NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff, who recently completed a six-month stay in space, will be available for satellite interviews from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. CST on Thursday, Dec. 18.

Chamitoff returned to Earth on Nov. 30 with the STS-126 space shuttle crew. He arrived at the International Space Station in June with the STS-124 crew and lived and worked on the station as a flight engineer and science officer with the Expedition 17 and 18 crews.

During his stay, Chamitoff helped to activate the Kibo Laboratory, which was delivered during STS-124. He also initiated the first chess matches from space with the public and the kindergarten-through-third grade U.S. Chess Championship Team and its chess club teammates from Stevenson Elementary School in Bellevue, Wash.

Chamitoff was born in Montreal and grew up in San Jose, Calif. He holds bachelor's and master's of science degrees from California Polytechnic State University, a second master's of science degree from the University of Houston and a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

To participate in the interviews, reporters should contact Karen Svetaka at 281-483-8684 by 3 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 17. B-roll of Chamitoff's mission will be broadcast starting at 7 a.m., immediately before the interviews.

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

For more information on the International Space Station, visit:

For more information about Chamitoff and his biography, visit: