From: yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Daily News for 08/18/92 (Forwarded)
Apparently-To: sci-space-news@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Followup-To: sci.space
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 02:49:55 GMT

	Daily                News
Tuesday, August 18, 1992        24-hour audio service at 202/755-1788

 % KSC Crane Incident Board Appointed
 % NASA/DOE Select Sprint for Communications Services
 % Launch Set for Consort 5 Microgravity Experiments

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

Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Crippen has appointed an 
investigation board to examine an incident involving a crane that 
apparently experienced erratic movement while lifting a solid rocket 
booster segment in high bay 1 of the Vehicle Assembly Building 
(VAB) on August 11.  Board functions include investigating the facts 
surrounding the mishap, determining the probable cause, assessing 
the possibility of a recurrence or similar mishap and recommending 
corrective action.  A final report is due the second week of October.

On August 11, crane operators were preparing to stack the left 
forward segment for the STS-52 mission using the crane's slow speed 
operating mode.  There was a sudden increase in the lateral speed of 
the crane during the operation.  The operator stopped the crane 
immediately and there was no damage to personnel, flight hardware 
or ground equipment.

Columbia is scheduled to fly the STS-52 mission, targeted for launch 
in October, with the Laser Geodynamic Satellite-2 (LAGEOS II) 
payload.

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

NASA and the Department of Energy (DOE) have announced that 
they have selected Sprint to provide broadband communications 
services that will upgrade the technology of three of their 
national research data networks.  NASA's AEROnet and Science 
Internet (NSI) and DOE's Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) provide 
high-speed, nation-wide and international data communications to 
support a variety of open research and education programs in 
energy, aeronautics, space and Earth sciences.  

The NSI project offices are located at the Ames Research Center.  
ESnet is managed by the the National Energy Research 
Supercomputer Center at DOE's Lawrence Livermore National 
Laboratory.  Universities, laboratories and research centers use the 
networks.

This activity is funded under the Federal High Performance 
Computing and Communications program.  The program was a 1992 
Presidential initiative and was authorized in the High 
Performance Computing Act of 1991.  A fundamental objective of 
the initiative is to promote U.S. competitiveness in the fields of 
scientific computing and communications.

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

The launch of Consort 5, a commercial suborbital rocket carrying 
nine microgravity experiments has been set for 10:20am EDT, 
September 10, by the University of Alabama in Huntsville's 
Consortium for Materials Development in Space (UAH CMDS).  The 
rocket and launch services are funded by a grant from NASA's Office 
of Commercial Programs.  The UAH CMDS, which manages the 
Consort rocket program, is one of 17 NASA Centers for the 
Commercial Development of Space (CCDS).

EER Systems, Va., will launch the Consort payload using its Starfire 
rocket.  The Consort 5 flight will be conducted through the Naval 
Air Warfare Center Weapons Division-White Sands Detachment at 
White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), N.M.  The two-stage, solid-fuel 
Starfire will carry the payload to an altitude of 200 miles and 
provide the experiments with 7 to 8 minutes of microgravity 
exposure or weightlessness.  The Consort 5 experiments will focus 
on the effects of microgravity on various processes, materials and 
biomedical samples.

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

        
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, August 18, 1992

Live    12:00 pm  NASA Today news program
Taped   12:15 pm  Aeronautics & Space Report
        12:30 pm  Safe Computting
         1:00 pm  Apollo  9 - Three To Make Ready
         1:30 pm  Computational Fluid Dynamics
         2:00 pm  Launch Box #5
         2:30 pm  The Moon - A Goal
         3:00 pm  TQM # 22 - Uniiversity of New Mexico Series
         4:00 pm  NASA Today and subsequent programming repeats.
         8:00 pm  NASA Today and subsequent programming repeats.
        12:00 am  NASA Today and subsequent programming repeats.
        
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.
Newsgroups: sci.space.news