Media Offered Behind-the-Scenes Tours of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center Oct. 27

October 2, 2014

Media Offered Behind-the-Scenes Tours of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center Oct. 27

As NASA moves closer to launching new human exploration missions to an asteroid and on to Mars, media are invited to learn more about the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama during a special media day Mon. Oct. 27.

You’ll go behind-the-scenes to photograph several Marshall facilities and hear from NASA experts essential to the country's space exploration efforts today aboard the International Space Station and developing the Space Launch System, an advanced heavy-lift launch vehicle, which will provide an entirely new capability for science and exploration beyond Earth’s orbit.

Media will meet and have the opportunity to interview key Marshall leaders and experts including Marshall Center Director Patrick Scheuermann; Flight Programs & Partnerships Manager Jody Singer, and Science & Technology Manager Daniel Schumacher. Space Launch System Program Manager Todd May will address launch vehicle development progress joined by Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer from Johnson Space Center in Houston and Ground Systems and Operations Program Manager Mike Bolger from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Marshall technical experts, engineers and scientists also will be available to discuss recent technological advances, innovations and discoveries.

Highlights of your visit:

The day will begin at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Marshall's official visitor center, where the Marshall Technology Exposition will be taking place featuring 30 exhibits plus several technology- and partnership- focused panel discussions that invite government, industry and academia to partner with NASA in developing technologies that will enable deep space exploration.
Ask questions during Destination Station: ISS Technology Forum -- a live, interactive panel discussion about technologies to enable deep space exploration that are being testing on the International Space Station, broadcast on NASA-TV, featuring agency technologists. The forum, from 8:45 a.m. to 10 a.m. CDT, will discuss living and working in space and the hundreds of research activities on the state-of-the-art orbiting laboratory.
Visit Marshall's Payload Operations Integration Center -- where flight controllers coordinate and assist orbiting astronauts around the clock with activities and scientific investigations on the space station in a room that complements NASA's Mission Control in Houston.
Take a walk through the Laboratory Training Complex -- a full-scale model of the space station's Destiny module, used by flight controllers to better understand the real-life constraints of living and working in the orbiting laboratory.
Have lunch with Marshall scientists and technologists to learn about the latest projects in development to reveal new discoveries and take us to new destinations in space.
Take a guided tour through Marshall’s Propulsion Research & Development Laboratory and interview the engineers and programmers who are designing and testing the SLS’s integrated flight hardware and software.
Attend briefings on advanced manufacturing techniques being developed at Marshall, including 3-D printing and NASA's new composite material cryogenic fuel tanks -- revolutionary technologies that could provide a significant cost savings when planning and executing missions to space.
The day will end with a mission preview briefing about Orion’s first flight, targeted for December 2014, from SLS, Orion and GSDO program managers. The test flight paves the way for deep space missions that will take humans beyond Earth orbit, to explore asteroids and ultimately to Mars.

News media interested in registering for media day should contact Jennifer Stanfield in the Marshall Public & Employee Communications Office at 256-544-0034 or jennifer.stanfield@xxxxxxxx by 4 p.m. CDT, Oct. 21. Pre-registration is required and media should arrive at the Davidson Center at the USSRC at One Tranquility Base in Huntsville no later than 8 a.m. CDT, Oct. 27 for check-in and badging.

The media day coincides with the 7^th Annual Von Braun Memorial Symposium at the University of Alabama in Huntsville Oct. 27-29. The event features a full slate of agency representatives including NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, various speakers from industry and academia, and special guest Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general of the European Space Agency.

The symposium is open to the media. To register, please visit the symposium website:

www.astronautical.org

For more information on the Marshall Space Flight Center, visit us on the Web:

www.nasa.gov/marshall

To follow us on social media, visit:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/NASA_Marshall
Facebook: www.facebook.com/NASAMarshallCenter
Instagram: www.instagram.com/NASA_Marshall
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/

Jennifer Stanfield
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
jennifer.stanfield@xxxxxxxx

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center news releases and other information are available automatically by sending an e-mail message with the subject line subscribe to msfc-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

To unsubscribe, send an e-mail message with the subject line unsubscribe to msfc-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

› Back To Top