The two April 14 briefings are open to the public and will take place in the Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E Street SW in Washington, D.C.
Topics will include the mission's goals, scientific objectives and encounter plans, including the types of images and other data that can be expected and when, according to a press release.
New Horizons will fly past Pluto on July 14. The spacecraft already has covered more than 3 billion miles since it launched on January 19, 2006. It will pass Pluto at a speed of 31,000 mph while taking thousands of images. Data from the spacecraft during the encounter will take approximately 4.5 hours to reach our planet due to the distance between Pluto and Earth.
Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream
Participants for 1 p.m. EDT briefing:
* John Grunsfeld, Science Mission Directorate associate administrator, NASA Headquarters, Washington
* James Green, director of Planetary Science, NASA Headquarters
* Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Co.
* William McKinnon, New Horizons co-investigator, Washington University, St. Louis
* Cathy Olkin, New Horizons Deputy project scientist, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Co.
Participants for 2:30 p.m. EDT briefing:
* James Green, director of Planetary Science, NASA Headquarters
* Glen Fountain, New Horizons project manager, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
* Hal Weaver, New Horizons project scientist, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
* Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Co.
To ask a question during the briefing via Twitter, use the hashtag #askNASA.
Then, stay tuned for SpaceX's historic landing attempt at 4:10 p.m. EDT!
