PRE-LAUNCH PRESS CONFERENCES FOR TESS, Apr 15, 2018, Kennedy Space Center, FL (webcast)

Update, April 15, 12:40 pm ET:  NASA just tweeted that the 1:00 briefing now will start at 1:30 pm ET instead.

NASA will hold two pre-launch press conferences as well as a “NASA Social” event on April 15, 2018 in advanced of the April 16 launch of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).    All will take place at Kennedy Space Center, FL will be broadcast on NASA TV.   The schedule is as follows:

• 11 a.m. – NASA Social Mission Overview
  • Martin Still, TESS Program Scientist, NASA Headquarters
  • Tom Barclay, TESS scientist, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
  • Jenn Burt, Torres Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Zach Berta-Thompson, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Natalia Guerrero, TESS Researcher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Robert Lockwood, TESS Spacecraft Program Manager, Orbital ATK
  • Hans Koenigsmann, Vice President of Build and Flight Reliability at SpaceX
  • Jessie Christiansen, Staff scientist, NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, California Institute of Technology
  • Elisa Quintana, TESS scientist, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
• 1 p.m. – Prelaunch news conference
  • Sandra Connelly, deputy associate administrator of programs, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate
  • Omar Baez, launch director, NASA’s Launch Services Program
  • Jeff Volosin, TESS project manager, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
  • Mike McAleenan, weather officer, 45th Weather Squadron
  • Robert Lockwood, TESS Spacecraft Program Manager, Orbital ATK
  • Hans Koenigsmann, Vice President of Build and Flight Reliability at SpaceX

• 3 p.m. – Science news conference
  • Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division Director, NASA Headquarters
  • George Ricker, TESS principal investigator, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Padi Boyd, TESS Guest Investigator Program Lead, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
  • Stephen Rinehart, TESS Project Scientist, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
  • Diana Dragomir, NASA Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology