[meteorite-list] NASA Administrator To Speak With NEEMO 16 Crew During Underwater 'Spacewalk'

[Ron Baalke]

June 19, 2012

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

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

MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-116

NASA ADMINISTRATOR TO SPEAK WITH NEEMO 16 CREW DURING UNDERWATER 'SPACEWALK'

WASHINGTON -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will speak with 
astronaut Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, commander of the 16th NASA 
Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) mission, and her 
fellow crewmate Timothy Peake of the European Space Agency at 4:10 
p.m. EDT Wednesday, June 20 as they perform their final "spacewalk" 
of the mission, 63 feet below the ocean's surface. 

The administrator's call to the crew will air live on NASA Television. 

The NEEMO 16 crew has been simulating asteroid exploration on the 
ocean floor since June 11. They are scheduled to return to the 
surface June 22, after living for 12 days inside the National Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Administration's Aquarius Underwater Laboratory off 
the coast of Key Largo, Fla. At the successful completion of the 
mission, they will have performed 16 underwater spacewalks. 

The NEEMO 16 mission is focusing on three particular challenges of an 
asteroid mission. The crew is investigating communication delays, 
restraint and translation techniques and optimum crew size. The 
isolation and microgravity environment of the ocean floor allows the 
NEEMO 16 crew to study and test concepts for how future exploration 
of asteroids could be conducted. 

Metcalf-Lindenburger and Peake are accompanied inside Aquarius by 
Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Steven 
Squyres of Cornell University. Squyres also was a member of NEEMO 15. 

For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming 
video, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv 

For more information on the NEEMO 16 mission, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/neemo 
	
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