March 30, 2004

Donald Savage 
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-1547)

Steve Roy
Marshall Space Flight Center, Ala. 
(Phone: 256/544-0034)
NOTE TO EDITORS: n04-049

NASA ANNOUNCES GRAVITY PROBE B MISSION PRESS BRIEFING

NASA experts will discuss the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) launch, 
spacecraft, and mission objectives at 1 p.m. EST, Friday, April 2, in 
the Webb Auditorium, NASA Headquarters, 300 E. Street SW, Washington.

The briefing will cover the origins, experimental methods, technology, 
mission operations, and science of GP-B. The mission will test two 
important predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of 
relativity. The 18-month mission is scheduled for launch Saturday, 
April 17, 2004, at 1:09 p.m. EST, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, 
Calif., on board a Boeing Delta II launch vehicle. 

Briefing participants:


Anne Kinney, Director, Astronomy/Physics Division, NASA Headquarters


Rex Geveden, Program Manager, GP-B, and Deputy Director, NASA's 
Marshall Space Flight Center, Ala. 


Francis Everitt, Principal Investigator, GP-B, Stanford University, 
Stanford, Calif.


Brad Parkinson, Co-Principal Investigator, GP-B, Stanford University


Kip Thorne, Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, California 
Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.



NASA TV will carry the briefing live with two-way question-and-answer 
capability for reporters at participating NASA centers. NASA TV is 
available on AMC-9, transponder 9C, C-Band, located at 85 degrees 
west longitude. The frequency is 3880.0 MHz. Polarization is 
vertical, and audio is monaural at 6.80 MHz. Reporters can listen to 
the briefing by calling: 321/861-1200/1220/1240/1260. For more 
information about GP-B on the Internet, visit: 

http://einstein.stanford.edu 
http://www.gravityprobeb.com

	
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