[X] My Assistant

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Due to the postponed Space Shuttle Discovery landing, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter pre-launch press conference and mission science briefing is today at 1 p.m. EDT, at the NASA News Center, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Fla.


Pre-launch press conference participants:

Doug McCuistion, Mars Exploration Program Director
NASA Headquarters, Washington

Chuck Dovale, NASA Launch Manager
KSC

Mike Jensen, Vice President and Chief Technical Officer
International Launch Services, McLean, Va.

Jim Graf, MRO Project Manager
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.

Clay Flinn, U. S. Air Force Atlas V Launch Weather Officer
45th Weather Squadron, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

The mission science briefing immediately follows the pre-launch press conference.

Participants:

Michael Meyer, Mars Exploration Program Chief Scientist
NASA Headquarters

Richard Zurek, MRO Project Scientist
JPL

Alfred McEwen, Principal Investigator, High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment
University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.

Scott Murchie, Principal Investigator
Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars
Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.

Enrico Flamini, Director, Solar System Programs
Italian Space Agency, Rome

The briefings, which were originally scheduled for tomorrow, will be carried live on NASA TV.

[djellison]

MARCI will do observations of the Moon at some point - and HiRISE will do I THINK Moon + Star focus tests. Not sure of CTX, it may do the same.

Only one post-aerobraking deployment was mentioned, and that was SHARAD

Doug

[jamescanvin]

MARCI will do observations of the Moon at some point - and HiRISE will do I THINK Moon + Star focus tests.  Not sure of CTX, it may do the same.

Only one post-aerobraking deployment was mentioned, and that was SHARAD

Doug

Yes, I'd remembered it wrong (or read something unclear, can't remember). On further investigation it seems the only instrument with a cover removed after aerobreaking is CRISM.