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Opening of media accreditation for next Shuttle mission at NASA

NASA media accreditation is open for the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-121. The possible launch window is 3 to 22 May from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre, Florida.

ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter from Germany will be one of the crew members launched on this mission. He will remain on the International Space Station for up to six months and will become the first European to live and work on the ISS on a long-duration mission conducting an extensive ESA experimental programme as well as extra-vehicular activities (spacewalking) outside the Station.

Thomas Reiter is a member of the European Astronaut Corps, based at ESA's European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany. Léopold Eyharts, from France, a member of the same Corps, will be the back-up for this mission. Reiter will reach the ISS on Space Shuttle flight STS-121, and return to Earth on flight STS-116, with another ESA astronaut, Christer Fuglesang, from Sweden, who will have reached the ISS on the same flight for a short-duration assembly mission. This will be Reiter's second long-duration mission on board a space station, following his six-month stay on the Soviet Union’s Mir, in 1995/96.