Beth Schmid
Headquarters, Washington, DC                 January 13, 1999
(Phone:  202/358-1760)

NOTE TO EDITORS:  N99-3

MARS MILLENNIUM PROJECT TO BE LAUNCHED JANUARY 14

     NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin will join First Lady 
Hillary Rodham Clinton and other officials at the 
Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum on Thursday, Jan. 
14, at 1:30 p.m. EST to unveil the Mars Millennium Project, 
an official White House Millennium Council Youth Initiative.

     Other participants in the event will be Secretary of the 
Smithsonian Michael Heyman; Secretary of Education Richard 
Riley; Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts 
William Ivey; Vice President for Education at the J. Paul 
Getty Trust Theodore Mitchell; and the official project 
spokesperson and former Mars Pathfinder project director, 
Donna Shirley.  Twenty students from the Anne Beers 
Elementary School, Washington, DC, also will participate.

     The Mars Millennium Project is designed to challenge 
students across the nation to design a community yet-to-be-
imagined for the planet.  This interdisciplinary learning 
project will engage kindergarten-through-high school students 
in classrooms and youth groups throughout the United States.

     The event will take place in the "What's Next -- 
Columbus" Exhibit Room and Planetarium in the Museum.

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