Tweetup At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Previews 2011 Missions

Stephanie L. Schierholz

Headquarters, Washington                               

 

Veronica McGregor

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

PASADENA, Calif. -- News media representatives are invited to cover a Tweetup hosted by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., on Monday, June 6. More than 100 NASA Twitter followers, who registered in April, will attend the event.

With four NASA/JPL space missions launching in 2011 and an asteroid belt encounter nearly under way, this year will be one of the busiest ever in planetary exploration. Tweetup participants will interact with JPL scientists and engineers about these upcoming missions: Aquarius, to study ocean salinity; Grail, to study the moon's gravity field; Juno to Jupiter; and the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity rover. Tweetup participants also will learn about the Dawn mission and its planned encounter with the asteroid Vesta.

The Tweetup will take place from approximately 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. PDT. It will include a tour of JPL, hands-on demonstrations and a last chance to see the Curiosity rover before it ships to Florida for its launch in the fall. Tour stops will include the Spacecraft Assembly Facility, where Curiosity is undergoing assembly and testing, the mission control center of NASA's Deep Space Network, and JPL's new Earth Science Center.

NASA Television will broadcast portions of the Tweetup from 8:15 - 10:30 a.m. PDT and again from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. PDT on June 6 at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv and http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2.

Tweetup participants will mingle with fellow attendees and the staff behind @NASA, @NASAJPL, @MarsRovers, @AsteroidWatch and other NASA social media accounts.

NASA's first Tweetup was held at JPL on Jan. 21, 2009, and NASA Headquarters held its first on July 21, 2009. The most recent event was at NASA's Kennedy Space Center for the space shuttle Endeavour's final launch. Following JPL's June event, the next NASA Tweetup will be July 7-8 at Kennedy for the Space Shuttle Program's final launch. Registration for that Tweetup is open from noon EDT Wednesday, June 1, through noon Thursday, June 2, at

http://www.nasa.gov/tweetup.

ACCREDITATION

News media representatives who would like to cover the June 6 Tweetup must RSVP in advance to JPL Media Relations at 818-354-5011. Non-U.S. citizens also must bring valid passports.

WEB COVERAGE

Follow the conversation before and during the June 6 event on Twitter by using the hashtag #NASATweetup and following the @NASAJPL, @JPLTweetup, and @NASATweetup accounts.

Find all the ways to connect and collaborate with NASA at http://www.nasa.gov/connect.

For more information about Aquarius, Grail, Juno, the Curiosity rover, Dawn and NASA’s other science missions, visit http://science.nasa.gov.

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