NASA holds G+ hangout today for Neil Armstrong and Kennedy’s Moon Speech

Today, Wednesday 9/12, NASA will pay tribute to Neil Armstrong and the 50th Anniversary of President Kennedy’s “Moon Speech” at 12pm PT / 3pm ET, with NASA astronauts, scientists and engineers coming together in a one-hour Google+ hangout to remember historic NASA innovations and discuss the future goals for scientific discovery and human spaceflight.

Anyone can submit questions before or during the event by using hashtag #askNASA on Google+ or posting questions in the Google+ event. To watch the event in real time, visit http://plus.google.com/+NASAat 12pm PT / 3pm ET tomorrow. Otherwise, I’ll plan to follow-up with a link to the Hangout On Air this afternoon.

Below is more information on the participants and their background.

Host:

* Lauren Worley, the Press Secretary in the Office of Communications

Participants:

* Dan Dumbacher, Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development in NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. He is the former Director of Engineering at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Previously, he was the deputy director of safety and mission assurance at Marshall.

* Ron Garan, astronaut who lived and worked aboard the International Space Station. He has been in space for 178 days and has conducted four spacewalks.

* John Grunsfeld, Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. He is an astronaut and researcher in high energy astrophysics, cosmic ray physics, and in the emerging field of exoplanet studies. He was also the deputy director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, managing the science program for the Hubble Space Telescope and the forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope.

* Michael Lopez-Alegria, the President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. He is a former Naval Aviator and test pilot (Capt., U.S. Navy, Ret.), NASA astronaut and International Space Station (ISS) commander.