Mar. 9, 2016------------------M16-025

NASA is hosting a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Tuesday, March 15, to discuss several science investigations launching on the next Orbital ATK commercial resupply flight to the International Space Station.
The briefing participants will be:

• Marc Fries, principal investigator for Strata-1 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston
• Aaron Parness, principal investigator for Gecko Grippers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California
•...Matt Napoli, vice president of in-space operations for the Additive Manufacturing Facility for Made In Space in Moffett Field, California
• Gary Ruff, co-investigator for Saffire at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland
• Michael Fortenberry, principal investigator for Meteor at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio

Cygnus is targeted to launch Tuesday, March 22 on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, during a 30-minute launch window that opens at approximately 11 p.m. The spacecraft will carry crew supplies, scientific research and hardware to the orbital laboratory to support the Expedition 47 and 48 crews.
This launch is the fifth contracted mission by Orbital ATK under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract and will be followed later this year by an Orbital ATK resupply mission launching from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia.