For two days this weekend, thousands of people from
around the country will get to go behind the scenes at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., NASA’s lead center
for robotic space exploration.

Those who can’t attend this year’s open house on Saturday
and Sunday, May 19 and 20, can tune in and view a live webcast
that will bring all the flavor of this year’s theme, “JPL
2001: A Space Odyssey,” right to their desktops.

The one-hour webcast will be on Saturday, May 19,
starting at 11 a.m. Pacific time
(2 p.m. Eastern). To view it, log on to:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/webcast/openhouse/

The free-style webcast will feature a diverse lineup of
scientists and engineers who work on various missions. The
hosts are a husband-and-wife team, making it a real family
event. The show will be jammed-packed with interesting
characters, from cutting-edge researchers to kids who love to
build their own robots. Complete with props, such as an
inflatable antenna and a wearable computer communications
system, the webcast will give a glimpse of the kind of work
that goes on at JPL.

The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena
manages JPL for NASA.