Daily                 News
Tuesday, October 13, 1992  24-hour audio service at 202/755-1788

 % Administrator Goldin stresses economic pressures in State of Agency message;
 % Search for extraterrestrial civilizations gets 
                 underway in Calif. & Puerto Rico;
 % KSC processing team closing out Columbia for next Thursday's STS-52 launch;
 % Langley to open facilities Saturday to public as part 
                 of 75th anniversary celebration.

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

Administrator Daniel Goldin this morning addressed NASA employees with
his "state of the agency" message, saying the agency was facing
tremendous challenges.  Goldin pointed out that in earlier decades
NASA's goals were in complete alignment with the will of the American
people and the direction of the Congress but that with the changes in
world politics and the economic pressures facing everyone NASA was a
little bit adrift.  Goldin told employees that it was important to
understand where we had come from, what are the real issues we face and
what are the possibilities for the future.  Goldin said that after
being here for six months, he was convinced that the talent pool at
NASA is second to none in the world.  Goldin said that with a shared
vision, NASA could be the force that could catalyze tremendous change.
The address will be repeated on NASA Select television at 12:00 noon,
4:00 and 8:00 pm EDT and again at midnight.

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

NASA yesterday began the most comprehensive search ever conducted for
evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe.  The search
will use California's Goldstone Deep Space Network station and also the
Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.  The project is called  the High
Resolution Microwave Survey and consists of two parts P the Targeted
Search, which will use the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center's
huge dish at Arecibo, and the Sky Survey, which will use the 34-meter
dish at Goldstone.  The searches will use radio telescope antennas to
"listen" to stars for non-random radio noise P much like someone tuning
a radio listens for a station between the static.  The Targeted Search
will be searching about 1,000 nearby stars similar to our Sun; the Sky
Survey will survey the entire sky.  The radio telescope signals will be
fed to highly sophisticated signal analyzer systems which can scan
frequencies from 1,000 to 10,000 megaHertz in seconds.  The program is
managed by the Ames Research Center, with support from the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, for NASA's Solar System Exploration Division.

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

Kennedy Space Center technicians are in the process of closing out
Columbia's aft engine compartment today.  The team completed the
hypergolic fuel loading over the weekend.  External tank purges will
occur this Thursday.  The payload bay doors are scheduled to be closed
next Monday, October 19, in preparation for Thursday's launch.  The
launch window opens on Oct. 22 at 11:16 am EDT and remains open through
2:21 pm EDT.  The mission is scheduled as a 9-day mission with a
nominal end-of-mission landing at the KSC Shuttle Landing Facility.

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

Langley Research Center is inviting the public to share in the
celebration of its 75th anniversary this coming Saturday, Oct. 17.  The
center will open up all its facilities to the public with tours of the
wind tunnels, flight simulators, and acoustic and robotics
laboratories.  The facilities will all be operational to some degree so
visitors can experience a little of what the Langley engineers and
scientists do when they are engaged in development and testing
activities.  In addition to the facility tours, Langley will have on
display the National AeroSpace Plane mockup and other research aircraft
depicting future aeronautics concepts.

  
Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select
TV.  Note that all events and times may change without notice, and that
all times listed are Eastern.  Live indicates a program is transmitted
live.

Tuesday, October 13, 1992
  12:00 pm  NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin addresses employees with "State
            of the Agency" remarks (taped at 9:30 this morning).
   4:00 pm  Repeat playback of "State of the Agency" remarks from
            Administrator Daniel Goldin.
   8:00 pm  Repeat playback of "State of the Agency" remarks from
            Administrator Daniel Goldin.
  12:00 am  Repeat playback of "State of the Agency" remarks from
            Administrator Daniel Goldin.

  
This report is filed daily at noon, Monday through Friday.  It is a
service of NASA's Office of Public Affairs.  The editor is Charles
Redmond, 202/453-8425 or CREDMOND on NASAmail.  NASA Select TV is
carried on GE Satcom F2R, transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees West
Longitude, transponder frequency is 3960 MegaHertz, audio subcarrier is
6.8 MHz, polarization is vertical.