May 8, 2009

Katherine Trinidad Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 katherine trinidad@nasa gov

James Hartsfield Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 james a hartsfield@nasa gov

MEDIA ADVISORY: M09-080

NASA SHUTTLE COMMANDER TWEETS, WILL ANSWER QUESTIONS FROM SPACE

HOUSTON -- NASA astronaut Mark Polansky, commander of the next space shuttle mission to the International Space Station in June, is sharing updates about his training and flight on Twitter He invites followers to submit video questions via YouTube that he will answer from orbit

Polansky, a New Jersey native and former Air Force test pilot, will command the space shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-127, a flight targeted for launch June 13 to deliver the final portions of the space station's Japanese laboratory While posting tweets about his crew's training, Polansky also will select video questions submitted by followers The videos will be transmitted to orbit during the mission and answered live during a special event that will be broadcast on NASA Television and posted to Polansky's Twitter and YouTube pages

Polansky, whose Twitter account is Astro_127, can be followed at:

http://www twitter com/Astro_127

To submit a question, Polansky's Twitter followers should post a video question no longer than 30 seconds to YouTube and tweet the link to Polansky's account, @Astro_127 From now through the launch of STS-127, one or two of the questions submitted will be selected each week to be answered from orbit A video invitation from Polansky may be viewed at:

http://www youtube com/reelnasa

Polansky's crewmates are Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Julie Payette and Tim Kopra Wolf, Cassidy, Marshburn and Kopra will perform the mission's five spacewalks Kopra will remain aboard the station after Endeavour departs as a flight engineer for Expedition 20 Koichi Wakata, a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut, will return to Earth on Endeavour to conclude his three-month stay at the station

The mission is Polansky's second space shuttle command and third spaceflight For more information about Polansky, mission STS-127, and to view video questions that have been selected so far, visit:

http://www nasa gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts127

For a list of NASA missions providing updates on social media Web sites, visit

http://www nasa gov/collaborate

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

http://www nasa gov/ntv

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