NASA Sets Media Opportunities For NEEMO Undersea Mission

June 06, 2012

Joshua Buck
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
jbuck@nasa.gov

Brandi Dean
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
brandi.k.dean@nasa.gov


MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-107

NASA SETS MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES FOR NEEMO UNDERSEA MISSION

HOUSTON -- NASA astronaut and commander for the 16th NASA Extreme
Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO), Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger,
will be available for live satellite interviews while performing a
simulated spacewalk under water. The interviews will take place
between 8:45 and 9:45 a.m. EDT June 15. NASA will also host a media
day June 21 in Key Largo, Fla.

NEEMO sends groups of NASA employees and contractors to live for 12
days, 63 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, in the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Aquarius lab. The
laboratory is located in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
in Key Largo. For NASA, Aquarius provides a convincing analog to
space exploration, and NEEMO crew members experience some of the same
tasks and challenges under water as they would in space.

This year's NEEMO expedition begins June 11 and will simulate a
mission to an asteroid. The mission will focus on three areas --
communication delays, restraint and translation techniques and
optimum crew size. Metcalf-Lindenburger will be joined by European
Space Agency astronaut Timothy Peake; Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui; and Steven W. Squyres, Goldwin Smith
professor of astronomy at Cornell University and chairman of the NASA
Advisory Council. Squyres also was a member of NEEMO 15.

Journalists are invited to a media day where they will have the
opportunity to tour the Mobile Mission Control Center, interview
scientists and engineers involved in the mission and take part in a
remote news conference with the NEEMO crew members who will be aboard
Aquarius.
The NASA Live Interview Media Service (LIMS) satellite will be used
for the underwater interviews. The NASA producer will provide
confirmed clients with LIMS satellite parameters.

The interviews also will be simulcast on NASA Television, which can be
viewed by those not participating.

To request a slot in the underwater interviews with
Metcalf-Lindenburger or to participate in the media day activities,
reporters must contact Brandi Dean at brandi.k.dean@nasa.gov by 5
p.m. CDT (6 p.m. EDT) on Wednesday, June 13.

The NEEMO mission is sponsored by NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems
Program.

For more information about NEEMO and the crew, and links to follow the
mission on Facebook and Twitter, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/neemo

For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit:


http://www.nasa.gov/ntv


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