NASA Discusses Asteroid Initiative Progress at AIAA's Space 2013

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Sep 09, 2013, 06:39 ET

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Several NASA officials will update media Wednesday, Sept. 11, about the agency's progress on a proposed mission to find, capture, redirect and visit a near-Earth asteroid.

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The briefing will take place at 3 p.m. PDT (6 p.m. EDT) at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' Space 2013 Conference and Exposition at the San Diego Convention Center in California. Journalists attending Space 2013 may attend the briefing in person. Reporters also may join by teleconference.

The participants are:

-- William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator, NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Directorate, Washington

-- Paul Chodas, Senior Scientist, NASA Near-Earth Object Program Office

-- Brian Muirhead, chief engineer, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

-- James Reuther, deputy associate administrator for programs, NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, Washington

-- Steve Stich, deputy director of engineering, NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:
http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

Journalists who want to take part in the teleconference should contact Rachel Kraft at [email protected] for dial-in information by noon PDT Wednesday.

The participants of the teleconference also are members of a Space 2013 panel, "NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission," which will air on NASA Television beginning at noon PDT (3 p.m. EDT) Wednesday.

NASA's asteroid initiative continues to take shape. Recently, the agency chose 96 ideas it regards as most promising from more than 400 submitted in response to its June request for information about protecting Earth from asteroids and finding an asteroid humans can explore. Those ideas will be presented at NASA's Asteroid Initiative Idea Synthesis Workshop from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information on NASA's asteroid initiative, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidinitiative

SOURCE NASA