Date: October 17th 2006

Oct 16, 2006

Allard Beutel Headquarters, Washington 202-358-4769

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

MEDIA ADVISORY: M06-162

NEXT SHUTTLE COMMANDER AVAILABLE FOR NASA SATELLITE INTERVIEWS

New Jersey native Mark Polansky, commander of NASA's next space shuttle mission in December, will be available for interviews by satellite from 7 to 8:45 a m EDT on Wednesday, Oct 18

Polanksy will command Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-116, an 11-day mission to the International Space Station to rearrange the complex's power and cooling systems The changes will bring online electricity generated by a second giant set of solar panels added to the station during a September shuttle flight The changes will almost double the electrical power available to the station's systems Discovery also will bring a new crew member to the station to begin a six-month stay, and bring home a station resident who has been in orbit since July

Polansky is a native of Edison, N J He received bachelor's and master's degrees from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind , in 1978 He served as an Air Force test pilot before joining NASA in 1992 as a research aircraft pilot

To participate in the Oct 18 interviews, media should contact the newsroom at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, at 281-483-5111 by 5 p m EDT, Tuesday, Oct 17

Polansky's interviews will be carried live on the NASA TV analog satellite AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude; transponder 5C, 3800 MHz, vertical polarization, with audio at 6 8 MHz

Selected as an astronaut in 1996, Polansky will be making his second space flight on STS-116 He first flew as pilot of the shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-98 in February 2001, a 13-day flight that delivered the U S Destiny Laboratory to the station

Polansky's crew aboard Discovery will include Pilot Bill Oefelein and mission specialists Bob Curbeam, Nick Patrick, Joan Higginbotham, Suni Williams and Christer Fuglesang, a European Space Agency astronaut Williams will remain aboard the station to begin a six-month stay European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, currently aboard the station, will return to Earth on Discovery

For Polansky's biographical information, visit:

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

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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