NASA Hosts First Social Media Event at Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex

John Yembrick / Jason Townsend

Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1584 / 202-358-0359

john.yembrick@nasa.gov / jason.c.townsend@nasa.gov

WASHINGTON -- Sixty-five of NASA's social media followers will have a rare opportunity to tour the agency's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California's Mojave Desert during a NASA Social on Monday, Oct. 15, 2012.

Goldstone is one of three NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) complexes strategically placed around the world. The complex provides the ability to communicate with spacecraft not only in orbit around Earth, but also in the farther reaches of our solar system.

People who engage with NASA through Twitter, Facebook and Google+ also will travel to Apollo Valley to see the historic Apollo antenna and 34-meter Beam Waveguide Cluster antennas; take a trip to Mars Valley, home of the large 70-meter Mars antenna (230-foot dish); the 34-meter Uranus antenna and Signal Processing Center 10; and the Spacecraft Operations Control Center. Participants will have an opportunity to speak with scientists, engineers and other team members from NASA and Goldstone. They also will interact with fellow NASA social media followers, space enthusiasts and members of NASA's social media team.

The 65 participants will be selected randomly from online registrations for this NASA Social. Registration opens at noon EDT, Wednesday, Aug. 29, and closes at noon Friday, Aug. 31. Because of space limitations, those selected to attend may not bring a guest. Each participant must be a U.S. citizen, age 18 or older. For more information on NASA Socials and to register, visit http://www.nasa.gov/social.

For information about the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, visit http://www.gdscc.nasa.gov.

For more about NASA's Deep Space Network, visit http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn.

For information about connecting and collaborating with NASA, visit http://www.nasa.gov/connect.

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