Kathleen Burton June 9, 2003<br />NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.<br />Phone: 650/604-1731 or 650/604-9000<br />E-mail: Kathleen.M.Burton@nasa.gov<br /><br /><br />RELEASE: 03-46AR<br /><br /><br />NOTE TO EDITORS AND NEWS DIRECTORS: Members of the news media are invited to NASA Ames Research Center's main auditorium, Bldg. N-201, to attend a live televised broadcast of the launch of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER-A) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Tuesday, June 10, at 10:59 a.m. PDT. Several Ames researchers will be available for interviews about MER-A. All news media must present photo identification and press credentials to gain entry.<br /><br /><br />NASA RESCHEDULES MARS EXPLORATION LAUNCH<br /><br /><br />NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER-A) project launch, originally scheduled for June 8, has been rescheduled for June 10 at 10:59 a.m. PDT. The launch has been cancelled twice due to weather. <br />The identical rolling rovers will see sharper images, will explore farther and will examine rocks better than anything that ever landed on Mars. The second rover mission, bound for a different site on Mars, is scheduled to launch June 24 at 9:38 p.m. PDT.<br /><br /><br />Both rover missions will lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on Delta II launch vehicles. The first MER will arrive at Mars on Jan. 4, 2004, the second, Jan. 25. The two MER missions will seek to determine the history of climate and water at two sites on Mars, where conditions may once have been favorable to life. Plans call for each rover to operate for at least three months.<br /><br /><br />For information about the MER project on the Internet, visit:<br /><br /><br />http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer<br /><br /><br />NASA will feature live Web casts of the launches on the Internet at:<br /><br /><br />http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/webcast/mer<br /><br /><br />For broadcast-quality audio files available for use on radio, go to:<br /><br /><br />http://amesnews.arc.nasa.gov/audio/MER/MERaudio.html