[Call me when humans go extinct]

NASA astronaut Scott Tingle and crewmates Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and Norishige Kanai of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will discuss their upcoming mission to the International Space Station in a news conference.
Credits: NASA

NASA astronaut Scott Tingle and crewmates Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will discuss their upcoming mission to the International Space Station in a news conference at 2 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Oct. 11 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The news conference will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency’s website, and the crew will be available for in-person or remote media interviews afterward.

Tingle, Shkaplerov and Kanai will launch to the space station aboard the Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft on Dec. 17 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They will join the station’s Expedition 54 crew, and return to Earth in April 2018 as members of Expedition 55. This will be the first spaceflight for Tingle and Kanai, and the third for Shkaplerov.

Reporters who wish to participate by telephone must call Johnson's newsroom at 281-483-5111 no later than 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 11. To request credentials to participate in person or to schedule an interview, U.S. reporters must contact Johnson's newsroom by 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 10. Those following the briefing on social media may ask questions using the hashtag #askNASA.

During a planned four-month mission, the station crew members will take part in about 250 research investigations and technology demonstrations not possible on Earth in order to advance scientific knowledge of Earth, space, physical and biological sciences. Science conducted on the space station continues to yield benefits for humanity and will enable future long-duration human and robotic exploration into deep space, including missions past the Moon and Mars.

A U.S. Navy captain, Tingle grew up in Randolph, Massachusetts, and earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Southeastern Massachusetts University in Dartmouth, now the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and a Master of Science in mechanical engineering from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Following graduate school, Tingle spent three years with the Aerospace Corp., in El Segundo, California, as a technical staff member in its Propulsion Department. He was commissioned as a U.S. Navy officer in 1991, and accumulated more than 4,500 flight hours in 51 types of aircraft, 750 carrier arrestments and 54 combat missions. Tingle was selected in July 2009 as one of 14 members of the 20th NASA astronaut class. His training included scientific and technical briefings; intensive instruction in space station systems; spacewalks; robotics; physiological training; T-38 flight training; and water and wilderness survival training.