More than 100 Maryland middle school students will discover how and why scientists will take the first-ever 3-D images of the sun using two nearly identical spacecraft when they meet with engineers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) during Space Academy: STEREO Mission on Friday, April 7 starting at 9:20 a.m.

The "Space Academy" series takes students behind the scenes of actual space missions and introduces them to engineers and scientists who carry out some of NASA's coolest projects. STEREO Mission focuses on the twin Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory, or STEREO, spacecraft recently constructed at APL and scheduled for launch in summer 2006. The two space-based observatories will provide the first 3-D "stereo" images of the sun to study powerful solar eruptions called coronal mass ejections — a major source of magnetic disruptions on Earth and a key component of space weather.

Media are invited to attend the event, which includes a student press conference with space scientists and a tour of APL's space-environment test facilities where the STEREO observatories were designed and built prior to their shipment to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center where they're now undergoing pre-launch tests. APL, a division of the Johns Hopkins University, manages several NASA missions and has built and launched 62 spacecraft over the past four decades. The Space Academy series is sponsored by APL, Comcast Cable and the Discovery Networks.

For more information or to attend the event, please contact:
K. Marren
240-228-6268 or 443-778-6268

Media can also register online at:
http://www.spaceacademy.jhuapl.edu/PressRoom/PressRegistration.php

For information on STEREO, visit http://stereo.jhuapl.edu.