NASA Cancels Planned Media Availabilities with Astronauts

[NASA News Releases <hqnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

	August 29, 2017  MEDIA ADVISORY M17-101 NASA Cancels Planned Media Availabilities with Astronauts As Tropical Storm Harvey continues along the Gulf Coast, NASA has canceled a planned Aug. 30 question and answer session with astronaut Peggy Whitson aboard the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik took this photo of the storm Aug. 28 from the orbiting laboratory. Credits: NASA Due to the ongoing effects of Tropical Storm Harvey in Houston, NASA has canceled an in-flight question and answer session with astronaut Peggy Whitson aboard the International Space Station. Additionally, due to a change in the crew training schedule, live satellite interviews with NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba in Russia also have been canceled.   NASA previously planned a 30-minute news conference with Whitson on Wednesday, Aug. 30 – her final media event before returning to Earth after spending more than nine months aboard the space station. NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where the space station mission control is located, has been closed to all but mission essential personnel since Aug. 25, and staff will not be able to support the in-flight event.   Whitson launched to the space station on Nov. 17, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and is set to return Saturday, Sept. 2. She will land in Kazakhstan at 9:22 p.m. (7:22 a.m. Kazakhstan time on Sept. 3) along with NASA’s Jack Fischer and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos. Fischer and Yurchikhin have been Whitson’s crewmates since they arrived at the station in April.   Live satellite interviews with Vande Hei and Acaba from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, where the pair will make final preparations for launch, were previously planned for Friday, Sept. 1. The astronauts, along with cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos, will launch on a Russian Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft at 5:17 p.m. on Sept. 12. They are scheduled to return to Earth in February.   Learn more about the International Space Station and its crew members at: http://www.nasa.gov/station -end-
	Press Contacts Cheryl Warner Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 cheryl.m.warner@xxxxxxxx Brandi Dean Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 brandi.k.dean@xxxxxxxx
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