HOUSTON -- The astronauts, cosmonauts and spaceflight participant aboard the International Space Station will participate in a news conference from orbit at 11 a.m. EDT Tuesday, April 15.

Reporters may ask questions from NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston; NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla.; NASA Headquarters in Washington; and from the Russian Mission Control Center in Moscow. The 30-minute conference will be broadcast live on NASA Television.

Members of the 17th crew of the station, Expedition 17 Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko, docked their Soyuz spacecraft to the station early Thursday. With them is South Korean spaceflight participant So-yeon Yi, who will stay on the complex for nine days under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Handing over station operations to the new crew are Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko. Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman will remain aboard the station and join Expedition 17. Whitson and Malenchenko will depart the station and return to Earth, along with So-yeon Yi, on April 19.

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

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv