Virginia Students to Speak Live With Space Station Astronauts

WASHINGTON -- Students gathered at The University of Virginia College
at Wise will speak with Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank and
Flight Engineer Don Pettit aboard the International Space Station at
9:20 a.m. EST on Thursday, Jan. 26. Media representatives are invited to attend.

Approximately 2,500 students from southwestern Virginia will ask
questions about life, work and research aboard the space station.
NASA Associate Administrator for Education and former astronaut
Leland Melvin will attend, and Gov. Robert McDonnell and U.S. Sen.
Mark Warner will connect virtually with the event. It will be
broadcast live on NASA Television.

To attend the event, news media must contact Jennifer Maggard at
jennifer@courtbar.org or 276-328-6111 no later than noon on
Wednesday, Jan. 25. The university is located at One College Avenue in Wise.

Students from Wise County Public Schools will participate in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics learning activities before
and after the event. A temporary space museum set up at the
university Jan. 25 - 26 will display a moon rock, a spacesuit like
those worn by Apollo astronauts and an inflatable replica of NASA's
Curiosity rover currently en route to the Red Planet.

This in-flight education downlink is one in a series with educational
organizations in the United States and abroad to improve STEM
teaching and learning. It is an integral component of NASA's Teaching
From Space 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 downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

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

To follow Twitter updates from Burbank and Pettit, visit:

http://twitter.com/AstroCoastie

and

http://twitter.com/Astro_Pettit

Source:

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