Joshua Buck
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
jbuck@xxxxxxxx
Jenny Knotts
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
norma.j.knotts@xxxxxxxx
NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, who returned to Earth Sept. 10 after more than five months on the International Space Station, will be available for media interviews from 2-3 p.m. EDT Thursday, Sept. 19.
To participate in the interviews, reporters must contact Gayle Frere at 281-483-5111 no later than 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18. Interviews can be conducted by phone or Skype, or in person.
During his time aboard the space station, Cassidy, a native of Maine, worked on hundreds of research experiments and science investigations that will have benefits for future human spaceflight and life on Earth. He also saw the arrival of the European ATV-4 cargo spacecraft, the Japanese HTV-4 cargo spacecraft and two Russian Progress resupply spacecraft.
Cassidy's launch to the space station in March was the first expedited trip in the 12-year history of the space station. The Soyuz spacecraft carrying him and his crewmates docked to the orbiting laboratory in just six hours instead of the usual two days. The crew completed 2,656 orbits of Earth and traveled more than 70 million miles.
Cassidy is a Navy SEAL and graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He served in worldwide deployments supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan before joining NASA in 2004. Cassidy previously flew in space as a mission specialist aboard space shuttle Endeavour on its STS-127 mission in 2009. On that mission, Cassidy completed three spacewalks. The three additional spacewalks he performed during Expedition 36 brought his career total to six with an accumulated time of 31 hours, 14 minutes.
Cassidy's biography is available at:
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/cassidy-cj.html
For more information about the International Space Station, its crews and research, visit:
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