NASA researchers will discuss a new mission to the edge of space Jan. 4 at 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT). The Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission will inspect how space and Earth's upper atmosphere intermingle from geostationary orbit, and it will launch along with a commercial satellite Jan. 25. Watch the briefing live here on Space.com in the window below, courtesy of NASA TV:
"The Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission is an instrument launching on a commercial satellite to inspect from geostationary orbit the dynamic intermingling of space and Earth’s uppermost atmosphere. GOLD will seek to understand what drives change in this region where terrestrial weather in the lower atmosphere interacts with the tumult of solar activity from above and Earth’s magnetic field. Resulting data will improve forecasting models of space weather events that can impact life on Earth, as well as satellites and astronauts in space.
"GOLD is NASA’s first science mission to fly as a hosted instrument aboard a commercial communications satellite and is scheduled to launch Thursday, Jan. 25 from French Guiana. GOLD will fly on SES-14, built by Airbus for Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES. The mission is led by the University of Central Florida.
"Participating in the briefing are:
- Sarah Jones, GOLD mission scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
- Alex Young, associate director for heliophysics science, Goddard
- Todd Gossett, senior director of hosted payloads at SES Government Solutions, Reston, Virginia
"Media and members of the public can post questions during the broadcast via Twitter by using the hashtag #askNASA."
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