Feb. 17, 2010 Morrie Goodman Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 morrie.goodman@xxxxxxxx MEDIA ADVISORY: M10-029 PRESIDENT OBAMA SCHEDULED TO SPEAK TO ORBITING ASTRONAUTS WASHINGTON -- President Obama, congressional leaders and middle school students will speak with the astronaut crews of the International Space Station and the space shuttle Endeavour Wednesday at 5:15 p.m. EST to congratulate them on their successful ongoing mission. The call will take place from the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Media attendance will be limited to a White House pool spray, but the White House and NASA Television will stream live video of the event online. The online video also can be embedded into sites using the embed code accessible by clicking "share" next to the event video at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/live Endeavour's crew members are Commander George Zamka, Pilot Terry Virts and Mission Specialists Kathryn Hire, Stephen Robinson, Nicholas Patrick and Robert Behnken. The Expedition 22 space station crew members are Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov, Maxim Suraev, T.J. Creamer, and Soichi Noguchi. Endeavour and its crew launched Feb. 8 on the STS-130 mission to the space station. During the mission, astronauts installed the Tranquility node and a cupola with seven windows that provide a panoramic view of Earth, celestial objects and visiting spacecraft. Tranquility and its cupola are the final major U.S. portions of the station. Joining the president are 12 students from Birney Middle School of Detroit, Elkhorn Middle School of Omaha, Neb., St. Thomas the Apostle of Miami and Davidson IB Middle School of Davidson, N.C. These students are in Washington as leaders of four of 39 teams participating in the "Future City" engineering competition hosted by National Engineers Week. Building on the president's "Educate to Innovate" campaign and his emphasis on inspiring young adults to pursue excellence in science, technology, engineering and math, the students are all leaders of teams that are finalists. The competition included 34,000 seventh and eighth graders from across the nation who produced innovative ideas and designs for a city of tomorrow. The Davidson IB Middle School team was the overall winner of the national competition. For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv For more information about the STS-130 mission and its crew, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle For more information about the space station and its crew, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station -end- To subscribe to the list, send a message to: hqnews-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To remove your address from the list, send a message to: hqnews-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
