NASA Teleconference About Nonprofit Management Of Space Station

Joshua Buck

Headquarters, Washington

WASHINGTON -- NASA released a final version of a cooperative agreement notice (CAN) for an independent, nonprofit research management organization to stimulate, develop and manage U.S. use of the International Space Station National Laboratory. The agreement pertains to operations other than NASA's exploration missions.

The agency will hold a media teleconference at 11 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Feb. 22, to discuss the release. The teleconference panelists are:

-- Mark Uhran, assistant associate administrator for the International Space Station

-- Jason Crusan, chief technologist for space operations

-- Marybeth Edeen, manager of the International Space Station National Laboratory Office

To participate in the teleconference, reporters must contact the NASA Space Operations Public Affairs office at 202-358-1100 for dial-in instructions by 10 a.m. Tuesday. Requests must include reporters' media affiliation and telephone number. The teleconference will be streamed live at http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio.

As the space station transitions to full use as a unique scientific outpost, NASA is ensuring a wide pool of organizations outside the agency have access to the orbiting lab. The NASA Authorization Act of 2010, in addition to extending station operations until at least 2020, also directed the agency to establish an organization to manage research performed by other U.S. government agencies, academic institutions and private firms. The organization will stimulate uses of the station as a national laboratory and enhance the U.S. return on this initiative. The U.S. portion of the station was designated a national laboratory in 2005.

The CAN is available on the national laboratory website and the NASA Research Opportunities site at http://nspires.nasaprs.com.

Follow the national lab on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/iss_natlab.

For information about the International Space Station National Laboratory, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/nlab/index.html.

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