Feb 4 2010
From The Space Library
MEDIA ADVISORY: M10-128
NASA SCIENTISTS TALK ABOUT ASTEROIDS PASSING NEAR EARTH WEDNESDAY
WASHINGTON -- Two asteroids will pass within the moon's distance from Earth on Wednesday, Sept. 8. NASA scientists will be available for satellite interviews Tuesday, Sept. 7, and Wednesday morning to discuss these near- Earth objects. The Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Ariz., discovered both objects on Sunday, Sept. 5. The Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., reviewed the observations and determined the preliminary orbits. The center's personnel concluded both objects would pass within the distance of the moon to Earth, approximately 240,000 miles. The asteroids should be visible with moderate-sized amateur telescopes. Neither asteroid will hit Earth. Asteroid 2010 RX30 is estimated to be approximately 32 to 65 feet in size and will pass within approximately 154,000 miles of Earth at 5:51 a.m. EDT Wednesday. The second object, 2010 RF12, estimated to be 20 to 46 feet in size, will pass within approximately 49,000 miles at 5:12 p.m. EDT. NASA scientists are available for interviews about the asteroids via NASA Television, Skype or telephone. TV producers can call 818-393-5467 to schedule afternoon interviews and 202-358-1726 to schedule morning interviews. For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
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CONTRACT RELEASE: C10-070
NASA AWARDS KENNEDY SPACE CENTER ENGINEERING SERVICES CONTRACT
WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected QinetiQ North America of McLean, Va., to provide engineering services and products at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The new-cost-plus award fee contract begins on March 1, 2011. It has a five-year base period with three, one-year option periods. The maximum potential value of the contract is approximately $1.959 billion. Under the contract, QinetiQ North America will support an institutional capability for the engineering development of ground systems and equipment for handling, testing, servicing and other ground processing of launch vehicles, spacecraft and payloads. The contract provides spaceflight systems engineering and analysis of launch vehicle and spacecraft-payload systems and subsystems. It also performs science and technology development to address Kennedy and the agency's future operational needs. Additionally, it will provide maintenance and operations at assigned laboratories, developmental shops and crosscutting technical services.
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MEDIA ADVISORY: M10-152
NASA HOSTS MEDIA TELECONFERENCE TO PREVIEW COMET ENCOUNTER
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA is hosting a media teleconference at 11 a.m. PDT on Tuesday Oct. 26, to preview the EPOXI mission's upcoming flyby and study of the comet Hartley 2. The Nov. 4 encounter will provide the best, extended view of a comet in history. The EPOXI mission, which uses the already in-flight Deep Impact spacecraft, will pass within approximately 435 miles of the half-mile-wide comet. The spacecraft will use two telescopes with digital color cameras and an infrared spectrometer to examine the dusty, icy body in detail during the flyby. To participate in the teleconference, reporters must contact the media relations office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., at 818-354-5011 to obtain the call-in number and passcode. Teleconference participants are: -- Michael A'Hearn, principal investigator, University of Maryland in College Park, Md. -- Tim Larson, EPOXI project manager, Jet Propulsion Laboratory -- Amy Walsh, EPOXI systems engineering lead, Ball Aerospace & Technologies in Boulder, Colo. -- Malcolm Hartley, astronomer and discoverer of Hartley 2 Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio The term EPOXI is a combination of the names for the two extended mission components: the Extrasolar Planet Observations and Characterization (EPOCh), and the Hartley 2 flyby, called the Deep Impact eXtended Investigation (DIXI).
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