Media are invited to accompany NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine as he tours and meets with Mars mission scientists and engineers at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, on Monday, Aug. 27.
Administrator Bridenstine will visit the labs and test beds of several JPL-led missions, including current and future missions to Mars. Media are invited to accompany the administrator to a lab where mission team members are using a full-scale model of the InSight Mars lander to prepare for the Nov. 26 landing on the Red Planet. Other stops include the Spacecraft Assembly Facility gallery, to see the Mars 2020 rover mission under construction; and the space simulator chamber where the Mars Helicopter is being tested in a Mars-like atmosphere.
WHEN: Monday, Aug. 27, from 8:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. PDT.
A bus will transport media between locations. Tentative schedule (subject to change):
8:30-8:50 Media check-in at Visitor Reception Building
9:20 In-situ Instrument Lab (Mars InSight)
10:00 Spacecraft Assembly Facility (Mars 2020)
1 :00 Space Simulator Chamber (Mars Helicopter)
WHERE: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109. JPL is located off the Berkshire/Oak Grove Drive exit of the 210 (Foothill) Freeway.
To arrange access, media must RSVP to Elena Mejia in JPL Media Relations Office at Elena.Mejia@jpl.nasa.gov or 818-354-5011 by Wednesday, Aug. 22, at 3 p.m. PDT. Media who arrange access must also bring valid media credentials and government-issued photo I.D., and for non-U.S. citizens, a valid passport or Green Card.
This will be Administrator Bridenstine’s first visit to JPL since being sworn in as NASA’s 13th administrator on April 23.
Find more information about InSight at:
https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/
For more information about NASA’s Mars missions, go to:
https://www.nasa.gov/mars
