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John Bluck Dec. 16, 2006

NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

650-604-5026

E-mail: <jbluck@mail.arc.nasa.gov>

**MISSION STATUS REPORT: 06-94AR**

**NASA\'S GENESAT-1 REACHES ORBIT ON AIR FORCE ROCKET**

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. - NASA\'s GeneSat-1 rode an Air Force rocket into
Earth orbit on Dec. 16, 2006 at 4 a.m. PST (7 a.m. EST) from NASA\'s
Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va. The satellite\'s locator
beacon has been detected, and data has been received as GeneSat-1 orbits
Earth, according to scientists.

GeneSat-1 is a 10-pound satellite carrying bacteria inside a miniature
laboratory to study how the microbes may respond in spaceflight.
GeneSat-1 was a secondary payload on an Air Force four-stage Minotaur 1
rocket that also delivered the Air Force TacSat 2 satellite to orbit.

\"It\'s wonderful to hear that GeneSat-1 is orbiting Earth, and I extend
my congratulations the whole GeneSat-1 team, including NASA people,
industry partners and university students,\" said S. Pete Worden,
director of NASA\'s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
GeneSat-1 was designed and built at Ames, and the mission will be
managed from the center. \"This success shows that a lot can be done
with small satellites made with modest budgets,\" Worden added.

The Small Spacecraft Office at NASA\'s Ames teamed up with industry and
local universities to develop the fully automated, miniature GeneSat
spaceflight system that provides life support for small living things.

\"During this mission, we are exposing bacteria to the space environment
to see how they are affected,\" said John Hines, GeneSat-1 project
manager at NASA Ames. GeneSat-1\'s onboard micro-laboratory includes
sensors and optical systems that can detect proteins that are the
products of specific genetic activity. The GeneSat-1 ground control
station at NASA Ames will receive data radioed from the micro-laboratory
after it has completed its observations and tests of the bacteria
inside.

The biological test will last only 96 hours, but the GeneSat-1 team will
evaluate the stability of the orbiting payload\'s systems for four
months to a year.

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\"GeneSat is the first of many small spacecraft and missions being
developed and managed in the NASA Ames Small Spacecraft Office, which
has been established to specifically demonstrate the capability to
rapidly develop and deploy small, low-cost spacecraft missions and
flight systems,\" Hines observed.

For the most current launch information, please telephone Keith Koehler,
public affairs, at Wallops Flight Facility: 757-824-1579, or visit:

**<http://www.wff.nasa.gov/tacsat2/>**

To view the launch via webcast, please visit:

**<http://www.wff.nasa.gov/webcast/>**

For more information about GeneSat-1, please visit:

[**http://tia.arc.nasa.gov/genesat1/**](http://tia.arc.nasa.gov/genesat1/)

Publication-size images are available at:

[**http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/multimedia/images/2006/genebox.html**](http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/multimedia/images/2006/genebox.html)

-end-

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