Female Space Commanders Available for Interviews

HOUSTON - The first female NASA astronauts to lead missions at the same time will be together for satellite interviews from 6 to 8 a.m. CDT on Thursday, Aug. 2. This fall, Peggy Whitson will command the International Space Station’s Expedition 16 crew and Pam Melroy will command the space shuttle Discovery’s STS-120 mission.

To participate in the interviews, media should contact Tim Hinson at 281-483-5111 by noon on Aug. 1.

Whitson will lift off in October aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft for her second long-duration space mission. She will return to Earth in April 2008 after six months aboard the station.

Melroy is targeted to launch Oct. 20 on her third spaceflight, a 13-day shuttle mission to install Node 2, a pressurized module that is a connecting port and passageway to science labs and cargo spacecraft on the complex. She served as pilot on two prior shuttle flights.