The President and Mrs. George W. Bush will join NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe Tuesday afternoon in paying tribute to the brave heroes of the Space Shuttle Columbia crew during a special memorial service at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The ceremony to honor NASA astronauts Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark, and Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon is scheduled to begin at 12:45 p.m. EST in the Central Mall area behind Building One. Gates are scheduled to open at 10 a.m.

This is a private ceremony for family members, friends, and invited guests, along with NASA employees and contractors. The service will be carried live on NASA Television and available on the Internet at www.nasa.gov.

Media access to the memorial service will be restricted with television and still photography access provided on a pool basis.

NASA Television is available on AMC-2, transponder 9C, C-Band, located at 85 degrees West longitude. The frequency is 3880.0 MHz. Polarization is vertical and audio is monaural at 6.8 MHz.