Date: October 25th 2006

Oct 24, 2006

Katherine Trinidad Headquarters, Washington 202-358-3749

James Hartsfield Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111

MEDIA ADVISORY: M06-167

ALASKA NATIVE TO DISCUSS ROLE AS PILOT OF NASA'S NEXT SHUTTLE

Alaska native and former float plane pilot Bill Oefelein, who will serve as pilot of the Space Shuttle Discovery in December, will be available for interviews by satellite from 5:30 to 7 p m EDT Friday, Oct 27

To participate, media should contact the NASA Johnson Space Center newsroom in Houston at 281-483-5111 by 5 p m EDT, Thursday, Oct 26

Oefelein, a U S Navy commander, considers Anchorage, Alaska, his hometown He credits his youth in Alaska with helping foster his interest in flying While there, he obtained a private pilot's license with a float plane rating He went on to become a Navy fighter and test pilot Oefelein has logged more than 3,000 hours in 50 different types of aircraft

Oefelein received a bachelor's from Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore , and a master's from the University of Tennessee Space Institute, Knoxville, Tenn

He will be making his first spaceflight on Discovery on STS-116, an 11-day mission to the International Space Station The mission will rearrange the complex's power and cooling systems to bring online electricity generated by new solar arrays delivered to the station in September

Along with Oefelein, Discovery's crew includes STS-116 Commander Mark Polansky and mission specialists Bob Curbeam, Joan Higginbotham, Nick Patrick, Suni Williams and Christer Fuglesang, a European Space Agency astronaut Williams will remain aboard the station for six months European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, currently aboard the station, will return to Earth on Discovery

For Oefelein's biographical information, visit:

http://www jsc nasa gov/Bios/htmlbios/oefelein html

The interviews and b-roll of Oefelein's training will be broadcast on the NASA-TV Media Channel (No 103) In the continental U S , NASA TV is carried on an MPEG-2 digital signal accessed via satellite AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude, transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical polarization In Alaska and Hawaii, NASA TV is carried on an MPEG-2 digital signal accessed via satellite AMC-7, at 137 degrees west longitude, transponder 18C, 4060 MHz, vertical polarization

The video footage of training will air at 5 p m EDT on Oct 27 For NASA TV downlink, schedules and streaming video information, visit:

http://www nasa gov/ntv

For more information about STS-116 and its crew, visit:

http://www nasa gov/shuttle

-end-

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