Astronauts Showcase Space Art Created with Childhood Cancer Patients

HOUSTON, Aug. 18, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Patients from around the world will have the opportunity to see a spacesuit art project they helped create. Astronauts currently living and working on the International Space Station will unveil the project at 10:25 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, Aug. 23. The 20-minute, Earth-to-space call will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

Expedition 52 crew members will answer questions from international partner astronauts and several patients turned artists in Mission Control Houston. In the fall of 2016, spacesuit UNITY was created at cancer hospitals in Houston, Canada, Germany, Russia and Japan with collaboration from astronauts from NASA and its international partners ESA (European Space Agency), Roscosmos, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

Three spacesuits, HOPE, COURAGE and UNITY, were created during the project. The UNITY spacesuit arrived to the station on SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft Wednesday, Aug. 16 along with more than 6,400 pounds of supplies and experiments.

The participating hospitals that helped create the UNITY spacesuit were:

• University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
• Southlake Regional Health Centre, Toronto
• Montreal Children's Hospital, Montreal
• University Hospital Cologne International Cancer Center, Cologne, Germany
• The Moscow Institute for Pediatric Oncology, Moscow
• St. Luke's International University and Juntendo Hospital, Tokyo
• Children's Medical Center, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo

Follow the Space Suit Art Project on Twitter at:

https://twitter.com/Spacesuitart

For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

For more information about the International Space Station, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/station

SOURCE NASA