News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Demetrius Bereolos, TCC, 595-7955
Tony Heaberlin, TTC, 828-5052
Jack Sellers, TCC, 828-4254

ISS TRANSMITS LIVE PROGRAM
TO SCIENCE & ENGINEERING ACADEMY
JULY 17

rew members from the International Space Station (ISS) will transmit a live question and answer broadcast to Tulsa Aviation Alliance Science and Engineering Careers Academy,

1 p.m., July 17, Main Auditorium, Riverside Campus, Tulsa Technology Center (TTC),
801 East 91st St., Tulsa.

During the program, which is open to the public, the audience can communicate with Ed Lu (flight engineer and science officer) and Yuri Malenchenko (commander), the astronauts of Expedition Seven, the crew currently living on ISS, by audio and video.

The live transmission is unique--it will be the last of only four such programs broadcast to Earth during the anticipated six-month duration of Expedition Seven, launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The master of ceremonies for the program is Charles Precourt, deputy director, ISS Program.

The Expedition Seven Crew is devoting more than 200 hours to American and Russian research that will focus on chemistry, global environment, human life sciences, manufacturing processes, and physics. The crew will also work with the ISS robotic arm (Canadarm 2) and oversee the upgrade two space station computer software packages.

More information about Expedition Seven is available.

At Science and Engineering Careers Academy, July 14-18, in addition to communicating with Expedition Seven, area high school students will work on projects involving engineering design and model rocketry, hear outstanding speakers, and tour local research facilities at Flight Safety International, Oklahoma State University (OSU) Center for Aerospace and Hyperbaric Medicine, and Syntroleum Incorporated.

Registration remains open for Science and Engineering Careers Academy. For more information, call 595-7566 or send e-mail to: youth@tulsacc.edu

Lu, Massachusetts native raised in Hawaii, began his astronaut training in 1995 and has flown in space twice previously on space shuttle Atlantis for nearly 500 hours.

A research physicist, Lu has worked at the High Altitude Observatory, Boulder; Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, University of Colorado; and Institute for Astronomy, Honolulu. He has developed several theoretical advances that have provided an initial, basic understanding of the underlying physics of solar flares.

Lu has a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University and doctor of philosophy degree in applied physics from Stanford University. He was a Cornell University Presidential Scholar and Hughes Aircraft Company Masters Fellow.

Malenchenko, a native of Ukraine, is a veteran cosmonaut who served on Space Shuttle Mission STS-106 and commanded the Russian Space Station Mir-16 mission in 1994. He has logged more than 3,200 hours in space.

After graduating from Gritsevets Kharkov Higher Military Aviation School with a pilot-engineering emphasis, Malenchenko completed general space training and graduated from Zhokovsky Air Force Engineering Academy.

In 2000, during STS-106, Lu and Malenchenko performed a six-hour joint spacewalk to connect power and communications data cables to a new service module of the ISS.

A retired U.S. Air Force colonel, former astronaut, and veteran of four shuttle space flights, Precourt logged more than 900 hours in space and had extensive experience with Russian Space Station Mir. He has served as acting assistant technical director, Johnson Space Center; Chief of the Astronaut Corps (responsible for mission preparation activities for all shuttle and ISS missions); and as a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) representative at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia.

The inaugural Science and Engineering Careers Academy, under the direction of Jack Sellers, assistant professor of aviation sciences technology, Tulsa Community College (TCC), is sponsored by Tulsa Aviation Alliance. OSU-Tulsa, TCC, and Tulsa Technology Center are Alliance members.

Through technology-based instructional programs and other special programs and services provided at five Tulsa County locations, TTC serves approximately 16,000 adults in full-time and short-term training programs and more than 1,500 secondary students from public and private schools in Tulsa and surrounding counties. TTC Information is available at www.tulsatech.com

For the sixth consecutive year, TCC is ranked in the top three percent of more than 1,150 community colleges nationally in the number of associate degrees awarded in all disciplines. Also, TCC is ranked second nationally in associate degrees granted to Native American students.

This year, TCC was the first Oklahoma college to be a finalist for the prestigious Bellwether Award, given by the Community College Futures Assembly for outstanding and innovative workforce development programs. The Assembly is an annual convocation of key opinion leaders who address critical issues facing the future of community colleges.

The largest two-year college in Oklahoma, TCC serves approximately 30,000 students per semester in credit, corporate and industry training, and continuing education classes. TCC information is available.

OSU-Tulsa, located near downtown, just off I-244 and Highway 75, serves an enrollment of more than 2,200 students. These students take advantage of flexible class scheduling that offers day, night, weekend and distance learning courses in dozens of degree programs in a wide range of fields. More information about OSU-Tulsa is available.