NASA Astronaut Mark Vande Hei Available for Interviews Prior to Launch

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	March 16, 2021  MEDIA ADVISORY M21-035 NASA Astronaut Mark Vande Hei Available for Interviews Prior to Launch jsc2017e029829_large.jpg NASA Astronaut Mark Vande Hei trains for a spacewalk at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in March 2017. Credits: NASA NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei will be available Tuesday, March 23, for media interviews prior to his April launch to the International Space Station, which will be his second spaceflight. The satellite interviews will take place as Vande Hei finishes training in Star City, Russia, and will air live from 8 to 9:30 a.m. EDT on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. Video highlights of his previous spaceflight and training for his upcoming mission will air at 7:30 a.m., prior to the interviews. To schedule an interview with Vande Hei, media must contact Sarah Volkman no later than 5 p.m. Friday, March 19, at sarah.e.volkman@xxxxxxxx and tune into NASA Television’s media channel (NTV-3) during the event. Satellite tuning information is available at: http://go.nasa.gov/1pOWUhR Vande Hei, along with cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, are scheduled to launch to the space station Friday, April 9, on the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Vande Hei will be a flight engineer and member of the Expedition 64/65 crews. During his mission, he will work on hundreds of experiments to benefit life on Earth and learn more about living in space. The space station is a critical testbed for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and insights gained will help send humans to the Moon and eventually to Mars. Among the research the crew will conduct during Vande Hei’s mission are studies on cotton root systems and Alzheimer’s disease, and a technology demonstration of a portable ultrasound device. NASA selected Vande Hei as an astronaut in 2009 and he completed his first spaceflight in 2018 as an Expedition 53/54 crew member. He launched Sept. 13, 2017, and spent 168 days in space, during which time he conducted four spacewalks, totaling 26 hours and 42 minutes, prior to his return to Earth on Feb. 28, 2018. Research highlights during his previous space station stay include investigations into the manufacturing of fiber optic filaments in microgravity, improving the accuracy of an implantable glucose biosensor, and measuring the Sun’s energy input to Earth.  Born in Virginia and raised in New Jersey and Minnesota, Vande Hei is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army. He earned a Bachelor of Science in physics from Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, and a Master of Science in applied physics from Stanford University, Palo Alto, California. He was commissioned in the Army through the ROTC program and served as a combat engineer. In 1999, he became an assistant professor of physics at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, before his selection as an astronaut. Follow Vande Hei on Twitter throughout his mission and get the latest space station crew news, images and features on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Download additional video still imagery at: http://images.nasa.gov -end-
	Press Contacts Stephanie Schierholz Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 stephanie.schierholz@xxxxxxxx Megan Sumner / Chelsey Ballarte Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 megan.c.sumner@xxxxxxxx/ chelsey.n.ballarte@xxxxxxxx
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