SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

Sept. 18, 2007

John Yembrick Headquarters, Washington 202-358-0602 john.yembrick-1@nasa.gov

James Hartsfield Johnson Space Center, Houston 202-483-5111 james.a.hartsfield@nasa.gov

NASA SETS BRIEFINGS FOR SPACE STATION CREW CHANGE AND SOYUZ MOVE

HOUSTON - NASA will hold a pair of media briefings on Tuesday, Sept. 25, to preview the upcoming exchange of crews aboard the International Space Station.

At 1 p.m. CDT, NASA will review the work completed during the current Expedition 15 mission. A second briefing, set to begin at 2 p.m., will preview the work planned aboard the station for the Expedition 16 mission. The briefings will originate from NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, and will be broadcast live on NASA Television. Questions will be taken from media at participating NASA sites. Reporters should call their preferred field center to confirm its availability.

Participants in the briefings are:

Expedition 15 Recap Briefing, 1 p.m.

• Bob Dempsey, Expedition 15 lead flight director
• Julie Robinson, International Space Station program scientist

Expedition 16 Preflight Briefing, 2 p.m.

• Pete Hasbrook, Expedition 16 increment manager
• Holly Ridings, Expedition 16 lead flight director

On Sept. 27, the station's current residents will take a short ride in the Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft now docked at the complex. Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Clay Anderson will move the Soyuz from a docking port on the Zarya module to another port on the Zvezda module. The half-hour flight will be broadcast live on NASA TV beginning at 2 p.m.

The Soyuz move frees the Zarya docking port for the arrival of the next crew, set to launch Oct. 10 in another Soyuz from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson, Soyuz Commander and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko, and Malaysian spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszhaphar Shukor will dock to the station Oct. 12. Yurchikhin, Kotov and Shukor will return to Earth Oct. 21 in a Soyuz.

Anderson, who has been aboard the station since June, will remain with Whitson and Malenchenko as a member of the Expedition 16 mission.

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information on the station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station