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-

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

The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription:

You are subscribed to the following list: [list_name]

using the following email: example@example.com

You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL:

http://www aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/u/[list]/

If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism

You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen:

http://www aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/list/[list]

If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at:

<mailto:list
admin@aus-city
com>

The following physical address is associated with this mailing list:

http://www aus-city com