First Astronaut of 2013 Class to Fly to Space Available for Media Interviews

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA astronaut Nick Hague, along with his crewmate Alexey Ovchinin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, will discuss their upcoming mission to the International Space Station in a news conference at 2 p.m. EDT Monday, June 18, at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The news conference will be broadcast live on NASA Television and on the agency's website, and the crew will be available for in-person or remote media interviews afterward.

Hague will launch to the space station aboard the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft, commanded by Ovchinin, Oct. 11, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Hague and Ovchinin will join the station's Expedition 57 crew, returning to Earth in April 2019 as members of Expedition 58. Hague, who is the first astronaut from the 2013 astronaut class to be assigned to a mission, will serve as a flight engineer for Expeditions 57 and 58. This will be Ovchinin's second spaceflight, and he will serve as a flight engineer on Expeditions 57 and the commander of Expedition 58.

U.S. reporters wishing to participate in person or reserve an interview opportunity must contact Johnson's newsroom at 281-483-5111 by 4 p.m. Friday, June 15.

Reporters who wish to participate by telephone must call Johnson's newsroom no later than 1:45 p.m. on June 18. Those following the briefing on social media may ask questions using the hashtag #askNASA.

During a planned six-month mission, the station crew members will take part in about 250 research investigations and technology demonstrations not possible on Earth in order to advance scientific knowledge of Earth, space, physical, and biological sciences. Science conducted on the space station continues to yield benefits for humanity and will enable future long-duration human and robotic exploration into deep space. The crew is also scheduled to be onboard during the expected first flights of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which will resume launches of human spaceflight from U.S. soil.

Hague is a native of Hoxie, Kansas, and a colonel in the U.S. Air Force. Prior to his selection, he was part of the Air Force Fellows program in Washington, where he worked as an adviser to the U.S. Senate on matters of national defense and foreign policy.

Hague earned a bachelor's degree in astronautical engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy and a master's degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Follow Hague on social media at:

https://twitter.com/AstroHague 

SOURCE NASA