HUNTSVILLE, Ala., April 19, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
-- Media are invited to view the flight solar sail for
propulsion test of NASA's Near-Earth Asteroid Scout at 1:30 p.m. CDT on Thursday, April 26 at prime
contractor ManTech NeXolve's Huntsville test facility. NASA and industry
representatives will be also available for interviews before the
NeXolve event at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Alabama.
NEA Scout and 12 other small satellites will launch as secondary
payloads on Exploration Mission-1 of NASA's Space Launch System and
Orion Spacecraft. NEA Scout is a CubeSat developed jointly between
Marshall and NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory. CubeSats are small spacecraft built for space-based
science, exploration and engineering. NEA Scout relies on an
innovative solar sail for propulsion and will be America's first
interplanetary solar sail mission. When deployed, the sail --
square in shape with each side about the length of a school bus --
harnesses solar energy to use as propulsion to move through
space.
Journalists will also have an opportunity to tour the command
center where the NEA Scout satellite will be tracked at
Marshall and view SLS intertank
test progress and interview representatives from the SLS team.
To attend, media should contact Shannon
Ridinger at shannon.j.ridinger@nasa.gov or 256-544-0034 by
12 p.m. CDT Wednesday, April 25.
The SLS intertank test article arrived at Marshall on the Pegasus barge in March. It
will be tested in a new test stand where engineers will use the
stand to push, pull and bend the test article exposing it to
millions of pounds of force to simulate the rocket's launch.
The flight version of the intertank will connect the rocket's core
stage fuel tanks, serve as the upper-connection point for the two
solid rocket boosters and house the avionics and electronics that
will serve as the "brains" of the rocket.
To tour the NEA Scout command center and see the new SLS
intertank test stand, media should plan to arrive at Gate 9 of the
Redstone Arsenal Joint Visitor Control Center at the Interstate 565
interchange of Rideout Road and Research Park Boulevard no later than 11:15 a.m. for badging and security clearance.
Media must provide one form of government-issued photo
identification for badging. Access to the post requires proof of
vehicle insurance. The Marshall
tour and media opportunity will last approximately one and half
hours. After the tour at Marshall,
the group will reconvene at NeXolve's test facility located at 355
Quality Circle, Suite B, Huntsville,
Alabama, at 1:30 p.m. to view
the flight solar sail and speak with NEA-Scout representatives.
View original content with
multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/media-invited-to-view-near-earth-asteroid-scout-solar-sail-space-launch-system-progress-300633394.html
SOURCE NASA