NASA Briefing to Discuss First Spacecraft Arrival at a Dwarf Planet

This artist's concept shows NASA's Dawn spacecraft

heading toward the dwarf planet Ceres.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will host a briefing at noon EST (9 a.m. PST) Monday, March 2, to discuss the March 6 arrival of the agency’s Dawn spacecraft at the dwarf planet Ceres. The news briefing, held at JPL’s von Karman Auditorium at 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, California, will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency’s website.

Ceres, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is the largest unexplored world of the inner solar system. Dawn will not only be the first spacecraft to reach a dwarf planet, it will be the first spacecraft ever to orbit two different worlds in deep space.

Dawn was the first spacecraft to orbit a body in the main asteroid belt when it explored the giant asteroid Vesta from 2011 to 2012.

Participants in the news conference will be:

·         Jim Green, director, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington

·         Robert Mase, Dawn project manager, JPL

·         Carol Raymond, Dawn deputy principal investigator, JPL

To arrange access to attend in person or to obtain a telephone connection, reporters must contact Gina Fontes at 818-354-5011 or georgina.d.fontes@jpl.nasa.gov no later than 3 p.m. EST (noon PST) on Friday, Feb. 27, and provide their media affiliation.

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

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

The briefing will also be streamed live on Ustream at:

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2

For information about NASA's Dawn mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/dawn