Summer Space Spectacular Featuring a Live NASA Downlink Brings the Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center Campers, Visitors Closer!

Hutchinson, Kan. – June 19, 2013, Camp KAOS participants and students from local community organizations will get the opportunity to speak, live, with Expedition 36 astronauts living on the International Space Station (ISS) through a downlink provided by NASA. Campers from the Camp KAOS Space 101 and Solar System programs, and groups from the Boys and Girls Club and 4-H will tune in to the International Space Station, from the lobby of the Kansas Cosmosphere, for a question-and-answer session with three ISS astronauts.

NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Karen Nyberg and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano will answer questions about living, working and researching onboard the orbiting laboratory. The Earth-to-space call will be carried live on NASA Television and the agency’s website. The exact time of the event will be announced on cosmo.org and may be subject to change due to real-time operational activities on the ISS.

This in-flight education downlink is one in a series with educational organizations in the United States to improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics teaching and learning. It is an integral component of NASA’s Teaching From Space  education program, which promotes learning opportunities and builds partnerships with the education community using the unique environment of space and NASA’s human spaceflight program.

The NASA downlink will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. Before and after the downlink, the Cosmosphere will be soaring into summer with the Summer Space Spectacular, providing family-friendly activities with fun, hands-on learning opportunities for Cosmosphere visitors. Families will work together to build and launch rockets, make out-of-this-world solar system keepsakes, and explore the Hall of Space Museum on a kid-friendly Space Trek. The schedule of activities will be available on cosmo.org once the official time of the downlink is provided by NASA.

The Summer Space Spectacular and live NASA downlink are free* to the public and require no advance reservations. However, groups of 10 or more are encouraged to make reservations to guarantee available space for the downlink. (*Hall of Space  admission is required for Space Trek. Reno County residents receive free admission to the Hall of Space Museum.)

For information about NASA’s education programs, visit: www.nasa.gov/education
For information about the International Space Station, visit: www.nasa.gov/station
For information about the Summer Space Spectacular, live NASA downlink, or to reserve space for the events, contact Katie Gillmore, Outreach Coordinator at [email protected] or (620)665.9326. Watch cosmo.org for details about the events.

Media Contact Information
Contact Name: Katie Gillmore
Contact Phone: 620.665.9326
Contact Email: [email protected]

Contact Name: Becky Christner
Contact Phone: 620.665.9320
Contact Email: [email protected]