Bill Dowdell, NASA Kennedy Space Center's deputy director for International Space Station and spacecraft processing, is available for satellite interviews from 6 to 9 a.m. EST on Friday, Jan. 22.

Dowdell will conduct the interviews from Launch Pad 39A, just outside space shuttle Endeavour's payload bay. Tranquility, the next pressurized element bound for the station, will be placed inside Endeavour on 39A for its targeted launch on Sunday, Feb. 7.

Dowdell has worked for NASA since 1989, beginning his career in the Space Shuttle Program as an agency and orbiter test director. He is NASA's manager responsible for giving the "go" to launch the station payload and the readiness of the orbiting laboratory to receive and carry out its installation. Dowdell holds a bachelor's degree in biology from Fairmont State College in Fairmont, W.Va., and a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from West Virginia University in Morgantown.

To schedule interviews, reporters should contact Tracy Young at 321-867-9284 or by e-mail to tracy.g.young@nasa.gov by noon Thursday, Jan. 21.

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