Bruce Buckingham                                                                         May 24, 2002
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
(321) 867-2468 

KSC Release No. 48-02

MISSION STS-111 KSC BRIEFINGS AND EVENTS SET

News conferences and other events have been set for the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-111, the 110th launch in the Shuttle program. Mission STS-111 will launch between 4 - 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 30. The exact launch time will be announced 24 hours prior to the targeted liftoff time. 

News conferences and events listed below will be carried live on NASA Television (unless otherwise noted) and originate from the KSC News Center. 

The seven-member STS-111 crew will arrive at KSC early next week. A taped replay of their arrival will be broadcast on NASA TV the following day. Due to heightened security measures, live media coverage of the crew arrival will not be accommodated.

On launch day, the crew will depart their KSC living quarters and be driven to the launch pad. Again, due to heightened security, media will not be permitted at this event. The crew breakfast, suit-up and walkout activities will be taped and replayed during live launch commentary beginning approximately three hours prior to liftoff. 

In addition to daily 9 a.m. countdown status briefings, a prelaunch press conference will be held two days before launch. The full briefing schedule is listed below.


STS-111 BRIEFINGS & EVENTS SCHEDULE (all times are EDT) 
(All briefings are held inside the KSC Press Site auditorium and will be carried live on NASA TV unless otherwise noted)

L-2 Days - Tuesday, May 28

9 a.m. ------ Countdown Status Briefing
Steve Altemus, NASA Test Director
Glenn Chin, STS-111 Payload Mission Manager 
Kathy Winters, Shuttle Weather Officer 

(Crew arrival, taped earlier, will be replayed on NASA TV following the briefing.)

4 p.m. ----- Prelaunch News Conference 
Ron Dittemore, Shuttle Program Manager, NASA, JSC
Bill Gerstenmaier, Deputy International Space Station Program Manager, JSC
Alain de Leffe, Head, Systems Studies and Development, CNES
Dave King, Director of Shuttle Processing, NASA, KSC
1st Lt. Tom Crenshaw, Launch Weather Officer, 45th Space Wing

L-1 Day - Wednesday, May 29 

9 a.m. ------ Countdown Status Briefing
Pete Nickolenko, NASA Test Director
Glenn Chin, STS-111 Payload Mission Manager 
Kathy Winters, Shuttle Weather Officer 

Launch Day - Thursday, May 30 

NOTE: Launch will occur between the hours of 4-8 p.m. NASA Television live launch programming and commentary will begin about 3 hours prior to launch.

Launch+1 Hour ----- Post-launch Press Conference 
Jim Halsell, Shuttle Program Launch Integration Manager, KSC
Mike Leinbach, Shuttle Launch Director, KSC

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The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Newsroom offers an electronic subscription service for status reports and news releases issued from KSC. There are two possible ways to subscribe.  You may send a blank e-mail message to ksc-news_release-subscribe@kscnews.ksc.nasa.gov or follow the instruction on the Web site at http://kscnews.ksc.nasa.gov. The system will confirm the request via e-mail.