From: yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Daily News for 09/14/92 (Forwarded)
Apparently-To: sci-space-news@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Followup-To: sci.space
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 18:29:18 GMT

Daily                News
Monday, September 14, 1992  24-hour audio service at 202/755-1788

 % Endeavour begins STS-47, Spacelab-J, mission with perfect on-time launch;
 % Flight crew well underway with 43 materials and life science experiments; 
 % Endeavour crew, with ground help, resolves minor cooling system leak;
 % Astronaut Apt reports seeing lights from Palmer Station, Antarctica;
 % Ulysses scientists report discoveries from February flyby of Jupiter;
 % NASA providing additional satellite coverage of STS-47 mission.

The orbiting Spacelab-J scientific team of STS-47 continues to perform
their materials and life science experiments in near-perfect fashion.
The mission got off to an auspicious beginning with a flawless
countdown and on-time launch last Saturday at 10:23 am EDT.  The ascent
and staging were perfect and, once in orbit, the crew set about
activating the Spacelab and its 43 experiments.  The experiments
consist of 24 materials science experiments, including several which
use melting furnaces, and 19 life science experiments, including a frog
embryo experiment which will help determine if animals can develop
naturally in the absence of gravity.

The astronauts also activated the nine Get Away Special canisters being
carried in Endeavour's payload bay.  Several of these include student
experiments being sponsored by a variety of organizations including
Spar Aerospace of Canada.

The seven-member crew is split into two teams, Red and Blue, so that
the experiments can be performed on a 24-hour basis.  Red Team members
are mission commander Robert Gibson, mission pilot Curtis Brown, Jr.,
mission specialist Mark Lee and Japanese payload specialist Mamoru
Mohri.  Blue Team members are mission specialists Jerome Apt, Mae
Jemison and Jan Davis.

A minor water cooling system leak on one of the Spacelab equipment
racks was identified and fixed before it impacted any of the experiment
protocols.  The leak was in one of the cooling system fittings on the
rack with the four experiment furnaces.  The flight crew, working with
mission controllers in Houston and Spacelab engineers in Huntsville,
resolved the location of the leak and repaired it by tightening the
fitting.  The only other problems noted so far are a lost thruster jet
in Endeavour's rear thruster assembly and a sluggish cooling unit for
one of the hydraulic power systems.  Neither of these orbiter anomalies
will impact the mission operations nor its duration.

Astronaut Apt yesterday gave television viewers a tour the orbiter's
flight deck and reported taking good Earth resources photographs of
Japan, the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Alaskan Aleutian Islands.  Apt
also reported seeing lights he believed were from the Palmer Station in
Antarctica as Endeavour flew nearly overhead.  This is another
high-inclination, 57-degree, mission, which allows the orbiter crew to
see polar phenomena such as aurora.  The vehicle and its crew and
experiments are presently in a nearly circular 190-mile high orbit.

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

Scientists using data from the European Space Agency-NASA Ulysses
spacecraft have reported in the journal Science that the Jupiter
magnetosphere is far more influenced by the incoming solar wind than
had previously been suspected or measured.  The Ulysses spacecraft flew
by Jupiter on a very steep approach this past February and gave
scientists a different and more revealing look at aspects of the Jovian
magnetic environment than had been provided by the two previous Voyager
flybys.

The scientists, in a series of articles presenting the results of the
Ulysses Jupiter flyby, report that Jupiter's magnetic field has a layer
in which it appears that Jupiter particles and solar wind particles are
intermingling.  Another discovery announced by the team is that some of
Jupiter's magnetic field lines lead out into space and do not return to
the opposite pole of the planet.  This same phenomenon had been noted
about Earth.  Another discovery announced by the scientists is that the
Jupiter magnetic field appears to be dragged by the solar wind and was
not rotating with the rest of the planet.

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

NASA is again providing supplementary television coverage for the
duration of the STS-47 mission.  The mission is being covered in its
entirety on the regular NASA Select television transponder.  In
addition, two-hour daily summaries of mission activity and project
briefings are being transmitted on the Spacenet 1 satellite from
midnight Eastern Daylight Time through 2:00 am, except for Friday,
Sept. 7, when the transmission begins at 3:00 am EDT.  The summaries
are transmitted on Spacenet to provide additional satellite coverage to
residents and organizations located in Alaska, Hawaii and portions of
the Pacific NorthwestPall of which lie at the fringe or beyond the
footprint of NASA Select's Satcom F2R satellite.  Spacenet 1 is located
at 120 degrees West Longitude.  The NASA transmissions will be on
transponder 17L (4060 MHz).  Users of 24Pchannel satellite receivers
should set their receiver to Channel 18.

  
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.

Monday, September 14, 1992
Live   2:00 pm  Today in Space program from MSFC.
Live   3:00 pm  Mission Status briefing from JSC and MSFC.
       8:30 pm  Replay of Today in Space.
       9:00 pm  Flight Day 3 highlights.

Tuesday, September 15, 1992
Live   2:00 pm  Today in Space program from MSFC.
Live   3:00 pm  Mission Status briefing from JSC and MSFC.
Live   4:53 pm  CNN Interview with mission commander Robert Gibson.
       8:30 pm  Replay of Today in Space.
       9:00 pm  Flight Day 4 highlights.

Wednesday, September 16, 1992
Live   7:33 am  Conversation with Japanese youth.
Live   2:00 pm  Today in Space program from MSFC.
Live   3:00 pm  Mission Status briefing from JSC and MSFC.
       8:30 pm  Replay of Today in Space.
       9:00 pm  Flight Day 5 highlights.

Thursday, September 17, 1992
Live  6:18 am  Crew on-orbit press conference.
Live  2:00 pm  Today in Space program from MSFC.
Live  3:00 pm  Mission Status briefing from JSC and MSFC.
      8:30 pm  Replay of Today in Space.
      9:00 pm  Flight Day 6 highlights.

Friday, September 18, 1992
Live  7:53 am  VIP conversation with Japanese payload specialist Mamoru Mohri.
Live  2:00 pm  Today in Space program from MSFC.
Live  3:00 pm  Mission Status briefing from JSC and MSFC.
      8:30 pm  Replay of Today in Space.
      9:00 pm  Flight Day 7 highlights.

Saturday, September 19, 1992
      5:59 am  Scheduled time of Endeavour's re-entry maneuver.
Live  6:59 am  Scheduled time of landing of STS-47 crew and Endeavour at
               Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility.

  
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.
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