Wallops Media Roundtable With NASA's Space Technology Director

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Jan 19, 2012, 02:52 ET

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va., Jan. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Journalists are invited to a roundtable discussion at 11 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Jan. 24, with NASA's Chief Technologist Mason Peck during his visit to the agency's Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island, Va.

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Wallops Flight Facility Director Bill Wrobel will join Peck for the event. They will discuss Wallops' important role in the agency's development of cutting-edge technologies and innovations that will enable NASA's future missions in science, exploration and space operations.

Wallops will conduct critical high-altitude balloon and sounding rocket flights for several major space technology projects during the coming years. The center will test inflatable aerodynamic decelerators for safely returning cargo to Earth from the International Space Station and landing large payloads on planetary surfaces. NASA also will launch a small technology secondary payload aboard a commercial rocket from Wallops this year.

Reporters interested in attending the media roundtable at Wallops must contact Keith Koehler at 757-824-1579 or [email protected] by 3 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 23. To join the roundtable by telephone, journalists should call: 1-800-369-6087 or 1-773-756-0843 and use the passcode "Wallops."

For information about high altitude balloon and sounding rocket programs at Wallops, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/wallops

For Peck's biography and information about the Office of the Chief Technologist, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/oct

SOURCE NASA