MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – Celebrating 70 years of innovative research and development, NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., will showcase its history in downtown Mountain View, Calif.

News media are invited to a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open the 70th anniversary exhibits in businesses along Castro Street from 5 – 6 p.m. PDT on Monday, Nov. 2, 2009. The ceremony will feature remarks from S. Pete Worden, Ames Director, Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga, the City of Mountain View, Jack Boyd, Ames historian, Julie Smiley, executive director of the Central Business Association and other dignitaries, including City Council members from Mountain View and Sunnyvale, Calif.

Twelve downtown Mountain View locations displaying NASA history include: Custom Fitness, 650 Castro Street; Mountain View City Hall, 500 Castro Street; Fenwick & West, 801 California Street; Global Beads Inc., 345 Castro Street; BookBuyers, 317 Castro Street, Tap Plastics Inc., 312 Castro Street; Boutique 4, 279 Castro Street; Meyer Appliance, 278 Castro Street; Red Rock Coffee, 201 Castro Street; Tied House, 954 Villa Street; Maston William Architect and Associates, 384 Castro Street; and the Jehning Lock Museum of Mountain View, 175 Castro Street.

Exhibits include historic photos of Moffett Field, a space suit, a parachute, a six-foot centrifuge, a 3D panorama of Mars, a model Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier, a Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn display, information about how humans live and work in space, and more.

WHAT: A ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open the historical exhibits in downtown Mountain View, Calif., showcasing 70 years of research and development at NASA Ames.

WHEN: 5 – 6 p.m. PST, Monday, Nov. 2, 2009.

WHERE: Meyer Appliance, 278 Castro Street, Mountain View.

Ames was founded on Dec. 20, 1939, as the second laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), a federal agency established on March 3, 1915 to institutionalize aeronautical research and apply it to America’s air aspirations. On Oct. 1, 1958, NACA was dissolved and its assets and personnel were transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Ames is named after Joseph Sweetman Ames, who chaired NACA for 20 years and is widely recognized as the architect of aeronautical science.

To learn more about Ames, its history, current missions and future, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/nasa-ames-70-years

For more information about NASA and its programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov