Mar 4 2016

From The Space Library

Release M16-021 NASA Deputy Administrator Visits Home State for Aviation, STEM Talks; Available for Media Interviews

NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman will return to her hometown of Helena, Montana March 5-12 to discuss next-generation aviation, meet with students at her alma mater high school and tour a local science museum.

At 6:30 p.m. MST on Saturday, March 5, Newman will speak at the 2016 state of Montana Aviation Conference about the cutting edge of aviation and aerospace in the 21st century. To cover this event, to be held at the Radisson Colonial Hotel at 2301 Colonial Drive, media should contact Jeff Wadekamper at 406-439-7365.

Newman will visit with students at her alma mater, Capital High School, at 9 a.m. on Monday, March 7. She will give a presentation on NASA’s work and hold a question and answer session. Media must contact Tim Kelly at tkelly@helenaschools.org or 406-324-2741 to cover this event. The school is located at 100 Valley Drive.

Finally, Exploration Works will host Newman from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 12. She will tour the museum and give a presentation on NASA’s Journey to Mars. The museum, located at 995 Carousel Way, will be open to the public for free during that time as part of Museum Day Live, an annual event hosted by Smithsonian magazine in which participating museums across the country open their doors to anyone presenting a Museum Day Live! Ticket. Media wishing to cover her museum visit should contact Julia Quigley at 406-457-1800 ext. 5 or juliaq@explorationworks.org.

During her trip, Newman also will be available for one-on-one media interviews. To schedule an interview, contact Allison Kelly at allison.k.kelly@nasa.gov or 202-358-3626.

Release M16-023 NASA to Provide Live Coverage, Interviews, and Social Media for March 8 Solar Eclipse

NASA, in partnership with the Exploratorium Science Center in San Francisco, will host activities around the March 8 total solar eclipse, including opportunities to talk with solar scientists and live coverage of the eclipse originating from Woleai island in Micronesia.

NASA will host a Facebook Q and A at 3 p.m. EST on Monday, March 7, with solar scientists from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, at:

https://www.facebook.com/nasamarshallcenter

At 1 p.m. on Tuesday, March 8, solar scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will participate in a Reddit Ask Me Anything.

NASA Television will begin coverage at 8 p.m. on March 8. The period of total eclipse, called totality, will occur from 8:38 to 8:42 p.m.

Twitter, Google+ and Facebook users will be able to join the conversation and ask questions using the hashtag #eclipse2016. The NASA Twitter account for the eclipse is @NASASunEarth. The public will be able to tag and share their images of the solar eclipse on the NASA Flickr group at: https://www.flickr.com/groups/eclipse2016/.

Media representatives may arrange interviews with solar scientists by contacting Dwayne Brown at dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov or 202-358-1726.

The total eclipse will be visible in parts of South East Asia and a partial eclipse will be visible in parts of Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, and America Samoa. An eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly between Earth and the sun. When the moon's shadow falls on Earth, observers within that shadow see the moon block a portion of the sun's light.