NASA astronaut Frank Rubio will virtually discuss his upcoming mission to the International Space Station during a news conference and follow-on interviews.
The activities, slated to begin with the prelaunch news conference at 9 a.m. EDT Monday, Aug. 22, will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. Rubio also will be available for limited virtual interviews at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 24. Watch these events online at:
Media wishing to participate in the news conference or interviews must contact NASA’s Johnson Space Center newsroom at 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov by 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 19. Those wishing to submit a question on social media for the prelaunch news conference may do so using #AskNASA.
Rubio, along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, is scheduled to launch to the space station Wednesday, Sept. 21, aboard the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. He will be a flight engineer and member of the Expedition 68 station crew.
This will be Rubio’s first spaceflight since becoming an astronaut in 2017. The Miami, Florida native graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and earned a doctor of medicine degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. Prior to attending medical school, he served as a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter pilot and flew more than 1,100 hours, including more than 600 hours of combat and imminent danger time during deployments to Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Rubio is a board-certified family physician and flight surgeon.
