Journey to Better Understand The Moon

NASA will hold a briefing about two upcoming lunar missions scheduled to launch in June that will begin a journey to better understand the moon. A briefing with members of the mission and science teams will be held Thursday, May 21, at 4 p.m. EDT, in the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E Street, SW, in Washington. The briefing will air live on NASA Television and the agency's Web site.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, focuses on the selection of safe landing sites, identification of lunar resources and the study of how lunar radiation will affect humans. The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, will impact the moon twice in its search for water ice.

The briefing participants are: - Doug Cooke, associate administrator, Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters - Mike Wargo, chief lunar scientist, Exploration Systems Mission Directorate - Craig Tooley, project manager, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. - Rich Vondrak, project scientist, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Goddard - Dan Andrews, project manager, Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. - Tony Colaprete, project scientist, Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, Ames

Reporters may ask questions from participating NASA centers. For information about phone access, contact Ashley Edwards at 202-358-1756 by noon on Thursday, May 21.

LRO and LCROSS are scheduled to launch together aboard an Atlas V rocket no earlier than June 17 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the LRO and LCROSS missions, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/lro

and

http://www.nasa.gov/lcross

Source: NASA