[meteorite-list] NASA Hosts Briefing To Preview Dawn Spacecraft Visit of Vesta

[Ron Baalke]

June 20, 2011

Dwayne Brown 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1726 
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 

Jia-Rui Cook/Priscilla Vega                     
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 
818-354-0850/1357 
jccook at jpl.nasa.gov/priscilla.r.vega at jpl.nasa.gov   


MEDIA ADVISORY: M11-126

NASA HOSTS BRIEFING TO PREVIEW SPACECRAFT VISIT OF LARGE ASTEROID

WASHINGTON -- NASA will host a news briefing at 2 p.m. EDT on 
Thursday, June 23, to discuss the Dawn spacecraft's year-long visit 
to the large asteroid Vesta. The mission expects to go into orbit 
around Vesta on July 16 and begin gathering science data in early 
August. The briefing will be held in the NASA Headquarters auditorium 
located at 300 E St. SW, in Washington. NASA Television and the 
agency's website will broadcast the event. 

Dawn's visit to Vesta will be the first prolonged encounter to a main 
belt asteroid and the first trip to a protoplanet, or large body that 
almost became a planet. Observations will help understand the 
earliest chapter of our solar system's history. 

The briefing panelists are: 
-- W. James Adams, deputy director, Planetary Science Directorate, 
NASA Headquarters 
-- Robert Mase, Dawn project manager, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 
Pasadena, Calif. 
-- Christopher Russell, Dawn principal investigator, UCLA 
-- Carol Raymond, Dawn deputy principal investigator, JPL 

Reporters may attend the event, ask questions from participating NASA 
locations or join by phone. To obtain dial-in information, 
journalists must e-mail Dwayne Brown at dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov with 
their name, media affiliation and work telephone number by 11 a.m. on 
June 23. 

For more information about Dawn, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/dawn 

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv 

The briefing also will be carried live on Ustream, with a live chat 
box available, at 

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2   

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