 |  | | | | Media Briefing For NASA'S Space Infrared Telescope Facility
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Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-1727)
Jane Platt
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-0880)
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March 20, 2003 |
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NOTE TO EDITORS: n03-032
Artistic rendering of NASA's Space
Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF).
NASA has scheduled a media briefing to discuss the upcoming launch
and mission of the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF).
The briefing is at 11 a.m. EST, Tuesday, March 25 in the James Webb
Auditorium, NASA Headquarters, 300 E Street SW, Washington. The
pre-launch briefing will consist of two panels; the first will present
a mission overview and the second a science overview.
The briefing will be carried live on NASA Television, with two-way
question-and-answer capability for reporters at participating NASA
centers.
The Space Infrared Telescope Facility is scheduled for launch Friday,
April 18, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., for a minimum
two-and-one-half-year mission. It is the final of NASA's Great Observatories,
which also include the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray
Observatory and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.
Participants in the mission briefing:
Lia La Piana, Space Infrared Telescope Facility program
executive, NASA Headquarters, Washington
David Gallagher, Space Infrared Telescope Facility project manager,
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.
Robert Wilson, Space Infrared Telescope Facility mission operations
manager, JPL
Mark Garcia, Space Infrared Telescope Facility mission engineer,
JPL
Suzanne Dodd, manager, Space Infrared Telescope Facility Science
Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.
Participants in the science briefing:
Dr. Anne Kinney, director, astronomy/physics division, NASA Headquarters
Dr. Michael Werner, Space Infrared Telescope Facility project
scientist, JPL
Dr. Alyssa Goodman, professor, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.
Dr. Belinda Wilkes, professor, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics
Dr. Garth Illingworth, professor, University of California, Santa
Cruz, Calif.
Dr. George Rieke, professor and principal investigator for the
multiband-imaging photometer science instrument, University of Arizona,
Tucson, Ariz.
The telescope's unprecedented infrared sensitivity will allow astronomers
to investigate what they affectionately call "the old, the
cold and the dirty," referring to the coldest, oldest and most
dust-obscured objects and processes in the universe.
The observatory's capability for observing low-temperature objects
will also aid in the search for planetary systems in formation,
some of which may nurture Earth-like planets.
NASA TV is broadcast on satellite AMC-2, transponder 9C, C band,
and 85 degrees west longitude. The frequency is 3880.0 MHz. Polarization
is vertical and audio is monaural at 6.8 MHz.
The briefing will also be web cast live at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/webcast/sirtf/30.cfm
For more information about the Space Infrared Telescope Facility
on the Internet, visit:
http://sirtf.caltech.edu/
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