NASA Astronaut Leland Melvin at 2010 Pro Football Hall of Fame Festival

CLEVELAND — NASA astronaut Leland Melvin will participate in the Timken Grand Parade on Saturday Aug. 7, during the 2010 Pro Football Hall of Fame Festival in Canton, Ohio. Melvin will ride on a NASA float depicting space shuttle Discovery.

Additionally, at 2:30 p.m. on Friday Aug. 6, Melvin and Hall of Famer Jack Youngblood, defensive end with the Los Angeles Rams enshrined in the class of 2001, will speak to and meet and greet with 82 summer day camp students at Meyers Lake YMCA in Canton. This is one of several Pro Football Hall of Fame Ambassador events going on around the city that day.

Reporters interested in attending the event at the YMCA may contact Jeff Mann via phone at 330-454-9018 or e-mail at jmann@ymcastark.org.

Melvin is a veteran of two space shuttle flights to the International Space Station and has logged over 565 hours in space. Prior to his selection as an astronaut, he was chosen by the Detroit Lions in the eleventh round of the 1986 National Football League college draft and participated in the Toronto Argonauts and Dallas Cowboys football training camps.

Melvin is currently on assignment at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., in support of the Summer of Innovation program. In doing so, he has traveled across the country, engaging thousands of students and teachers in the excitement of space exploration and inspiring them to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The Summer of Innovation initiative is a multi-faceted, intensive middle school science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, program. It is designed to improve STEM teaching and learning in partnership with federal agencies, non profits, industry, and academic and information organizations.

For further information on the Summer of Innovation program, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/soi

For Leland Melvin’s biography, visit: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/melvin.html