HOUSTON - International Space Station Flight Director Dana Weigel will be available for satellite interviews Friday, March 7, from 6 to 8 a.m. CST. Weigel will lead NASA's Mission Control Center during the next space shuttle mission to the station.

Weigel served as a NASA extravehicular activity officer, planning and overseeing spacewalks, for several years before being selected as a flight director in 2005. She graduated from Texas A&M University in 1993.

Shuttle Endeavour's launch countdown is set to begin Friday, March 7. Liftoff is scheduled for 2:28 a.m. EDT. Tuesday, March 11, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The mission will deliver to the station the first component of the Japanese Kibo laboratory and the Canadian Dextre robotic system. The 16-day flight will be the longest shuttle mission to the station to date.

To participate in the interviews, media should contact Karen Svetaka at 281-483-8684 or by pager 713-708-1024 by 2 p.m., Thursday, March 6. B-roll of preparations for the mission will be broadcast starting at 5:30 a.m., immediately prior to the interviews.

The NASA Television low-latency channel will be used to conduct the interviews with the least audio delay. The NASA TV low-latency channel is on satellite AMC 6, transponder 5C, located at 72 degrees west, downlink frequency 3785.5 Mhz, vertical polarity. The interviews also will be broadcast live on NASA TV.

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

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For STS-123 crew and mission information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle