July 14, 1994
The first fragment of the comet, which is one of the smallest and dimmest of the 21 fragments, will impact Jupiter just before 4 p.m. EDT, July 16, on the side of Jupiter facing away from Earth. Shortly afterwards, the point of impact will rotate into view as seen from Earth, and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) will image the impact area. The data will be downlinked around 7:30 p.m. EDT.
A press briefing will be held at 10 p.m. EDT at STScI during which scientists will discuss the first image of the impact area. The entire Saturday program beginning at 7:30 p.m. EDT, and all scheduled briefings through July 22, will be broadcast live on NASA Television with two-way question-and-answer capability for reporters covering the briefings from participating NASA centers. For the July 16 briefing, media should fax accreditation requests to STScI at 410/338-4579.
In addition to the GSFC Comet Impact newsroom, which will be open 24 hours a day from July 16-22 for briefing coverage, the other participating NASA centers are Headquarters in Washington, D.C.; the Kennedy Space Center, Fla.; the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, will be open for TV viewing only on Saturday, and will begin complete coverage, including two-way Q&A capability for reporters, with Sunday morning's 10 a.m. EDT briefing. Journalists are asked to call the Jet Propulsion Laboratory newsroom at (818) 354-5011 to confirm scheduling of TV events there.
On Sunday morning, July 17, at 10:00 a.m. EDT, a press briefing will be held at GSFC. The briefing will include more information on the initial fragment (fragment 'A') as well as available information from HST and other observatories which observed fragments B, C and D. Panelists will include Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker, David Levy and other science team members.
The complete schedule of briefings is listed below. (* Denotes change from previous schedule.)
JULY DATE TIME (EDT) EVENT/LOCATION Sat. 16 7:30 p.m. * Briefing: Observing Campaign Begins Panelists: Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy Location: Space Telescope Science Inst. Sat. 16 10:00 p.m. Press Briefing: First Impact Image Release Location: Space Telescope Science Inst. Sun. 17 10:00 a.m. * Press Briefing at GSFC Mon. 18 8:00 a.m. Press Briefing at GSFC Tue. 19 8:00 a.m. Press Briefing at GSFC Wed. 20 12:00 noon Press Briefing at GSFC Thur. 21 8:00 a.m. Press Briefing at GSFC Fri. 22 9:30 a.m. Press Briefing at GSFC (Subject to change as STS-65 landing events warrant) Sat. 23 8:00 a.m. Press Briefing at GSFC
Media wishing to attend the GSFC briefings must have valid press credentials and a photo ID. Media representatives who are not U.S. citizens must contact the Goddard Office of Public Affairs at 301/286-8955 before registering.
The Goddard Comet Impact newsroom will be the central location providing coverage of observations and images from the worldwide network of ground-based observatories and spacecraft taking part in the NASA/National Science Foundation observing project. Scientists will be on hand at the newsroom to answer questions, or interviews can be arranged as needed. Press materials, artwork and video relating to the event will be available to media.
NASA TV is carried on Spacenet 2, transponder 5, channel 9, 69 degrees West. The transponder frequency is 3880 MHz, the audio is 6.8 MHz, and polarization is horizontal.
The WWW server contains NASA press releases, current impact and press event schedules, current HST and other spacecraft and ground-based observatory comet images, and information on spacecraft and ground-based observing programs.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy Home Page