PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Contact: Stephanie R. Zeluck
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 7, 1997
JPL TO HOST TALK ON 1997 EARTH AND SPACE EXPLORATION
"JPL Begins an Exciting Year of Earth and Space Exploration"
will be the theme for a free public lecture outlining the year
ahead for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The lecture will be
held at 7 p.m. Thursday, January 16, in JPL's von Karman
Auditorium, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena. Seating is on a
first-come, first-served basis.
1997 will be a year of extensive Earth and space exploration
for JPL. KidSat, a payload of Earth-observing cameras controlled
by students, will make its second flight on the space shuttle in
January. One of the highlights of the year will occur on July
4, when the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft touches down on the red
planet with a small rover robot. An orbiter spacecraft, Mars
Global Surveyor will arrive at Mars in the fall. Cassini, the
most sophisticated planetary spacecraft ever built, will be
launched in October on a seven-year journey to Saturn.
The year also marks the conclusion of the prime mission for
the Galileo spacecraft studying the giant planet Jupiter and its
moons. Projects such as the TOPEX/Poseidon ocean mapping
satellite and the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) ocean wind-measuring
instrument will continue JPL's extensive studies of Earth
through its Mission to Planet Earth program.
Among highlights from other sectors of NASA, in February the
space agency will embark on the second servicing mission to the
Hubble Space Telescope. During the summer, the Near Earth
Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft will pass through the asteroid
belt. In addition, the first element of NASA's international
Space Station will be deployed.
The lecture will be hosted by Randii Wessen, supervisor of
JPL's Project Science Support Group at JPL and science system
engineer for the Cassini mission to Saturn. Previously he has
worked on the Galileo mission to Jupiter as deputy sequence team
chief, and on the Voyager project in support of the Saturn,
Uranus and Neptune encounters.
This lecture is one of the von Karman Lecture Series held
monthly by the JPL Public Information Office. Jet Propulsion
Laboratory is located at 4800 Oak Grove Drive in Pasadena. A web
site dedicated to the lecture series is located at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/lecture. For directions and other
information, call the Public Information Office at (818) 354-
5011.
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