NASA Invites Media to Pre-Super Bowl Event at Johnson Space Center

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Media are invited to visit NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston ahead of Super Bowl LI to get an insider's look at the central hub of human space exploration and interview experts from across the agency and industry. The event will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. CST on Wednesday, Feb. 1.

During this behind-the-scenes visit, media will see real-world examples of astronaut training, NASA's Orion spacecraft, deep space technologies, and current work aboard the International Space Station. The event will include a live, interactive conversation with NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson, who are currently living and working 250 miles off the Earth on the space station.

To apply, media must email jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov no later than 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 27.

NASA experts, including an astronaut, will be available for interviews about a variety of human spaceflight activities.

Reporters also will have the opportunity to:

• Meet an astronaut and the people who train and support them in space
• Tour special locations around Johnson, including the current International Space Station and historic Apollo Mission Control rooms, mockups of the space station, the Orion spacecraft and the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, a huge pool where astronauts train for spacewalks
• Hear from NASA experts as they explain the many analogies between America's space program and football
• Learn about current scientific experiments underway aboard the space station and new experiments planned to launch in the future
• See how the space station is being used as a scientific laboratory to test groundbreaking new technologies that will help astronauts safely reach deep space destinations

NASA is on an ambitious Journey to Mars that includes sending humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s, and the agency's robotic spacecraft are already leading the way. Orion and the agency's Space Launch System rocket will launch together for the first time in 2018 and be capable of sending humans farther from Earth than humans have ever traveled. Aboard the International Space Station, astronauts are researching many science disciplines, conducting cutting-edge technology development and growing a commercial marketplace in space.

NASA will tweet about the event using the hashtag #SpaceBowl. For more on NASA's connections to football, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/football

For more information about Johnson Space Center, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/johnson

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SOURCE NASA