Former Shuttle Astronaut, XCOR Test Pilot to Address Education Conference

HOUSTON, Oct. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Colonel Rick Searfoss (USAF-ret.) will address teachers at the Space Exploration Educators Conference, which takes place at Space Center Houston on February 7-9, 2013. Colonel Searfoss will speak during a session on "Citizen Science and Citizen Space Exploration" presented by Citizens in Space.

As a NASA Shuttle pilot and commander, Colonel Searfoss flew into space three times. As chief test pilot for the Lynx reusable spacecraft, now under construction by XCOR Aerospace, he expects to fly into space much more often.

"The suborbital Lynx spacecraft is designed to fly up to four times a day," Colonel Searfoss said. "We need to dispel the myth that American spaceflight is ending. The real space age is about to begin. In the next decade, thousands of Americans will travel into space."

Citizens in Space, a project of the United States Rocket Academy, has acquired a contract for 10 flights on the Lynx spacecraft, which will be made available to the education and citizen-science communities. Citizens in Space will select 100 citizen-science experiments and 10 citizen astronauts to fly as payload operators.

Colonel Searfoss will address teachers via two-way video link from the XCOR Aerospace hangar at Mojave Air and Space Port in California, where the Lynx spacecraft is now being built. "I would love to visit Houston again and meet teachers in person," Colonel Searfoss said, "but the Lynx test schedule does not allow it. We expect to begin test flights early next year, perhaps around the time of the conference. So, we will have a lot of exciting developments to share with the teachers."

In addition to teleconferencing with Colonel Searfoss, teachers will have the opportunity to meet the first three citizen-astronaut candidates selected by Citizens in Space. Teachers will learn how they can incorporate citizen science into the classroom, develop experiments to fly on Lynx, and apply for the citizen astronaut program.

"Suborbital spacecraft like Lynx will revolutionize access to space, for scientists, engineers, teachers, and students," Col. Searfoss said. "The revolution begins in 2013. Teachers can hear all about it at the Space Exploration Educators Conference."

Registration for the Space Exploration Educators Conference opens on November 1. Online registration and conference information is available at: http://www.spacecenter.org/teachersseec.html

More information on Citizens in Space can be found at: http://www.citizensinspace.org.

An official NASA biography for Colonel Rick Searfoss is available at: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/searfoss.html

Media Contacts:

Edward Weight
[email protected]

Lt. Col. Steve Heck (USAF-ret.)
(513) 607-8152

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SOURCE Citizens in Space