Ms. Curiosity Goes to Washington

PASADENA, Calif. - It's an all-American, once-every-four-years tradition: the inauguration of a president. On Monday, Jan. 21, the Red Planet will join the traditional red-white-and-blue pageantry when a life-size model of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity appears in the inaugural parade after President Barack Obama takes the oath of office.

The rover model will be accompanied by engineers and scientists from NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory representing Curiosity and the Mars Science Laboratory, the spacecraft that transported the rover to a safe landing on the Martian surface last August:

• Richard Cook-project manager (from JPL)


• Bobak Ferdowsi-flight director (from JPL)


• Dave Lavery - program executive (from NASA Headquarters)


• Michael Meyer - program Scientist (from NASA Headquarters)


• Jennifer Trosper-mission manager (from JPL)


• Ashwin Vasavada, Deputy Project Scientist (from JPL)

In addition, current and former NASA astronauts will appear in the parade, along with a model of Orion, the multi-purpose capsule that will take astronauts farther into space than ever before.

A full schedule of NASA-related events for Inauguration Day and the weekend leading up to it is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/news/inauguration.html .

For more information about Curiosity, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl . Follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity.

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Veronica McGregor 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
veronica.mcgregor@jpl.nasa.gov