George Diller moderates a media briefing on NASA's Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope launch.

At left, Public Information Officer George Diller moderates a media briefing on NASA's Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, launch scheduled for June 11. On the panel next to Diller are Dr. Jon Morse, director of NASA's Astrophysics Division; Omar Baez, NASA launch director/launch manager at Kennedy; Kris Walsh, director of the Delta NASA and Commercial Programs with United Launch Alliance; Kevin Grady, GLAST project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center; Dr. Steven Ritz, GLAST project scientist/astrophysicist at Goddard; and Joel Tumbiolo, the U.S. Air Force Delta II launch weather officer with the 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. GLAST is a powerful space observatory that will explore the Universe's ultimate frontier, where nature harnesses forces and energies far beyond anything possible on Earth; probe some of science's deepest questions, such as what our Universe is made of, and search for new laws of physics; explain how black holes accelerate jets of material to nearly light speed; and help crack the mystery of stupendously powerful explosions known as gamma-ray bursts. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett