HOUSTON -- NASA flight director Kwatsi Alibaruho, who will lead Mission Control for the upcoming space shuttle mission, will be available for satellite interviews from 6 to 8 a.m. CST, Friday, Feb. 6. Alibaruho will discuss the challenges of the upcoming flight that will deliver, install and deploy the final set of solar arrays for the International Space Station.

The STS-119 flight, targeted to launch Feb. 12 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, will deliver a new crew member to the station as well as the fourth set of arrays, which will provide electricity to support six-person crews later in 2009. During the first of four spacewalks, Discovery's crew will install and deploy the arrays, part of the final major U.S. segment of the orbiting laboratory's backbone. The crew also will continue work on the station's new water recycling system.

Alibaruho has been a flight director since 2005 and is a veteran leader of teams that manage shuttle flights and station expeditions. He grew up in Atlanta and earned a bachelor's degree in avionics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

To participate in the interviews, reporters should contact D.J. Jones at 281-483-8631 or 832-971-1154 before 3 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 5.

The NASA Live Interview Media Outlet channel will be used for the interviews. The channel is a digital satellite C-band downlink by uplink provider Americom. It is on satellite AMC 6, transponder 5C, located at 72 degrees west, downlink frequency 3785.5 Mhz based on a standard C-band 5150 Mhz L.O., vertical polarity, FEC is 3/4, data rate is 6.00 Mhz, symbol rate is 4.3404 Mbaud, transmission DVB, minimum Eb/N0 is 6.0 dB.

The interviews also will be broadcast live on NASA Television. For streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

For more information about the space shuttle, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle