CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Jan. 4, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA will hold a status update news conference to discuss the progress of the agency's Commercial Crew Program (CCP) at 2 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Jan. 9. The briefing from Kennedy Space Center in Florida will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website.

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Through CCP, NASA is facilitating the development of U.S. commercial crew space transportation capabilities to achieve safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from low-Earth orbit for potential future government and commercial customers.

Briefing participants are:

-- Phil McAlister, NASA Commercial Spaceflight Development director
-- Ed Mango, NASA Commercial Crew Program manager
-- Rob Meyerson, Blue Origin president and program manager
-- John Mulholland, The Boeing Co. Commercial Programs Space Exploration vice president and program manager
-- Mark Sirangelo, Sierra Nevada Corp vice president and SNC Space Systems chairman
-- Garrett Reisman, Space Exploration Technologies Commercial Crew project manager

To participate by phone, media representatives must call the newsroom at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston at 281-483-5111, 15 minutes before the briefing begins. Priority will be given to journalists participating in person. Questions by phone will be taken as time permits. To participate via Twitter, journalists should use the hashtag #askNASA.

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about NASA's Commercial Crew Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

SOURCE NASA