Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-1727)

Jane Platt
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-0880)

NASA has scheduled a media briefing to discuss the
upcoming launch and mission of the Space Infrared Telescope
Facility (SIRTF).

The briefing is at 11 a.m. EST, Tuesday, March 25 in the
James Webb Auditorium, NASA Headquarters, 300 E Street SW,
Washington. The pre-launch briefing will consist of two
panels; the first will present a mission overview and the
second a science overview.

The briefing will be carried live on NASA Television, with
two-way question-and-answer capability for reporters at
participating NASA centers.

The Space Infrared Telescope Facility is scheduled for launch
Friday, April 18, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station,
Fla., for a minimum two-and-one-half-year mission. It is the
final of NASA’s Great Observatories, which also include the
Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the
Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.

Participants in the mission briefing:

  • Lia La Piana, Space Infrared Telescope Facility program
    executive, NASA Headquarters, Washington
  • David Gallagher, Space Infrared Telescope Facility project
    manager, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.
  • Robert Wilson, Space Infrared Telescope Facility mission
    operations manager, JPL
  • Mark Garcia, Space Infrared Telescope Facility mission
    engineer, JPL
  • Suzanne Dodd, manager, Space Infrared Telescope Facility
    Science Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena,
    Calif.

    Participants in the science briefing:

  • Dr. Anne Kinney, director, astronomy/physics division,
    NASA Headquarters
  • Dr. Michael Werner, Space Infrared Telescope Facility
    project scientist, JPL
  • Dr. Alyssa Goodman, professor, Harvard-Smithsonian Center
    for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.
  • Dr. Belinda Wilkes, professor, Harvard-Smithsonian Center
    for Astrophysics
  • Dr. Garth Illingworth, professor, University of
    California, Santa Cruz, Calif.
  • Dr. George Rieke, professor and principal investigator for
    the multiband-imaging photometer science instrument,
    University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.

    The telescope’s unprecedented infrared sensitivity will allow
    astronomers to investigate what they affectionately call “the
    old, the cold and the dirty,” referring to the coldest,
    oldest and most dust-obscured objects and processes in the
    universe.

    The observatory’s capability for observing low-temperature
    objects will also aid in the search for planetary systems in
    formation, some of which may nurture Earth-like planets.
    NASA TV is broadcast on satellite AMC-2, transponder 9C, C
    band, and 85 degrees west longitude. The frequency is 3880.0
    MHz. Polarization is vertical and audio is monaural at 6.8
    MHz.

    The briefing will also be web cast live at:

    http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/webcast/sirtf/30.cfm

    For more information about the Space Infrared Telescope
    Facility on the Internet, visit:

    http://sirtf.caltech.edu/