North Carolina Students To Talk Live With NASA Space Station Astronaut

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Students and teachers from the Triangle area of North Carolina will speak with NASA Expedition 34 flight engineer Tom Marshburn aboard the International Space Station at 10:15 a.m. EST, Tuesday, Feb. 5. The space-to-ground conversation will be open to news media and carried live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

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Students will gather at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences to ask astronaut Marshburn questions about life, work and research aboard the orbiting laboratory, where he arrived in December and will remain until May. Marshburn previously flew aboard space shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-127 in 2009.

To attend the event, reporters must contact Jonathon Pishney at jonathon.pishney@naturalsciences.org or 919-733-7450, ext. 304. The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences is located at 11 West Jones St. in Raleigh.

NASA activities have been incorporated into classes at local schools in preparation for the conversation with the space station astronaut. Linking students directly to the astronauts aboard the station provides them with an authentic, live experience of space exploration, space study and the scientific components of space travel and possibilities of life in space. The museum also has crafted educator professional development activities for the teachers participating in the event.

This in-flight education downlink is one in a series with educational organizations in the United States and abroad to improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics teaching and learning. It is an integral component of NASA's Teaching From Space education program, which promotes learning opportunities and builds partnerships with the education community using the unique environment of space and NASA's human spaceflight program.

For NASA TV schedule and video streaming information, visit

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For information about NASA's education programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/education

For information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

SOURCE NASA