Media Invited to Renaming Ceremony for International Ocean Science Satellite

NASA and its partners on an upcoming mission to extend long-term observations of global sea level change will announce the renaming of the mission, currently known as Sentinel-6A/Jason-CS, at a ceremony at 9 a.m. EST Tuesday, Jan. 28.

The ceremony will take place in the James Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E. St., SW, in Washington and will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

NASA is jointly developing the mission with its partners at ESA (European Space Agency), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with support from the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France's space agency. Sentinel-6 is part of Copernicus, the European Union’s Earth observation program managed by the European Commission. The satellite is scheduled for launch in November from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Ceremony participants include:

·       NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine

·       Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for Science

·       Josef Aschbacher, ESA director of Earth Observation Programmes

·       Stephen Volz, NOAA assistant administrator for Satellite and Information Services

·       Alain Ratier, EUMETSAT director-general

·       Mercedes Garcia Pérez, head of Global Issues and Innovation of the European Union delegation to the United States

·       Mike Freilich, former director of NASA’s Earth Science Division

The ceremony will be followed by a 15-minute opportunity for media interviews with the participants. Reporters planning on attending should contact Grey Hautaluoma at grey.hautaluoma-1@nasa.gov no later than 5 p.m. EST Monday, Jan. 27.