MEDIA ADVISORY: Coverage events for the launch of UC Berkeley/NASA's HESSI satellite

ATTENTION: Science and Assignment Editors

01 June 2001
Contact: Robert Sanders
(510) 643-6998
rls@pa.urel.berkelty.edu

NEWS CONFERENCE, 12:30 p.m. EDT

WHAT:
At Kennedy Space Center, participants will discuss the overall mission, the launch vehicle, spacecraft health, and timeline between separation from the Pegasus rocket through start of science operations.

NASA will provide live broadcast via NASA-TV. The news conference also will be streamed through the web from the KSC web site at http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/.

WHO:
Chuck Dovale, NASA launch manager
Frank Snow, HESSI mission manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
A U.S. Air Force weather person

SCIENCE BRIEFING (immediately follows 12:30 p.m. EDT news conference)

WHAT:
Mission scientists in Florida will discuss details of the science payload and science objectives for the mission. This briefing will be broadcast live via NASA-TV and streamed through the Web.

WHO:
Robert P. Lin, UC Berkeley principal investigator for HESSI
Peter Harvey, UC Berkeley HESSI project manager
William Wagner, HESSI Program Scientist at NASA Headquarters

NOTE:
For details on viewing NASA-TV via satellite or the Web, visit the NASA Website at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/.

FROM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER

WHAT:
NASA-TV will provide live coverage and commentary of the HESSI launch,
including L-1011 take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and drop of Pegasus rocket over the Atlantic Ocean.

The launch can be viewed on NASA-TV or at http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/.

WHEN:
Coverage begins at about 8:00 a.m. EDT. L-1011 take off is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. EDT, with Pegasus drop at 10:05 a.m. EDT.

UC BERKELEY EVENTS

WHAT:
UC Berkeley's Mission & Science Operations Center (MSOC) invites reporters to the Space Sciences Laboratory to view the launch via live satellite feed from NASA-TV, and to receive regular updates from HESSI scientists.

The main update will be given after the satellite's first pass over Berkeley, 93 minutes after the drop - about 8:38 - 8:48 a.m. PDT. By then, HESSI scientists should have information about the health of the spacecraft.

WHO:
Robert P. Lin, HESSI principal investigator, UC Berkeley professor of physics, director of UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory

Manfred Bester, lead scientist in HESSI Mission Operations Center, UC Berkeley

David Smith, spectrometer development scientist, UC Berkeley

WHERE:
Conference room, first floor of Silver Laboratory Addition, UC Berkeley. The lab is at the top of Centennial Drive near its intersection with Grizzly Peak Boulevard.

WHEN:
5:30 a.m. PDT through 9 a.m. PDT

BACKGROUND:
NASA's HESSI press kit is available at http://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/newsroom/pkits/pkits.htm. Also check out UC Berkeley's HESSI Mission Website at http://hessi.ssl.berkeley.edu.

Hessi's education Web site is at http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/hessi_epo/