Two-Day Public Event Planned For This Weekend

Step into the future of aviation and space exploration with NASA at the USA Science and Engineering Festival on Saturday, April 7, and Sunday, April 8, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington.

Leading up to the main event, NASA will hold a media availability at 12:30 p.m. EDT Friday, April 6, with the agency's acting Chief Technologist Douglas Terrier, and other agency experts, who will be on hand to discuss the NASA missions that are inspiring today's youth – the Mars generation.

During the two-day public event, Saturday and Sunday, festival visitors can come to NASA's interactive and informative exhibit at booth #5509 in the Space Exploration Pavilion, Hall E, to learn about:

• Getting to know – and getting to – Mars
• Viewing the universe through Hubble's lens
• X-rays, gamma rays, and how it all began
• Our Sun, star of the Milky Way
• Looking for the ingredients for life on other worlds
• Living and working on the International Space Station
• Big breakthroughs with small satellites
• X-planes! NASA has them. All-electric. Quiet supersonic.
• Lunar exploration, today and tomorrow

NASA's exhibit will showcase the future of human space exploration – including the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System rocket. Also on display will be the agency's partnership with American Girl to inspire young girls to pursue education and careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, the stage located within the NASA exhibit will feature scientists and engineers presenting fast-paced, TED-style talks with titles such as:

• So You Want to Go to Space. I did!
• NASA Aeronautics and the X-57 All-Electric Plane
• How is the Weather in Space?
• Increasing the Awesome: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope
• How Do You Make a Planet?
• Is Anyone Out There: NASA's Search for Life in the Universe

Also on Saturday, high school students will have the opportunity interview NASA experts from 1 to 1:50 p.m. about their work and its challenges during the festival's Meet the Scientist & Engineer event in the Career Pavilion. And, on Sunday, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir will talk at 11 a.m. on Stage E about life as an astronaut and scientist.

(Source: NASA news release)

FMI: www.usasciencefestival.org