISS Flight Director
  • Oscar Koehler, Expedition 11 Lead Spacewalk Officer

NASA TV coverage of the six-hour spacewalk by Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and NASA Flight Engineer John Phillips begins at 1:30 p.m. EDT, Aug. 18. Krikalev and Phillips will exit the Station at about 2:55 p.m. EDT.

Wearing Russian spacesuits, they will retrieve scientific experiments and install other hardware on the exterior of the Station to be used during future spacewalks. Krikalev and Phillips are completing the fourth month of a six- month mission in orbit.

NASA TV is on an MPEG-2 digital signal accessed via satellite AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude, transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical polarization. It’s available in Alaska and Hawaii on AMC-7, at 137 degrees west longitude, transponder 18C, at 4060 MHz, horizontal polarization. A Digital Video Broadcast compliant Integrated Receiver Decoder is required for reception.

The news conference and spacewalk will be available on the Internet at:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For information about the ISS and the Expedition 11 crew on the Web, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html