NASA TV's This Week @ NASA, April 8, 2011

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/TWAN_04_08_11.html

This Week @ NASA, April 8, 2011
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This Week at NASA…
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NEW CREW ON THE ISS – JSC
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The three new members of the Expedition 27 crew are busy making the International Space Station their new home for the next five months. Flight engineers Alexander Samokutyaev, Andrey Borisenko and Ron Garan arrived at the station in their Soyuz spacecraft following a successful journey from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The craft, dubbed the “Gagarin,” for Yuri Gagarin, who became the first human in space 50 years ago this week, docked to the Poisk module on the space-facing side of the Russian segment. The trio joined Expedition 27 Commander Dmitry Kondratyev and Flight Engineers Cady Coleman and Paolo Nespoli. The six will continue research into the effects of microgravity on the human body, biology, physics and materials.

Ron Garan:

"Now that we have the major construction done, we are in the utilization phase of the space station. So we are doing on the space station now what it was designed to do and that’s cutting-edge science, cutting-edge research and opening up, doors to discovery."

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SHUTTLE’S LAUNCH DATE ANTICIPATED - KSC
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NASA managers will hold a Flight Readiness Review on Tuesday, April 19, to assess the team's ability to support launch of space shuttle Endeavour on STS-134. Barring unforeseen issues, the FRR is expected to conclude with the selection of an official launch date for the mission. Endeavour’s liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center is targeted for April 29 at 3:47 pm Eastern.

The STS-134 crew will have among its members astronaut Mike Fincke, who returns to the International Space Station after living there for a year’s time on two previous missions. A veteran of two Soyuz flights, this’ll be the Pittsburgh native’s first flight on a shuttle.

Mike Fincke:

"My job on the mission is to be, first and foremost, MS1. What does MS1 mean? Mission specialist No. 1. I sit up on the flight deck in the cockpit and help with launching and landing of this complex aerospace vehicle. It’s really amazing what the shuttle can do. So I like to think that some of the skills that I learned in flying as a flight engineer in the Soyuz, I’m helping my shuttle friends work on."

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DISABILITY MENTORING DAY - HQ
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NASA headquarters welcomed students from Maryland School for the Blind in Baltimore to Disability Mentoring Day. The students, ages 12-15, rotated through several stations, exploring and learning through touch about the space shuttle, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Mars rovers and other NASA programs. They also met and chatted with NASA scientists and engineers.

The annual event encourages students to strive for success and consider careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

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MSL MEDIA DAY - JPL
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Inside the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Spacecraft Assembly Facility, news media donned special clean-room garments for a close-up look at NASA's next Mars rover, Curiosity.

Jennifer Knight:

"We’re looking to see if there is any evidence that there was ever any life there; maybe there still is.