NASA March 13 NuSTAR Media Briefing Postponed

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Mar 12, 2012, 01:49 ET

WASHINGTON, March 12, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Tuesday, March 13, media briefing to discuss the upcoming launch of the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) has been postponed. The spacecraft will lift off on an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket, which will be released from an aircraft originating from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The mission's Flight Readiness Review (FRR) is being rescheduled for no earlier than Thursday, March 15, to allow time for a review of data and simulations to qualify software associated with a new Pegasus flight computer.

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A revised launch date will be set at the FRR. A pre-launch media briefing will be rescheduled after the FRR is complete.

NuSTAR will use advanced optics and detectors, allowing astronomers to observe the high-energy X-ray sky with much greater sensitivity and clarity than any mission flown before. The mission will advance our understanding of how structures in the universe form and evolve. It will observe some of the hottest, densest and most energetic objects in the universe, including black holes, their high-speed particle jets, ultra-dense neutron stars, supernova remnants, and our sun.

For more information about NuSTAR, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/nustar

SOURCE NASA