Headline News
Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA Headquarters

  Wednesday, February 20, 1991	Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788

This is NASA Headline News for Wednesday, February 20, 1991

At Kennedy Space Center, the terminal countdown demonstration 
test for the STS-39 Discovery DOD mission concluded on time at 11:10 
am EST.  Vice President Quayle arrived at the Shuttle Landing Facility 
at 10:20 am and proceeded on an abbreviated tour of the Vehicle Assembly 
Building and Orbiter Processing Facilities.  The Vice President spoke to 
launch control team and Discovery flight team members while he toured 
the Launch Control Complex.

The quick disconnect door hinge problem on Discovery continues to 
undergo analysis.  A decision as to whether to roll back, fix in place or 
fly-as-is is expected to be made by nightfall tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 
21.

The Space Life Sciences crew was at KSC yesterday for a crew 
equipment interface test of the Spacelab habitable long module.  The 
module is currently in the Operations and Checkout Building.  The crew 
interface test yesterday was the final major milestone prior to moving the 
module to the OPF for installation in Columbia's payload bay.  That move 
is presently slated for mid-March.

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Ulysses is presently 132 million miles from Earth and travelling, 
with respect to the Sun, at 60,300 miles per hour.  The mission is in a 
routine operations phase with science observations continuing.  Deep 
Space Network station antennas provide eight hours of tracking a day, 
during which time real-time data is acquired.  The wobble caused by 
uneven solar heating of the spacecraft's axial boom has not returned, 
though flight controllers caution that it could return any time between 
now and April.  Ulysses is expected to be sufficiently far from the Sun by 
April to preclude a recurrence after then.

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NASA yesterday released the first of a series of new space-age 
learning tools.  The first product, a 21-minute video called "Space 
Basics," is intended to illustrate orbital science, and uses space 
photography acquired on the STS-41 mission aboard Discovery.  The video 
tape is accompanied by a teachers resource booklet which includes 
background information on rockets and orbits, a vocabulary and reference 
list, and suggestions for classroom projects.  NASA will develop 
additional video and slide sets relating to specific missions and space 
flight concepts.  NASA will also distribute to the education community a 
mission summary following each shuttle mission.  These summaries will 
also feature suggested classroom activities based on that mission's science 
and technology experiments.

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Goddard Space Flight Center Director John Klineberg yesterday 
announced the appointment of Peter Burr as Deputy Director.  
Burr's appointment is effective immediately.  Burr had been Goddard's 
director of flight projects since 1989 and prior to that had been deputy 
director of flight projects since 1980.  He has also been the project 
manager for the Solar Max Mission and, more recently, for the Upper 
Atmosphere Research Satellite.

                   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Kennedy Space Center yesterday awarded a $56.215 million contract to 
Metric Constructors Inc., Tampa, for construction of the KSC Space 
Station Processing Facility.  Metric Constructors will build the 
457,000-square-foot facility just east of the Operations and Checkout 
Building in the KSC industrial area.  When finished, the facility will be a 
three-story multi-function building housing laboratories, control rooms, 
staging areas, communications and control facilities, and office space for 
the nearly 1,000 NASA and contractor employees who are expected to 
work there.

The facility will contain high-bay and intermediate-bay processing 
space for payloads totalling over 63,000 square feet.  Several additional 
features include a 5,000 square-foot air lock, air-bearing work stands, 
and a visitor viewing facility.  It will be the largest construction project at 
KSC since the Apollo era and is expected to be open for occupancy by 
Summer of 1994.
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Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select 
TV.  All times are Eastern.  **indicates a live program.

Wednesday, 2/20/91
	12:10 pm	**Press conference with Vice President Dan Quayle, live 
			from the Kennedy Space Center.

	 1:30 pm	**Magellan-at-Venus status report, live from Jet
			Propulsion Laboratory.



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All events and times may change without notice.  This report is filed daily, 
Monday through Friday, at 12:00 pm, EST.  It is a service of Internal 
Communications Branch at NASA Headquarters.  Contact:  CREDMOND 
on NASAmail or at 202/453-8425.
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NASA Select TV:  Satcom F2R, Transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees West 
Longitude, Audio 6.8, Frequency 3960 MHz.