NASA TV to air station crew's special messages

NASA Television will broadcast two special messages from International Space Station crew members, one that urges all Americans to exercise their right to vote and another marking the station's 10th birthday.

The messages will be broadcast beginning at 11 a.m. CDT, Monday, Oct. 27, on both standard definition and high-definition NASA TV. The HD version also will be broadcast at 11 a.m. CDT, Tuesday, Oct. 28, and Wednesday, Oct. 29.

ISS Commander Michael Fincke, KE5AIT

Speeding 210 miles above Earth at five miles per second, Expedition 18 Commander Michael Fincke, KE5AIT and Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff, KD5PKZ will join millions of Americans and cast their votes in the November 4 election. Thanks to a Texas bill passed in 1997, Fincke
and Chamitoff will join several past astronauts who have voted from orbit.

Joined by Russian Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov, RA3DT, Fincke and Chamitoff also beamed down a message celebrating the upcoming 10th anniversary of the station's launch.

Yury Lonchakov, RA3DT

The first space station component, the bus-sized Zarya module, lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on November 20, 1998.

During the last 10 years, 76 flights have launched to the complex. The orbiting laboratory has grown to a mass of almost 600,000 pounds and an inside volume larger than a four-bedroom house.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv