NASA Astronaut and U.S. Army Colonel Visits Fort Hood Area School

HOUSTON, April 29, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock, a colonel in the U.S. Army, will relive his spaceflight experiences for students and teachers in the Fort Hood area on May 2.

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Beginning at 11 a.m. CDT, the Nolanville Eagles' student council will welcome Wheelock during a ceremony at Nolanville Elementary, 901 Old Nolanville Rd., Nolanville, Texas. At 1 p.m., Wheelock will give a multimedia presentation about his time aboard the International Space Station and discuss how being in the military helped him achieve his goals of traveling in space.

Wheelock received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Army Infantry from West Point in May 1983. He later earned a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from Georgia Tech in 1992.

In 1998, Wheelock was selected as a NASA astronaut. In 2007, Wheelock flew his first spaceflight aboard space shuttle Discovery's STS-120 mission to the International Space Station. During the mission, Wheelock did three spacewalks totaling more than 20 hours.

Three years later, Wheelock cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astronaut Shannon Walker joined the Expedition 24 crew members when their Soyuz capsule docked with the orbiting station on June 17, 2010. Wheelock served as commander of Expedition 25 during his stay. The crew helped support more than 120 microgravity experiments. The mission ended 163 days later with a return to Earth on Nov. 25, 2010.

For more information about this appearance or to schedule an interview, contact Gabriela Morgan, Nolanville Elementary, 254-336-2180, or Brenda Cabaniss, NASA's Astronaut Appearances Office, 281-244-8860.

For more about Wheelock and expeditions to the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station.

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SOURCE NASA