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NASA Astronaut To Answer Questions Via Satellite

By  //  October 31, 2014

live from Gagarin Cosmonaut Center in Russia

ABOVE VIDEO: This is the crew introduction from the Expedition 42/43 Crew News Conference on September 18, 2014. NASA astronaut Terry Virts, Soyuz Commander Anton Shkaplerov and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in November to begin a 5 1/2-month stay aboard the International Space Station.

NASA.gov – NASA astronaut Terry Virts, who is making final preparations for his launch next month to the International Space Station, will be answering questiongs live via satellite from 6-7 a.m. EST Wednesday, Nov. 5.

NASA astronaut Terry Virts (center), Expedition 42 flight engineer and Expedition 43 commander; along with European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov (background), both Expedition 42/43 flight engineers, participate in a routine operations training session in an International Space Station mock-up/trainer in the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. (NASA.gov image)
NASA astronaut Terry Virts (center), Expedition 42 flight engineer and Expedition 43 commander; along with European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov (background), both Expedition 42/43 flight engineers, participate in a routine operations training session in an International Space Station mock-up/trainer in the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. (NASA.gov image)

Virts will participate live from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, where he is completing his training. The interviews will be preceded at 5:30 a.m. by a video highlighting his mission training and previous spaceflight.

Virts was born in Baltimore and calls Columbia, Maryland, his hometown.

He earned degrees from the U.S. Air Force Academy and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and as a colonel in the U.S. Air Force has accumulated more than 4,000 flight hours in more than 40 different aircraft.

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Virts was selected as an astronaut in 2000 and piloted space shuttle Endeavour during the STS-130 mission in February 2010. The 13-day mission delivered the Tranquility module and cupola to the space station.

Virts’ crewmates are astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). The three will launch to the station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft Nov. 23 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

nasa-180Once they arrive, they will join Expedition 42 Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore of NASA and cosmonauts Elena Serova and Alexander Samoukutyaev of Roscosmos, who launched to the station in September.

The crew will continue supporting several hundred experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science currently underway and scheduled to take place aboard the orbiting laboratory. Virts, who is expected to conduct at least two spacewalks during his five-and-a-half-month mission, is scheduled to return to Earth in May 2015.