Jun 8 2010
From The Space Library
MEDIA ADVISORY: M10-067
NASA INVITES REPORTERS TO NEXT SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCH AND TWEETUPS
WASHINGTON -- At the next space shuttle launch, NASA will host 150 people from around the world and provide them with a behind-the-scenes perspective to share with their followers via the social networking service Twitter. Reporters are invited to cover the NASA Tweetup and the liftoff of shuttle Atlantis, targeted for 2:20 p.m. EDT on May 14, from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. To cover the launch on-site, U.S. reporters must request credentials from Kennedy by May 2. Media representatives should submit requests online at: https://media.ksc.nasa.gov Participants at the NASA Tweetup on May 13 and 14 will meet with shuttle technicians, managers, engineers and astronauts, take a tour of Kennedy and view the shuttle launch. People are expected to attend from more than 30 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Netherlands, New Zealand and England. Attendees were randomly selected from more than 1,000 online registrations. To follow the Tweetup participants as they experience the prelaunch events and shuttle liftoff, visit: http://twitter.com/nasatweetup/sts-132-launch NASA will host an additional Tweetup May 19 at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston to provide a different perspective of shuttle mission operations. At Johnson, participants will tour the center, view mission control and astronauts' training facilities, and speak with managers, flight directors, trainers and astronauts. Registration to participate in the Johnson Tweetup opens at 10 a.m. Friday, April 30, and closes at 10 a.m. Monday, May 3. To register, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/tweetup To follow NASA on Twitter, visit: http://www.twitter.com/nasa
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RELEASE: 10-030
NASA EXTENDS CASSINI'S TOUR OF SATURN, CONTINUING INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION FOR WORLD CLASS SCIENCE
WASHINGTON -- NASA will extend the international Cassini-Huygens mission to explore Saturn and its moons to 2017. The agency's fiscal year 2011 budget provides a $60 million per year extension for continued study of the ringed planet. "This is a mission that never stops providing us surprising scientific results and showing us eye popping new vistas, said Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The historic traveler's stunning discoveries and images have revolutionized our knowledge of Saturn and its moons. Cassini launched in October 1997 with the European Space Agency's Huygens probe. The spacecraft arrived at Saturn in 2004. The probe was equipped with six instruments to study Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Cassini's 12 instruments have returned a daily stream of data from Saturn's system for nearly six years. The project was scheduled to end in 2008, but the mission received a 27-month extension to Sept. 2010. "The extension presents a unique opportunity to follow seasonal changes of an outer planet system all the way from its winter to its summer, said Bob Pappalardo, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Some of Cassini's most exciting discoveries still lie ahead. This second extension, called the Cassini Solstice Mission, enables scientists to study seasonal and other long-term weather changes on the planet and its moons. Cassini arrived just after Saturn's northern winter solstice, and this extension continues until a few months past northern summer solstice in May 2017. The northern summer solstice marks the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and winter in the southern hemisphere. A complete seasonal period on Saturn has never been studied at this level of detail. The Solstice mission schedule calls for an additional 155 orbits around the planet, 54 flybys of Titan and 11 flybys of the icy moon Enceladus. The mission extension also will allow scientists to continue observations of Saturn's rings and the magnetic bubble around the planet known as the magnetosphere. The spacecraft will make repeated dives between Saturn and its rings to obtain in depth knowledge of the gas giant. During these dives, the spacecraft will study the internal structure of Saturn, its magnetic fluctuations and ring mass. The mission will be evaluated periodically to ensure the spacecraft has the ability to achieve new science objectives for the entire extension. "The spacecraft is doing remarkably well, even as we endure the expected effects of age after logging 2.6 billion miles on its odometer, said Bob Mitchell, Cassini program manager at JPL. This extension is important because there is so much still to be learned at Saturn. The planet is full of secrets, and it doesn't give them up easily. Cassini's travel scrapbook includes more than 210,000 images; information gathered during more than 125 revolutions around Saturn; 67 flybys of Titan and eight close flybys of Enceladus. Cassini has revealed unexpected details in the planet's signature rings, and observations of Titan have given scientists a glimpse of what Earth might have been like before life evolved. Scientists hope to learn answers to many questions that have developed during the course of the mission, including why Saturn seems to have an inconsistent rotation rate and how a probable subsurface ocean feeds the Enceladus' jets. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. More Cassini information is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini
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MEDIA ADVISORY: M10-070
NASA ANNOUNCES SHUTTLE PRELAUNCH EVENTS AND COUNTDOWN DETAILS
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA has set the schedule for news conferences, events and operating hours at the Kennedy Space Center press site for space shuttle Atlantis' upcoming launch. Atlantis' STS-132 mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to lift off at 2:20 p.m. EDT on Friday, May 14. The mission is the last scheduled flight for Atlantis. Including STS-132, there are only three remaining shuttle missions scheduled before the fleet is retired. Detailed lists of countdown milestones, news briefing times and participants, and hours of operation for Kennedy's news center and media credentialing office are available at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/news A NASA blog will provide countdown updates beginning at 9 a.m. on May 14. Originating from Kennedy, the blog is the definitive Internet source for information leading up to launch. During the mission, visitors to NASA's shuttle website can read about the crew's progress and watch the mission's three spacewalks live. As Atlantis' flight concludes, the NASA blog will detail the spacecraft's return to Earth. For NASA's launch blog and continuous mission updates, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle NASA will make live updates to the NASA News Twitter feed throughout the shuttle launch countdown, mission and landing. To access the feed, go to the NASA.gov homepage or visit: http://www.twitter.com/nasa For NASA Television streaming video, scheduling and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
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MEDIA ADVISORY: M10-146
NASA INVITES REPORTERS TO NEXT SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCH AND TWEETUP
WASHINGTON -- At the next space shuttle launch, NASA will host 150 people from around the world and provide them with a behind-the-scenes perspective to share with their followers via the social networking service Twitter. Reporters are invited to cover the NASA Tweetup and the liftoff of shuttle Discovery, targeted for 4:40 p.m. EDT on Nov. 1, from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. To cover the launch on-site, U.S. reporters must request credentials from Kennedy by Wednesday, Oct. 20. Media representatives should submit requests online at: https://media.ksc.nasa.gov Participants at the NASA Tweetup on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 will tour Kennedy and meet with shuttle technicians, managers, engineers and astronauts. They also will get a demonstration of Robonaut, a human-like robot similar to the one that will be delivered to the space station with this mission. The Tweetup culminates with the viewing of the shuttle launch. At 2:15 p.m. EDT on Oct. 31, NASA will use UStream to broadcast an hour of the Tweetup program at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-television People are expected to attend from 38 states, the District of Columbia, Australia, Canada, Chile, England, Japan, Latvia, New Zealand and the Philippines. Tweetup participants are coming from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. Attendees were selected randomly from more than 2,700 online registrations. Reporters interested in interviewing Tweetup attendees should contact Stephanie Schierholz at 202-358-4997 or stephanie.schierholz@nasa.gov . To follow the Tweetup participants on Twitter as they experience the prelaunch events and shuttle liftoff, follow the #NASATweetup hashtag and the list of attendees at: http://twitter.com/nasatweetup/sts-133-launch NASA also has a website where anyone -- including those not on Twitter -- can follow along with the events: http://buzzroom.nasa.gov To follow NASA on Twitter, visit: http://www.twitter.com/NASA
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MEDIA ADVISORY: M10-117
FULL-SCALE NASA AND ATK SOLID ROCKET MOTOR TEST SET FOR AUG. 31
WASHINGTON -- NASA and Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) will conduct a full-scale test of a five-segment, first-stage solid rocket motor at 11:27 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, Aug. 31. The test at the ATK Aerospace Systems test facility in Promontory, Utah will assess motor performance at low temperatures. The static firing of the solid motor, designated Development Motor-2, will last two minutes. This is the most heavily instrumented solid rocket motor in NASA history, with 53 test objectives that will be measured using more than 760 instruments. The motor was built as an element of NASA's Constellation Program. It is the largest and most powerful solid rocket motor designed for flight and is highly transferable to future heavy-lift vehicle designs. To attend the test, U.S. journalists must register with ATK by Aug. 27. For information and to request credentials, contact ATK's Trina Patterson at 801-699-0943. NASA Television's live coverage of the test will begin at 11:22 a.m. EDT and will broadcast a news conference at 12:30 p.m. EDT with representatives from NASA and ATK. To participate by teleconference, reporters should e-mail Michael Braukus, michael.j.braukus@nasa.gov for dial-in information. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv The motor design is almost identical to another development motor tested last year. However, DM-2 will be cooled to 40 degrees Fahrenheit for this full-duration firing to verify the performance of new materials. After more testing, the first-stage solid rocket motor will be certified to fly at temperature ranges between 40-90 degrees Fahrenheit. The solid rocket motor is managed by the Ares Projects Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. ATK Space Systems is the prime contractor.
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MEDIA ADVISORY: M10-144
NASA HOSTS MEDIA TELECON FEATURING RESULTS OF MOON MISSION IMPACT
The Science journal has embargoed information until 2 p.m. EDT on Oct. 21 WASHINGTON -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 21, to discuss additional findings from NASA's Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, missions. The results will be featured in six papers published in the Oct. 22 issue of the journal Science. The journal's embargo on these results will be lifted at the start of the telecon. The briefing will focus on the data from: --The Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment which measures surface and subsurface temperatures from orbit. -- The Lyman Alpha Mapping Project which is mapping the entire lunar surface in the far ultraviolet spectrum. -- The Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector which creates high-resolution maps of hydrogen distribution and gathers information about the neutron component of the lunar radiation environment. The panelists are: -- Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist, Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington -- Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principal investigator, NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. -- David Paige, Diviner instrument principal investigator, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) -- Igor Mitrofanov, Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector principal investigator, Institute for Space Research, Moscow -- Peter Schultz, professor of geological sciences, Brown University, Providence, R.I. and LCROSS science team member -- Paul Hayne, graduate student at UCLA and Diviner team member -- Randy Gladstone, Lyman--Alpha Mapping Project deputy principal investigator, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio -- Richard Vondrak, LRO project scientist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. To participate in the teleconference, reporters should contact Michael Braukus at michael.j.braukus@nasa.gov or at 202-358-1979. Requests must include media affiliation and telephone number. To view supporting information available at the start of the teleconference, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/lcross Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio
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