HOUSTON. Boeing will host a televised downlink with astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on May 10 featuring the Genes in Space STEM competition and students who are participating in the research contest, a company press statement said May 4.
The event will originate from the nonprofit Space Center Houston in Texas and be shown on Facebook Live through NASA’s Johnson Space Center Education Office.
The full programme will begin at 10:30 a.m. Central time on Facebook Live, at https://www.facebook.com/jsceducation. NASA TV will join the downlink from 11:05 to 11:25 a.m. The programme will conclude at 11:30 a.m. with a demonstration of Boeing’s Starliner virtual reality training system.
The astronauts aboard the ISS will take questions from the two Genes In Space students whose experiments recently were conducted aboard the station, plus other contestants and from the audience. About 200 students from Houston-area middle and high schools will attend the event.
Guests will include the chief scientist for the ISS, a biologist, a leader of Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, and a Boeing Starliner engineer.
Founded by Boeing and miniPCR, the Genes In Space competition offers students in grades 7 through 12 the opportunity to develop DNA-based experiments that could be performed on orbit by astronauts aboard the ISS. A panel of scientists evaluates the proposals to select the finalists and then a winner.
Those taking part in the May 10 programme are:
- Drew Feustel, NASA astronaut, International Space Station Expedition 55
- Scott Tingle, NASA astronaut, International Space Station Expedition 55
- Julie Robinson, NASA chief scientist for the International Space Station
- Zeke Alvarez-Saavedra, co-founder, miniPCR
- Ken Shields, director of Operations, CASIS
- Tony Castilleja, Boeing Starliner
- Steven Siceloff, Boeing Communications (Host)
