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June 13, 2003

Melissa Motichek
Headquarters, Washington
Phone: 202/358-1272

Kelly Humphries
Johnson Space Center, Houston
Phone:  281/483-5111

Jana Goldman
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration
Phone:  301/713-2483

Report #J03-62

VETERAN LONG-DURATION SPACE FLIER TO LEAD NASA UNDERSEA CREW

For the first time, an astronaut with months of experience in space
will compare that time to life underwater.  Peggy Whitson, a veteran
of the International Space Station, will command a NASA crew spending
two weeks on the bottom of the ocean. 

Whitson, who called the Space Station home for six months last year,
will be joined by astronauts Clay Anderson and Garret Reisman and by
scientist Emma Hwang for a NASA Extreme Environment Mission
Operations (NEEMO) mission June 16-29.  The quartet will serve as the
NASA members of a crew that will live in the Aquarius Underwater
Research Facility off the coast of Key Largo, Fla.

The Aquarius facility is similar in size to the International Space
Station's living quarters, the Zvezda Service Module.  The crew will
use the undersea habitat as practice for long-duration space
habitation, while conducting scientific research on the human body
and coral reef environment.  They will also build undersea structures
to simulate Space Station assembly activities.

"NEEMO 5, our next-generation mission, goes beyond the bounds of
space analog experience and will attempt to answer several
significant scientific questions about long duration isolation in
extreme environments," said Bill Todd, NEEMO project manager at
JSC.  "We have ratcheted up the isolation factor, complexity and
science objectives to a level that closely parallels a space mission
experience.  And the science we are performing may very well help
answer several critical path questions on our road map for journeying
to Mars and beyond." 

The NEEMO missions are a cooperative project of NASA, the National
Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National
Undersea Research Center and the University of North Carolina at
Wilmington.  They use Aquarius, the only undersea research laboratory
in the world, which is owned by NOAA and managed by UNC-Wilmington.
The 45-foot long by 13-foot diameter underwater home and laboratory
operates three miles off Key Largo in the Florida Keys National
Marine Sanctuary.  It lies about 62 feet beneath the surface. 

The facility is situated next to deep coral reefs and provides life
support systems that allow scientists to live and work in reasonably
comfortable quarters.  Aquarius is supported by a life support buoy
on the surface, which provides power, life support and communications
capabilities.  A shore-based "mission control" for the Aquarius
laboratory in Florida and a control room at the Johnson Space Center
will monitor the crew's activities. 

The aquanauts plan to discuss their mission with the current crew of
the International Space Station, Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA
International Space Station Science Officer Ed Lu, during a ship-to-
ship linkup tentatively planned for about 12:25 p.m. EDT on June 25.
An opportunity for media to interview the crew of NEEMO 5 also will
be available from 6:30 a.m.-7:30 a.m. EDT on June 25.  A second
opportunity for interviews will be available on June 26 from 3 p.m.-4
p.m. EDT.  Media interested in conducting a two-day audio or video
interview with the crew during its underwater stay should contact JSC
Newsroom at 281/483-5111 no later than noon EDT Tuesday,
June 24.

For additional information about the NEEMO project, visit the NASA
Human Spaceflight Web at: 

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/support/training/neemo/neemo5.
html

For more information about Aquarius, visit:

http://www.uncwil.edu/nurc/aquarius/

In addition to research and construction, the NEEMO crew will
participate in six educational "point-to-point" videoconferences and
a web chat while in its underwater habitat.  Students in Titonka,
Iowa; Jersey City, N.J.; Omaha, Neb.; Nashville, Tenn.; Charlotte, N.
C.; Honolulu, Hawaii; Milford, Mass.; Austin, Tex.; and Seattle,
Wash.; will participate in various educational events.  The first
event will be a web chat, a cooperative effort of JSC's Distance
Learning Outpost (DLO) and NASA Ames Research Center's Quest project
at 1:30 p.m. CDT June 19.  More information on the web chat is
available at: 

http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/projects/space/aquarius/2003/june.html

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