NASA Announces Launch Tweetup For GRAIL Moon Mission

July 22, 2011

Stephanie L. Schierholz
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-4997
stephanie.schierholz@nasa.gov

Veronica McGregor
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-9452
veronica.c.mcgregor@jpl.nasa.gov

RELEASE: 11-244

NASA ANNOUNCES LAUNCH TWEETUP FOR GRAIL MOON MISSION

WASHINGTON -- NASA will host a two-day launch Tweetup for 150 of its
Twitter followers on Sept. 7-8 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center
in Florida. The Tweetup is expected to culminate in the launch of the
twin lunar-bound GRAIL spacecraft aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The launch window opens at 8:37 a.m. EDT on Sept. 8. The two GRAIL
spacecraft will fly in tandem orbits around the moon for several
months to measure its gravity field, from its crust to core, in
unprecedented detail. The mission also will answer longstanding
questions about the moon and provide scientists with a better
understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar
system formed.

The Tweetup will provide NASA's Twitter followers with the opportunity
to tour the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex; speak with
scientists and engineers from GRAIL and other upcoming missions; and,
if all goes as scheduled, view the spacecraft launch. The event also
will provide participants the opportunity to meet fellow tweeps and
members of NASA's social media team.

2011 is one of the busiest ever in planetary exploration; GRAIL's lift
off is the third of four space missions launching this year under the
management of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Aquarius launched June 10 to study ocean salinity; Juno will launch
Aug. 5 to study the origins and interior of Jupiter; and the Mars
Science Laboratory/Curiosity rover heads to the Red Planet no earlier
than Nov. 25.

Tweetup registration opens at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, July 26, and closes
at noon on Thursday, July 28. NASA will randomly select 150
participants from online registrations.

For more information and rules about the Tweetup and registration,
visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/tweetup

To follow NASA on Twitter, visit:

http://www.twitter.com/NASA

For information about more ways to connect and collaborate with NASA,
visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/connect

GRAIL's principal investigator is Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Cambridge. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, Calif., manages the mission. For more information about
GRAIL, visit:

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/grail

http://moon.mit.edu/

-end-

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