NASA Media Telecon Previews First Spacecraft to Orbit Mercury

WASHINGTON, March 10, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, March 15, to discuss the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury.

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NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, or MESSENGER, will enter orbit at approximately 9 p.m. EDT on Thursday, March 17. The spacecraft has conducted more than a dozen laps through the inner solar system for the past 6.6 years.

Media teleconference participants are:

• Andy Calloway, MESSENGER mission operations manager, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md.
• Carl Engelbrecht, MESSENGER propulsion subsystem lead, APL
• Sean Solomon, MESSENGER principal investigator, Carnegie Institution of Washington

During the briefing, related images will be available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/media/MOITelecon.html

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live on NASA's website at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

At 10 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 16, NASA experts will hold a one-hour, live Web chat to answer questions about MESSENGER's orbital insertion. The chat window will open at 9:30 a.m. To participate, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/messenger_chat.html

For more information about the mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/messenger

SOURCE NASA