NASA to Discuss New Black-Hole Hunting Satellite Today

Artist's concept of NuSTAR on orbit. NuSTAR has two identical optics modules in order to increase sensitivity. The background is an image of the galactic center obtained with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. (Image credit: NASA)

NASA will discuss plans for its next major telescope mission, a new satellite equipped to search for black holes, in a briefing Wednesday (May 30) that will be broadcast live online.

NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) instrument is set to launch June 13 from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The telescope will be packed aboard an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket due to launch from a plane in midair.

The observatory was originally scheduled to launch in March, but NASA determined that more time was needed to review the rocket's software.

Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington
Fiona Harrison, NuSTAR principal investigator at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.
Daniel Stern, NuSTAR project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena
Yunjin Kim, NuSTAR project manager at JPL

The press conference, which will take place at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., will be carried live on NASA TV as well as Ustream: http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2. Anyone can submit a question to be answered during the briefing via Twitter, using the hashtag #asknasa.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.