Media Invited to Watch Launch of Maryland Built and Managed Lunar Reconnaissance...

Media Invited to Watch Launch of Maryland Built and Managed Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. invites reporters to view
the launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission at the Goddard
Visitor Center on Thursday, June 18. Reporters should arrive at the Visitor's
Center before 4 p.m. EDT.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO )

LRO is one of the first steps in NASA's planned returned to the moon. A brief
mission overview will be provided promptly at 4 p.m. EDT by Dr. Noah Petro, a
lunar geologist at Goddard. The launch is scheduled for Thursday, June 18,
5:12 p.m. EDT, from Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
and will be simulcast at the Goddard Visitor's Center. Light refreshments will
be provided.

The LRO mission is critical for creating a comprehensive atlas of the moon's
features and resources that will be needed as NASA designs systems for an
extended human presence on the moon. LRO focuses on the selection of safe
landing sites, identification of lunar resources, and studies of how the lunar
radiation environment will affect humans. This mission will support future
human exploration while providing a foundation for upcoming science missions.

Reporters interested in attending should contact Dewayne Washington at
301-286-0040 or 678-296-8450. The spacecraft was built and is managed by
Goddard for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters
in Washington. It will transition to the Science Mission Directorate in 2010.

More information about LRO can be found at:
www.nasa.gov/lro

For more information and directions to the Goddard Visitor's Center, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/visitor/home/index.html

/PRNewswire-USNewswire -- June 16/

SOURCE NASA

Dewayne Washington, Goddard Space Flight Center, Md., +1-301-286-0040,
Dewayne.A.Washington@nasa.gov