NOTE TO EDITORS: N99-059

PRELAUNCH BRIEFING ON PREMIER EARTH SCIENCE SPACECRAFT TO BE HELD NOV. 23

A prelaunch briefing to discuss the scientific goals of the upcoming Terra mission, a U.S.-Japanese-Canadian Earth Observing System spacecraft that will study the planet's lands, oceans, clouds and atmosphere, will be held at 1 p.m. EST on Tuesday, Nov. 23, 1999, in the James E. Webb auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St., SW, Washington, DC.

With a complement of five major scientific instruments, the  polar-orbiting spacecraft will provide long-term observations about Earth's global climate -- sound science that can be used by leaders when making global environmental decisions. The launch of Terra aboard an Atlas IIAS rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, is scheduled for December.

Both the science briefing and the launch will be carried live on NASA Television. The briefing will have question-and-answer capability for media from participating NASA centers. NASA TV is available on GE-2, transponder 9C (C-Band), located at 85 degrees West longitude, vertical polarization with a frequency of 3880 MHz and audio of 6.8 MHz.

The Terra project is part of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise,  a long-term, coordinated research effort to study the total Earth system and the effects of natural and human-induced changes on the global environment.

Detailed information on Terra is available via the Internet at:   http://terra.nasa.gov