[meteorite-list] NASA to hold Sept. 17 Briefing on MAVEN Mars Orbit Insertion, Events Coverage

[Ron Baalke]

September 12, 2014
     
NASA to hold Sept. 17 Briefing on MAVEN Mars Orbit Insertion, Events Coverage

NASA will host a televised media briefing at 1 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 
to outline activities around the Sunday, Sept. 21 orbital insertion at Mars 
of the agency's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft. 
The briefing will be held in NASA's Headquarters' auditorium, 300 E 
Street SW in Washington, and broadcast live on NASA Television and the 
agency's website.

MAVEN is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the upper atmosphere of 
Mars. The mission's goal is to determine how the loss of atmospheric gas to 
space played a role in changing the Martian climate through time.

Panelists include:
-- Lisa May, lead program executive, Mars Exploration Program, NASA 
Headquarters, Washington
--Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator, Laboratory for Atmospheric and 
Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder
--David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager, NASA's Goddard Space Flight 
Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
-- Guy Beutelschies, Lockheed Martin MAVEN program manager, Lockheed Martin 
Space Systems Company, Littleton, Colorado

Media can ask questions from participating NASA locations, or by telephone. 
To participate by phone, reporters must contact Dwayne Brown at 202-358-1726 
or dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov  and provide their media affiliation by noon 
Wednesday. The public also may ask questions on social media using the 
hashtag #askNASA.

NASA Television Orbit Insertion Coverage

NASA Television coverage of the MAVEN orbit insertion begins at 9:30 p.m. EDT 
and concludes at 10:45 p.m. on Sept. 21. The orbital insertion is targeted to 
begin at 9:37 p.m. The program will be carried on NTV-1 (Public) and NTV-2 
(Education). A clean feed for media will be carried on NTV-3 (Media Channel). 
The media feed will contain views of the MAVEN Mission Support Area only, 
without graphics or interviews.

A post-orbit insertion news conference is targeted for about two hours after 
orbital insertion.

For NASA Television downlink information, scheduling information and 
streaming video, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

Media Accreditation 

Media are invited to attend the orbit insertion event Sept 21 at Lockheed 
Martin Space Systems in Littleton, Colorado. Attending media must be U.S. 
citizens and bring government-issued photo identification. For accreditation, 
contact Gary Napier, 303-971-4012, gary.p.napier at lmco.com by 5 p.m. MDT 
Thursday, Sept. 18.

Social Media

Members of the public are invited to follow the day-long NASA Social event on 
Sept. 21 by following the hashtags #MAVEN and #JourneytoMars on social media 
channels such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and others. Twitter postings 
throughout the day will come from official accounts @NASA, @MAVEN2Mars and 
@NASASocial.

MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and 
Space Physics at University of Colorado, Boulder. The university provided two 
science instruments and leads science operations and education and public 
outreach for the mission.

Goddard manages the project and provided two of the science instruments for 
the mission. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft and is responsible for 
mission operations. The University of California at Berkeley's Space Sciences 
Laboratory provided four science instruments for the mission. NASA's Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California provides navigation support, 
Deep Space Network support, and Electra telecommunications relay hardware and 
operations.

For more about the MAVEN mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/maven

-end-

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

Nancy Neal-Jones/Elizabeth Zubritsky
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
301-286-0039/301-614-5438
nancy.n.jones at nasa.gov / elizabeth.a.zubritsky at nasa.gov