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

NOTE TO EDITORS: N99-3

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.