March 10, 2011 Dwayne Brown Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726 dwayne.c.brown@xxxxxxxx Paulette Campbell Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md. 240-228-6792 paulette.campbell@xxxxxxxxxx MEDIA ADVISORY: M11-052 NASA MEDIA TELECON PREVIEWS FIRST SPACECRAFT TO ORBIT MERCURY WASHINGTON -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, March 15, to discuss the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, or MESSENGER, will enter orbit at approximately 9 p.m. EDT on Thursday, March 17. The spacecraft has conducted more than a dozen laps through the inner solar system for the past 6.6 years. Media teleconference participants are: -- Andy Calloway, MESSENGER mission operations manager, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. -- Carl Engelbrecht, MESSENGER propulsion subsystem lead, APL -- Sean Solomon, MESSENGER principal investigator, Carnegie Institution of Washington To participate and to receive dial-in instructions, reporters must contact Steve Cole at stephen.e.cole@xxxxxxxx or 202-358-0918. During the briefing, related images will be available at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/media/MOITelecon.html Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live on NASA's website at: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio At 10 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 16, NASA experts will hold a one-hour, live Web chat to answer questions about MESSENGER's orbital insertion. The chat window will open at 9:30 a.m. To participate, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/messenger_chat.html For more information about the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/messenger -end- To subscribe to the list, send a message to: hqnews-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To remove your address from the list, send a message to: hqnews-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
