Sep 20 2016

From The Space Library

MEDIA ADVISORY M16-111 NASA to Hold Media Call on Evidence of Surprising Activity on Europa

NASA will host a teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 26, to present new findings from images captured by the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa.

Astronomers will present results from a unique Europa observing campaign that resulted in surprising evidence of activity that may be related to the presence of a subsurface ocean on Europa. Participants in the teleconference will be:

• Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington
• William Sparks, astronomer with the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore
• Britney Schmidt, assistant professor at the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta
• Jennifer Wiseman, senior Hubble project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland

MEDIA ADVISORY M16-112 NASA Opens Media Accreditation, New Target Dates Set for Orbital ATK Resupply Launch from Virginia

Media accreditation now is open, with new launch dates, for the next NASA-contracted cargo resupply flight launching from Virginia to the International Space Station.

Orbital ATK is targeting no earlier than Oct. 9-13 for the launch of its Cygnus spacecraft on an Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad-0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. A more specific date will be identified after completion of final operational milestones and technical reviews. Launch times range from 10:47 p.m. EDT Sunday, Oct. 9 to 9:13 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13.

International media without U.S. citizenship must have previously applied for credentials to cover the prelaunch and launch activities at Wallops. The application deadline is Friday, Sept. 30 for media who are U.S. citizens. Media should send their accreditation request to Keith Koehler at keith.a.koehler@nasa.gov. For questions about accreditation or additional information, contact Koehler by email or at 757-824-1579.

This will be the sixth planned cargo resupply mission by Orbital ATK under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract with the company and the fourth launch from Virginia. Cargo resupply by U.S. companies enables a national capability to deliver critical science research to the space station, significantly increasing NASA's ability to conduct new science investigations aboard the world’s only microgravity laboratory.