NASA is inviting news media representatives to view a scale model of the new Crew Exploration Vehicle at its Ames Research Center on March 7.
Reporters are invited to view the CEV model in Ames' Unitary Wind Tunnel complex. Engineers have been conducting wind-tunnel tests of the new spacecraft, which is expected to become the central vehicle in the Vision for Space Exploration proposed by President George W. Bush in January 2004.
The tests are simulating airflow and temperature changes the CEV will have to experience in atmospheric flight, and they are among the first steps in the process to develop a new space-travel system to return humans to the Moon and support later missions to Mars.
Officials originally had set Feb. 28 for the viewing, but postponed the event, they said, to ensure that reporters could view the model close-up inside the facility's wind tunnel.
