Thursday, September 21, 2006

Thursday, Sept. 21, at 2:57 p.m., the public will get its first chance ever to view a live video conference between astronauts training in the Aquarius underwater laboratory, managed by the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

The seven-minute live broadcast can be viewed at http://www.uncw.edu/aquarius/thumb_cam.htm from 2:57 to 3:04 p.m. today, Thursday, Sept. 21. This is the first time NASA has made the Aquarius link-up available to the public.

UNCW invites you to post this link on your Web site and to invite your various audiences to watch this exciting event this afternoon.

The astronauts in Aquarius are Sandra Magnus, Ph.D., and Robert L. Behnken from the Johnson Space Center, and TJ Creamer and Timothy L. Kopra with the U.S. Army. Roger Garcia and Larry Ward are habitat technicians with UNCW. Working 63-feet underwater off in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary off Key Largo, the astronauts are simulating the same sorts of activities they might expect to perform on the moon.

More information on the mission can be obtained at http://www.nurc.net/blog/.