From: yee@atlas.arc.nasa.gov (Peter Yee)
Subject: NASA Daily News for 12/15/92 (Forwarded)
Apparently-To: sci-space-news@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Followup-To: sci.space
Originator: yee@atlas.arc.nasa.gov
Reply-To: yee@atlas.arc.nasa.gov (Peter Yee)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 19:28:48 GMT

Daily                 News
    Two Independence Square, Washington, D.C.
Audio service: 202/358-3014

 % Endeavour countdown demonstration test gets underway in Florida;
 % NASA and Oklahoma State University debut new role model TV series;
 % Ames and other U.S. life scientists to fly experiments on Russian mission;
 % Hubble astronomers to discuss "proto-planet" systems 
                in Orion Nebula tomorrow;
 % Next NASA Town Meeting starts tomorrow in Seattle, to air live on TV;
 % Galileo Probe passes health review, video of deploy sequence on TV today.

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

The launch dress rehearsal for Endeavour's tentative January 13 launch
for the STS-54 mission got underway this morning at the Kennedy Space
Center.  The five- member STS-54 flight crew arrived from Houston
yesterday to participate.  The countdown demonstration test will
conclude tomorrow with a simulated launch at 11:00 am EST.  Following
tomorrow's activities, KSC launch management will hold their
center-wide launch readiness review.

Thursday, Endeavour's three main engines will have their hydraulic and
control systems tested as part of the final readiness processing for
the launch.  The Office of Space Flight formal flight readiness
management review will occur next Tuesday, Dec. 22.  Following the
formal review, Space Flight management will set a target launch date.

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

This afternoon at 3:00 pm EST, NASA and the Oklahoma State University
will present the first program in a five-part series designed to
highlight the student careers of female and minority students.  The
series is intended to show middle and high school students that there
are real and valid choices they can make to pursue academic or career
paths in the science and engineering fields.  The first program today
will focus on Apriel Hodarie, a master's degree candidate in physics at
Virginia's Hampton University.  Hodarie is researching ways in which a
laser can be used to detect deadly windshear.  The next program will be
shown on February 10, also at 3:00 pm EST.

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

NASA scientists from the Ames Research Center will join with biomedical
colleagues from other U.S. research institutions in a set of
experiments to fly on an unpiloted Russian capsule to be launched into
space Dec.  29.  The Russian device is a recoverable spacecraft that
carries plant and animal experiments for up to 14 days in Earth orbit.
U.S. research projects have flown aboard seven previous Cosmos
biosatellites, but this is the first mission since the breakup of the
former Soviet Union.  Ames Cosmos project scientist Rodney Ballard said
"this mission will address questions critical to understanding the
effects of prolonged space flight." Muscle, bone, and endocrine system
changes will be the subject of U.S. researchers' experiments.  The
mission will also fly experiments for life scientists from the European
Space Agency, France, Canada, and nations of Eastern Europe.

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

Hubble Space Telescope astronomers tomorrow will discuss recent
discoveries of pre-planetary systems in the area around the Orion
Nebula.  The briefing will take place at 1:00 pm EST, Dec. 16., in the
NASA Headquarters auditorium at 400 Maryland Ave., SW.  Robert O'Dell,
Rice University Hubble astronomer, will present the discoveries and
show images of disks of dust extending from the center of the Orion
Nebula stars.  The nebula has long been considered prime hunting ground
for proto- solar system development because of its concentration of
young stars.  The briefing will be shown live on NASA Select
television.

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

The next NASA Town Meeting will occur tomorrow, at 4:00 pm EST, in
Seattle, Washington, at the Student Union Building on the campus of the
University of Washington.  The four-hour-long program will be broadcast
live on NASA Select television.

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

This afternoon at 1:00 pm EST on NASA Select television, Ames project
officials associated with the Galileo project will present a video of
activities which will occur when the spacecraft arrives at Jupiter in
December, 1995.  Ames, and overall project managers at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, recently put the planetary spacecraft's
Jupiter-entry probe through a complete mission sequence test and
concluded that the Probe was functioning perfectly.  The probe will be
released from the main spacecraft in July 1995 and will report on its
entry through a radio relay link with the Galileo spacecraft, which at
that time will just be entering permanent Jupiter orbit.

Next Tuesday, Dec. 22, Galileo project managers and scientists will
present look results of the spacecraft's Dec. 8 near-encounter with the
Earth and its high-resolution reconnaissance of the Moon's polar
regions in a presentation from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  The
spacecraft trajectory past the Earth enabled it to photograph the Earth
and Moon in sequential, receding, views which JPL expects to make into
an Earth-Moon rotation computer-reconstructed video.  The presentation
will be shown live on NASA Select TV.

  
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.

  
Live   12:00 pm  NASA Today news program.
       12:15 pm  Aeronautics & Space Report.
       12:30 pm  Space Classroom.
Live    1:00 pm  Galileo encounter science video presentation from Ames
                 Research Center (videotape).
        1:30 pm  Where Dreams Come True.
        2:00 pm  Starfinder program #27.
        2:30 pm  Behind the Scenes at the National Air & Space Museum.
Live    3:00 pm  Update for teachers from Oklahoma State University.
     at 4:00 and 8:00 pm and 12:00 midnight the broadcast 
                 schedule of the day repeats.
Live    1:00 pm  Astronomy Update series on Hubble Space Telescope images of
                 proto-planets.
Live    4:00 pm  NASA Town Meeting from Seattle, Washington.

Friday, December 18, 1992
Live    2:00 pm  Total Quality Management Colloquium from NASA Headquarters.

Tuesday, December 22, 1992
Live    3:30 pm  Galileo-Earth 2/Moon flyby encounter post-encounter science
                 press briefing from Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

  
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, 202/358-3014 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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