News Releases

Northrop Grumman Foundation Launches Social Media Platforms for Its Weightless Flights of Discovery Program

LOS ANGELES - June 25, 2009 - The Northrop Grumman Foundation has officially launched its Facebook and Twitter social media platforms in support of the Weightless Flights of Discovery -- a professional development program that allows teachers to prepare for and participate in micro- and zero-gravity flights to test Newton's Laws of Motion with the purpose of taking the experience back into their classrooms to energize their students in science and math subjects during the formative middle-school years.

The program-dedicated Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/ldd2st) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/GoWeightless) pages will serve as a tool to keep teachers, students as well as science and space enthusiasts informed about the program through continuous news updates and information sharing, while also engaging fans and followers in conversation on the importance of high-quality STEM education in U.S. schools. Ongoing posts will include news on application deadlines, details on upcoming flights, press releases and interesting facts and statistics from the science, space and technology fields. The social media pages also aim to bring science fans and followers together through the sharing of photos and videos of teachers at workshops and on microgravity flights, as well as through the hosting discussions on various topics and encouraging feedback and comments from all.

"Today's social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are a great way for us to further our mission to excite, engage and inform students, teachers, and the general public about science and STEM," said Sandra Evers-Manly, President of the Northrop Grumman Foundation. "Creating these social networking platforms seems like a natural step to give the science community that is already active online, and our own Weightless Flights program friends and family, a place to come together as a community to share experiences and their enthusiasm for science with one another."

For the fourth consecutive year, the Northrop Grumman Foundation is partnering with Zero-G Corporation to offer the Weightless Flights of Discovery program, one of several initiatives the Northrop Grumman Foundation sponsors in support of promoting education and student interest in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Selected teachers will participate in a full-day orientation program several weeks before their flights. Teachers then will work with their students to develop experiments to be conducted in-flight, in environments simulating lunar gravity, Martian gravity and weightlessness. Following the two-to-three-hour flight, each teacher will share his or her experiences back in the classroom with photography and video.

The United States is experiencing a shortage of college graduates in the STEM disciplines, a negative trend that bodes ill for the nation's industries that depend on talented scientists and mathematicians. Because studies have indicated most children make the decision to pursue math and science education and careers during middle-school, Northrop Grumman developed the Weightless Flights of Discovery to engage teachers, key influencers in the lives of students during these crucial years.

The Northrop Grumman Foundation supports diverse and sustainable programs for students and teachers. These programs create innovative education experiences in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

CONTACT:  Rosalie Hagel
          Jennifer Herrera
          M. Silver Associates
          954-765-3636
          Rosalie@msilver-pr.com
          Jennifer@msilver-pr.com

          Tom Henson
          Northrop Grumman
          (310) 201-3458
          thomas.henson@ngc.com