NASA Invites Media to 53rd Annual Robert Goddard Memorial Symposium

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Mar 05, 2015, 03:06 ET

GREENBELT, Md., March 5, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Media are invited to hear leaders in the science and engineering world speak at the 53rd Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium at the Greenbelt Marriott, 6400 Ivy Lane, Greenbelt, Maryland on March 11 and 12, 2015.

This year's theme "On the Cusp: What's Next?" will emphasize NASA's exciting projects and programs in the coming years. Supported by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland and sponsored by the American Astronautical Society, this symposium brings together leaders in science, engineering, and technology to discuss many of the common and unique challenges and possibilities that might lie ahead.

"Once again this year, the Goddard Memorial Symposium will attract leaders in aerospace technologies and the space sciences, and from government agencies — NASA, NOAA, and DARPA — to present and discuss the most important current activities in space exploration and what we can expect in the years ahead," said Harley Thronson, chairman of the symposium's planning committee at NASA Goddard. "We are on the cusp of an exciting second half of this decade,"

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will provide a keynote address, describing NASA's ambitious vision for space exploration, at 9:15 a.m. ET on Wednesday, March 11.

He will be preceded by Bob Rogers, former Disney Imagineer and founder of BRC Imagination Arts, Burbank, California, who will open the first day of the conference by engaging participants with a vision for NASA's future.

France Cordova, National Science Foundation director and former president of Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana, will be the keynote speaker on the second day.

Other speakers include John Grunsfeld associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, and senior representatives of the three other NASA Headquarters Directorates, as well as David Miller, NASA chief technologist, Jim Green, director, NASA Headquarters Planetary Science Division, and Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN mission principal investigator, University of Colorado, Boulder.

Media interested in arranging interviews with NASA speakers should contact Rho Christensen in advance at 301-286-6836 or [email protected]

For details of the Symposium, please visit: http://astronautical.org/

For more information about NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/goddard

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SOURCE NASA