NASA picks NRL imager

WASHINGTON - NASA has chosen the Naval Research Laboratory's Wide-field Imager to be part of the Solar Probe Plus mission set for launch no later than 2018. The Solar Probe Plus, a car-sized spacecraft, will plunge directly into the sun's atmosphere about four million miles from our star's surface. It will explore a region no other spacecraft ever has encountered in an effort to unlock the sun's biggest mysteries. (Source: NRL, 09/27/10) Gulf Coast note: NASA has activities at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and John C. Stennis Space Center, Miss. The NRL also has a detachment at Stennis Space Center.