NASA Invites Media to View Space Launch System Progress

June 17, 2013

Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov

Kimberly Henry
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
kimberly.h.henry@nasa.gov

Chip Howat
Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans
504-214-6745
carl.j.howat@nasa.gov

MEDIA ADVISORY: M13-097

NASA INVITES MEDIA TO VIEW SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM PROGRESS

WASHINGTON -- NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and
Operations William Gerstenmaier and other agency officials will debut
a new machine for manufacturing NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) and
check on development progress with the heavy-lift rocket at the
agency's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans Friday, June 21.

NASA is inviting media representatives to attend a 9:15 a.m. CDT
ribbon-cutting ceremony for the vertical weld center, where
friction-stir weld tooling will be used to assemble the SLS core
stage, then join officials on a tour of the SLS assembly area and
work in support of NASA's Orion spacecraft.

Michoud is critical to the construction and testing of SLS, which is
managed and in development at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala.

Officials of The Boeing Company of Huntsville, Ala., prime contractor
for the SLS core stage and its avionics, will take part in the
ribbon-cutting ceremony. The 200 foot-tall core stage will store
cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to feed the rocket's
RS-25 engines. The vertical weld center will stand about three
stories tall and weigh 165 tons.

Journalists who want to attend the event should contact Chip Howat at
carl.j.howat@nasa.gov or 504-214-6745 no later than 4 p.m. Thursday,
June 20. Media must report to 13800 Old Gentilly Road and enter Gate
11, which is located east of Building 101, by 8:30 a.m. June 21 for
access to the facility. Official media credentials with photo
identification are required for access.

NASA is developing the SLS rocket and Orion to provide an entirely new
capability for human exploration. It will expand human presence
beyond low-Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration in the
solar system, including to an asteroid and Mars.

For more information on NASA's SLS, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/sls


-end-



To subscribe to the list, send a message to:
hqnews-subscribe@mediaservices.nasa.gov
To remove your address from the list, send a message to:
hqnews-unsubscribe@mediaservices.nasa.gov