Media Invited to Tour Ames Research Center with NASA Administrator

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Mar 14, 2014, 10:14 ET

WASHINGTON, March 14, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will visit the agency's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., on the afternoon of Monday, March 17, for demonstrations of and briefings on select aeronautics and space research activities performed at the center.

Media are invited to attend Bolden's tour of the laboratory used for research on volleyball-sized free-flying satellites called Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites, or SPHERES, which are currently aboard the International Space Station. SPHERES are used on the space station to conduct experiments in space robotics, as well as spacecraft guidance navigation, control and docking. The satellites provide opportunities to affordably test a wide range of hardware and software.

Interested media may also attend Bolden's tour of the center's high-fidelity airport control tower simulator, dubbed Future Flight Central, where the administrator will be briefed on research underway in support of next-generation air traffic management. NASA is collaborating with the Federal Aviation Administration and industry partners to develop several advanced automation tools that provide air traffic controllers, pilots, and other airspace users with more accurate real-time information about the nation's air traffic flow, weather and routing.

Following the tours and briefings, Bolden will be available for a question-and-answer session with attending media. News media interested in attending should contact Sharon Lozano at [email protected] or 650-604-4789 by 9 a.m. PDT Monday, March 17, to register.

Registered news media may arrive as early as 11:45 a.m. March 17 at the Visitor Badging Office located at the main gate. Government-issued photo ID is required to obtain a visitor badge. News media will be escorted to and from the event Media arriving early will have an opportunity to interview SPHERES experts before Bolden's arrival. All media must be at the main gate by 12:30 p.m.

For more information about Ames, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ames

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SOURCE NASA