Apr 18 2018

From The Space Library

MEDIA ADVISORY M18-063 NASA TV Updates Launch Coverage for Planet-Hunting Mission TESS

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) now is scheduled for launch at 6:51 p.m. EDT today, Wednesday, April 18, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The launch originally had been scheduled for April 16.

Live NASA TV launch coverage begins at 6:30 p.m., and will be broadcast on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

The deadline for media accreditation for this launch has passed. For information about media accreditation, contact ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov.

With TESS, NASA is taking the next step in the search for planets outside of our solar system. The mission will find exoplanets that periodically block part of the light from their host stars, events called transits. TESS will survey the nearest and brightest stars for two years to search for transiting exoplanets.

MEDIA ADVISORY M18-062 NASA to Discuss Demonstration of New Space Exploration Power System

Media are invited to attend a news conference at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland at 9:15 a.m. EDT Wednesday, May 2, to discuss a recent experiment to demonstrate a new nuclear reactor power system designed for space.

News conference audio and presentation slides will stream live on NASA’s website.

Kilopower could provide safe, efficient and plentiful energy for future robotic and human space exploration missions to the Moon, Mars and destinations beyond. The experiment was conducted November 2017 through March 2018 at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS).

News conference participants include:

• James Reuter, acting associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate
• Janet Kavandi, Glenn center director
• Patrick Cahalane, principal deputy associate administrator for Safety, Infrastructure and Operations at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• Marc Gibson, Kilopower lead engineer at Glenn
• Dave Poston, chief reactor designer at NNSA’s Los Alamos National Laboratory

Following the news conference, media will have the opportunity to tour the following facilities at Glenn:

• Stirling Research Lab, where early Kilopower-related tests were conducted
• Electric Propulsion Lab, used to test high-power solar electric propulsion that will be used to develop the power and propulsion element of NASA’s lunar outpost
• Simulated Lunar Operations Lab, where NASA develops planetary rover tires and tools for in-situ resource utilization, a process for generating water, oxygen, and other products using space-based resources

Media interested in participating in the event, in person or by phone, must send their name, media affiliation and phone number to Jan Wittry at jan.m.wittry-1@nasa.gov no later than noon Tuesday, May 1.

Media and the public also can ask questions during the briefing on social media using #AskNASA.

Supporting images and video will be available online at: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/kilopower

The Kilopower project is part of NASA’s Game Changing Development program and is led by Glenn, in partnership with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NNSS and Y-12 National Security Complex.