NASA Media Day to Update Space Exploration Program

HAMPTON, Va., July 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Media are invited to an Exploration Media Day at NASA’s Langley Research Center on July 18. Reporters will have the opportunity to tour facilities, see hardware being built, observe test demonstrations and pose questions to NASA space exploration managers.

The facilities and work support NASA’s Constellation Program, which is developing new spacecraft and support systems that will return Americans to the moon and later take them to Mars and other destinations in the solar system.

The day will begin with a 9 a.m. welcome and update by NASA Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Scott Horowitz, followed by overviews of Langley’s contributions to the Vision for Space Exploration. In addition to Horowitz, Langley-based briefers will include John Herrin, director of exploration and flight projects; Greg Stover, manager of the Launch Abort System Project Office; and Frank Peri, director of the Exploration Technology Development Program.

Tour highlights will include a visit to the site where full-scale mockups of the Orion crew exploration vehicle are dropped on various outdoor surfaces to simulate the crew’s return to Earth from the moon. Other stops include a wind tunnel where scale models of the Ares crew launch vehicle are being tested, the facility fabricating flight hardware for an Orion heat shield demonstration, a walk-in inflatable structure that is one concept for a lunar habitat, and the “spin tunnel” where a scale model Orion launch abort system model is being tested for aerodynamic stability.

For information about the Constellation Program, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/constellation.

NASA

CONTACT: Beth Dickey or Melissa Mathews, Headquarters, Washington,+1-202-358-2087, +1-202-358-1272, or Keith Henry, Langley Research Center,Hampton, Va., +1-757-864-6120, +1-757-344-7211, all of NASA

Web site: http://www.nasa.gov/