NASA Administrator, Interior Secretary Attend Landsat Launch

Feb. 7, 2013

Steve Cole
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0918
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

MEDIA ADVISORY: M13-028

NASA ADMINISTRATOR, INTERIOR SECRETARY ATTEND LANDSAT LAUNCH

WASHINGTON -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Interior Secretary
Ken Salazar will attend the launch of the Landsat Data Continuity
Mission (LDCM) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on
Monday, Feb. 11. The launch is scheduled for 10:02 a.m. PST.

LDCM is a collaboration between NASA and the Department of the
Interior's U.S. Geological Survey. The mission will continue the
Landsat program's 40-year continuous data record by Earth's
landscapes by satellite from space. LDCM will expand and improve on
that record with observations that advance a wide range of Earth
sciences and contribute to the management of agriculture, water and
forest resources.

Administrator Bolden and Interior's Assistant Secretary for Water and
Science Anne Castle will meet with news media Sunday, Feb. 10, at
Vandenberg's Atlas V/LDCM launch pad for interviews and a photo
opportunity. The Atlas V rocket carrying the satellite will be
visible within the gantry. A media escort will depart Vandenberg's
South Base gate on Highway 246 and Arguello Boulevard for Space
Launch Complex-3 at 2:45 p.m. on Sunday.

After launch Monday, Bolden and Salazar will meet with reporters at
11:30 a.m. at the NASA complex on the southern area of Vandenberg.
Journalists interested in participating in this post-launch event and
the televised news conference to follow will be escorted to NASA
Building 840. The news conference will begin at noon.

Following the post-launch news conference, Bolden will visit the
SpaceX launch pad at 1:30 p.m. The launch pad, which is being built
at Space Launch Complex-4, will support the SpaceX Falcon 9 and
Falcon Heavy rockets. In 2015, a Falcon 9 rocket will launch the
Jason-3 sea surface monitoring mission from Vandenberg.

Media interested in attending these events must contact Lt. Kaylee
Ausbun at 805-606-6159 or Kaylee.Ausbun@us.af.mil by noon Friday,
Feb. 8.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the LDCM Project. Orbital
Sciences Corp. built, integrated, and tested the spacecraft. NASA's
Launch Services Program at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in
Florida is managing the launch. United Launch Alliance supplied the
Atlas V rocket. After launch and the initial checkout phase, the U.S.
Geological Survey will take operational control of the satellite, and
LDCM will be renamed Landsat 8.

Extensive prelaunch and launch day coverage of the LDCM launch will be
available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/landsat


-end-



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