NASA ASTRONAUT TALKS WITH STUDENT CHESS OPPONENTS THURSDAY

NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff will meet his opponents in the ongoing Earth vs. space chess match Thursday, Oct. 9. At 1:05 p.m. CDT, NASA Television will broadcast the live linkup with Chamitoff, who lives aboard the International Space Station, and his competitors from the Stevenson Elementary School in Bellevue, Wash.

Reporters may attend the event in the Bellevue Community College's Carlson Theater, where the kindergarten through third grade members of the U.S. Chess Championship Team and its chess club teammates will gather.

The students are key players in the Earth vs. space match, proposing moves that are voted on by the public via the Internet. The match began Sept. 29.

The U.S. Chess Federation is facilitating the match on its Web site at:

http://www.uschess.org/nasa2008

Chamitoff, a space station flight engineer orbiting 210 miles above Earth at five miles a second, is a chess aficionado. He brought a chess set with him when he arrived at the complex last June. Chamitoff has added Velcro to the chess pieces to keep them from floating away in the weightlessness of space. He has been playing long-distance chess with station control centers around the world. So far, he is undefeated.

For more information about the U.S. Chess Federation, visit:

http://www.uschess.org

For more about Chamitoff and the space station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

For NASA TV schedule updates, downlinks, and streaming video information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv