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Gretchen Cook-Anderson
Headquarters, Washington            April 8, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-0836)

Kylie Moritz
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 281/483-5111)

NOTE TO EDITORS: N03-38

NASA & PARTNERS SPONSOR INNOVATIVE ROBOTICS COMPETITION

     NASA, with corporate and institutional partners, is 
sponsoring 280 student teams competing in the FIRST (For 
Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) 
robotics national championship. The competition, April 11-12 
at Reliant Park in Houston, is expected to attract more than 
20,000 U.S. and international participants. 

FIRST is an international program to inspire interest in the 
sciences and to challenge students to use their creativity, 
knowledge, and leadership skills to build robots for 
competition against other robots. NASA supports teams 
through mentoring and grants. NASA sponsored seven of 23 
regional competitions and more than 200 of 800 local teams. 
Astronaut Leland Melvin, co-manger of NASA's Educator 
Astronaut Program, will attend the competition and will be 
available for interviews.

NASA TV will broadcast FIRST activities April 11 from 3:00 
to 7:00 p.m. EDT, and April 12 from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. 
EDT. NASA TV is on AMC-2, Transponder 9C, vertical 
polarization, at 85 degrees West longitude, 3880 MHz, with 
audio at 6.8 MHz.

Media planning to attend the competition should contact Ken 
Freitasat: 603/666-3906, ext. 410. To schedule a Melvin 
interview, call Gretchen Cook-Anderson at: 202/358-0836.

For more information about NASA, space flight, science or 
education programs on the Internet, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov

For more information about FIRST on the Internet, visit: 

www.usfirst.org

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