NASA Highlights Science on Next Orbital ATK Mission to Space Station

NASA Highlights Science on Next Orbital ATK Mission to Space Station

WASHINGTON, May 7, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Thursday, May 10, to discuss select science investigations and technology demonstrations launching on the next Orbital ATK commercial resupply flight to the International Space Station.

Orbital ATK is targeting Sunday, May 20, for the launch of its Cygnus spacecraft on an Antares rocket from pad 0A at Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia.

The Cygnus spacecraft will carry crew supplies, scientific research and hardware to the orbiting laboratory to support the Expedition 55 and 56 crews for the ninth contracted mission by Orbital ATK under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract.

To participate in the teleconference, media must contact Kathryn Hambleton at 202-358-1100 or kathryn.hambleton@nasa.gov by 10 a.m. Thursday, for dial-in information.

Participants in Thursday's briefing will be:

    --  Sarah Wallace, microbiologist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston
        and principal investigator for Biomolecule Extraction and Sequencing
        Technology (BEST), an investigation to identify unknown microbial
        organisms on the space station and understand how humans, plants and
        microbes adapt to living on the station
    --  Robert Shotwell, chief engineer for Astronomy and Physics Directorate,
        at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, and manager for
        the Cold Atom Laboratory, a physics research facility used by scientists
        to explore how atoms interact when they have almost no motion due to
        extreme cold temperatures
    --  Andrea Adamo, founder and CEO for Zaiput Flow Technologies, who will
        discuss plans to validate a unique liquid separation system that relies
        on surface forces, rather than gravity, to extract one liquid from
        another
    --  Brandon Briggs, assistant professor at the University of Alaska
        Anchorage, who will discuss a payload that will evaluate the biological
        production of the biofuel isobutene using engineered E.coli under
        microgravity conditions
    --  A representative from Space Applications Services for the Ice Cubes
        Facility, the first commercial European opportunity to conduct research
        in space, made possible through an agreement with ESA (European Space
        Agency)

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live online at:

http://www.nasa.gov/live

For launch countdown coverage, NASA's launch blog, and more information about the mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/orbitalatk

CONTACT: Kathryn Hambleton, Headquarters, Washington, 202-358-1100, kathryn.hambleton@nasa.gov

View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nasa-highlights-science-on-next-orbital-atk-mission-to-space-station-300643623.html

SOURCE NASA