NASA MEDIA TELECON ON SCIENCE ABOARD SPACEX-18, July 9, 2019, virtual, 1:00 pm ET (audiocast)

NASA will hold a media teleconference on July 9, 2019 at 1:00 pm ET to highlight select science investigations that will be delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) by the SpaceX-18 (SpX-18) cargo mission.  SpX-18 is currently scheduled for launch on July 21.

Audio of the July 9 briefing will be livestreamed on NASA Live. Participants are:

• Bryan Dansberry, assistant program scientist for NASA’s International Space Station Program Science Office, who will share an overview of the research being conducted aboard the space station and how it benefits exploration and humanity.
• Ken Shields, chief operating officer for the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory, who will discuss the lab’s work in advancing science in space, and in developing partnerships that drive industrialization through microgravity research.
• Charles Cockell, professor of astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh, who will discuss Biorock, an investigation that will provide insight into the physical interactions of liquid, rocks and microorganisms under microgravity conditions for potentially mining materials in space and could benefit long-duration spaceflight missions.
• Valentina Fossati and Andres Bratt-Leal, researchers from the New York Stem Foundation Research Institute, who will discuss the Space Tango – Induced Stem Cells investigation, where cells from patients with Parkinson’s disease and Multiple Sclerosis will be cultured on the space station to examine cell to cell interactions that occur in neurodegenerative disease.
• Tomomichi Fujita of Hokkaido University, who will discuss Space Moss, an investigation that grows mosses aboard the space station, and on Earth, to determine how microgravity affects their growth, development, gene expression, photosynthetic activity and other features.
• Craig Everroad, a scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, who will discuss MVP Cell-02, an experiment that aims to understand the effects of the space environment on microbial evolutionary processes.