NASA to Preview Mercury Mission's Flight Past Venus

May 30, 2007

Dwayne Brown/Tabatha Thompson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726/3895

Paulette Campbell
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
240-228-6792

MEDIA ADVISORY: M07-60

NASA TO PREVIEW MERCURY MISSION'S FLIGHT PAST VENUS

WASHINGTON - NASA will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT on
Monday, June 4, to preview the June 5 flyby of the MErcury Surface,
Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft
through the Venus system. The probe, the first space mission designed
to orbit the planet closest to the Sun, will use Venus's gravity once
again to guide it closer to Mercury's orbit.

During the flyby, the full suite of the spacecraft's instruments will
be directed at Venus, providing several unique science opportunities
that may offer insight never before revealed about the cloud-shrouded
planet. The encounter also presents the opportunity to conduct
collaborative and complimentary observations with the European Space
Agency's Venus Express mission.

Briefing participants are:
-- Marilyn Lindstrom, MESSENGER program scientist, NASA Headquarters,
Washington
-- Sean Solomon, MESSENGER principal investigator, Carnegie
Institution of Washington
-- Eric Finnegan, MESSENGER mission systems engineer, Johns Hopkins
University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
-- Hakan Svedhem, Venus Express project scientist, European Space
Agency, Paris

To participate in the teleconference, reporters in the United States
should call 1-888-324-6998 and use the pass code "Venus."
International reporters should call 1-210-234-0009.

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

At the time of the briefing, related images will be available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/messenger

-end-

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