ICESat-2 Prelaunch Mission Briefing Today

Artist's image of NASA's ICESat-2 spacecraft above Earth.
The ICESat-2 mission will measure the changing height of Earth’s glaciers, ice sheets and sea ice, one laser pulse at a time, 10,000 laser pulses per second. Image credit: NASA

NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, is being prepared for liftoff Saturday aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket from Space Launch Complex-2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The launch window opens at 8:46 a.m. EDT (5:46 a.m. PDT).

NASA will host a prelaunch mission briefing today at 4 p.m. EDT (1 p.m. PDT). The briefing will be broadcast on NASA TV. Scheduled participants are:

  • Tom Wagner, ICESat-2 program scientist at NASA Headquarters
  • Doug McLennan, ICESat-2 project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
  • Cathy Richardson, Deputy Program Manager, Earth Science Projects Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
  • Tom Neumann, ICESat-2 deputy project scientist at Goddard
  • Lori Magruder, ICESat-2 science definition team lead at the University of Texas at Austin
  • Helen Fricker, ICESat-2 science definition team member at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
  • Bill Barnhart, ICESat-2 program manager at Northrop Grumman
  • Tim Dunn, launch director at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
  • Scott Messer, program manager for NASA Programs at United Launch Alliance
  • 1st Lt. Daniel Smith, launch weather officer with the 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg

Media and the public may ask questions during the briefing using #askNASA.