NASA to Hold Media Briefing About Upcoming NuSTAR Mission Launch

Trent J. Perrotto

Headquarters, Washington

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a media briefing at 12 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, March 13, to discuss the upcoming launch of the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). The mission 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 to-date. The televised briefing will take place in the agency's television studio at NASA Headquarters, located at 300 E St. S.W. in Washington.

NuSTAR will advance our understanding of how structure in the universe forms and evolves. 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.

NuSTAR is targeted for launch no earlier than 11:30 a.m. EDT on March 22. The launch window extends to 3:30 p.m. The spacecraft will liftoff on an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL launch vehicle, released from an aircraft originating from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Briefing Participants are:

-- Paul Hertz, astrophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington

-- Fiona Harrison, NuSTAR principal investigator at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.

-- Daniel Stern, NuSTAR project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.

-- Yunjin Kim, NuSTAR project manager at JPL

Reporters may ask questions from participating NASA locations or by telephone. Media planning to attend the briefing or reserve a phone line must contact trent.j.perrotto@nasa.gov by 9 a.m. on Monday, March 12.

For NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

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

- end -