From: baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke)
Subject: NASA Daily News for 11/18/92 (Forwarded)
Followup-To: sci.space
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4   
Reply-To: baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 06:09:45 GMT

Daily                 News
Wednesday, November 18, 1992  24-hour audio service at 202/755-1788

 % Discovery work at Pad 39-A continues; payload to be 
                  installed tomorrow; 
 % Advanced Communications Satellite Workshop opens today 
                  in Washington;
 % NASA completes negotiations with McDonnell Douglas for 
                  Spacelab support;
 % Hubble briefing tomorrow to feature photo of Black 
                  Hole accretion disk;
 % October was busy month for Marshall and Ames education 
                  specialists.

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

Preparations for the December launch of Discovery for the 
STS-53 Department of Defense mission are continuing at 
Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-A.  The orbiter and 
associated stack components will be powered up today and 
the KSC crew will begin aft orbiter compartment and solid 
rocket booster closeouts later this afternoon.  A minor
concern cropped up during the hot-fire test of the 
orbiter's hydraulic auxiliary power units, which showed 
APU #1 to have a higher than acceptable fuel-inlet 
pressure reading.  A change-out of the unit is under 
consideration, which could be accomplished in existing 
contingency time associated with Discovery's remaining 
launch preparations.  Otherwise there appear to be no 
concerns.  The DOD payload will be installed in 
Discovery's payload bay tomorrow.

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

Today and tomorrow at the Sheraton Washington Hotel NASA 
will co-host a conference on the Advanced Communications 
Technology Satellite.  Other conference co-hosts are 
Comsat Laboratories, the Harris Corporation, and MITRE 
Corp.  The satellite is scheduled for launch aboard a 
shuttle flight scheduled for launch in mid-1993.  It was 
developed by NASA in cooperation with the American 
satellite communications industry to support future high-
risk communications needs which fell outside the
sponsorship capabilities of the private sector and 
reflects a three-decade long history of such technology 
development by NASA.  The conference will feature 
representatives from Rockwell International, Motorola, 
the National Telecommunications and Information 
Administration, the U.S. Army Space Command, and 
Georgetown University.

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

NASA and McDonnell Douglas have completed negotiation of 
a cost-plus-award-fee contract worth $163 million to 
provide continuation of Spacelab integration activities 
at contractor and agency facilities at both the Marshall 
and Kennedy Space Centers.  The contract has provisions 
for four 1-year extensions of between $27 and 34 million.

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

This Thursday, Nov. 19, at 1:00 pm EST in the NASA 
Headquarters auditorium, Dr. Walter Jaffee, Leiden
Observatory in The Netherlands, and other astronomers, 
will present the first image taken of a giant dust disk 
surrounding a suspected black hole.  The image, acquired 
by the Hubble Space Telescope, clearly shows the saucer-
like disk and is the first visual view of the phenomenon 
of galactic accretion long linked with black holes but 
previously never seen.  In addition to Dr. Jaffee, NASA 
astronomer Steve Maran, University of Washington 
astronomy professor Bruce Margon and Pennsylvania State 
University astronomy professor Daniel Weedman will 
discuss the significance of this new Hubble finding.  The 
briefing will be shown live on NASA Select television.

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

Education specialists at NASA centers report a busy 
October of school presentations, student science fairs 
and Space- and Aero-mobile tours.  At Marshall, their 
three Spacemobile lecturers visited 45 schools and 
conducted a total of nearly 200 presentations reaching 
over 21,000 students.  At Ames Research Center, educators
visited 60 schools in the Pacific Northwest including two 
special teacher workshops held in Alaska.  Marshall also 
reports the center's Space Station Freedom trailer 
exhibit has played to large and enthusiastic crowds in 
the Hartford area, where they were set up last week to 
support the NASA Town Meeting held there yesterday.  The 
trailers were set up in West Hartford at the Science 
Museum of Connecticut, where more than 3,500 visitors 
toured through the space station mockups daily.  Local 
Hartford electronic media also used the trailers as the 
site for phone-in radio shows and television reports of 
local citizen reaction.  The trailers are being moved to 
Indianapolis for the next town meeting there on Friday, 
Nov. 20.

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

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.

Wednesday, November 18, 1992
Live   12:00 pm  NASA Today news program, today 
                  featuring a report on yesterday's NASA Town Meeting at 
                  the University of Hartford in Connecticut; a report from 
                  the Marshall Space Flight Center about their work on the 
                  Advanced Solid Rocket Motor; a look at what is being done 
                  to help investigators find a downed aircraft and be able 
                  to track the "black box" even if the box falls into deep 
                  water; a peek into the world of supercomputers and a new 
                  project just initiated between supercomputer maker Cray 
                  Research and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and as usual, 
                  a look back at today's date in NASA History.
  12:15 pm  Aeronautics & Space Report.
  12:30 pm  Sail on Voyager.
  1:30 pm  Space Navigation.
  2:00 pm  Starfinder program #1.
  2:30 pm  Life in the Universe.
  3:00 pm  Total Quality Management program #69 from 
                  the University of New Mexico series.
  4:00 pm  8:00 pm and 12:00 midnight P 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.
     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab |
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | Learn to recognize the
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | inconsequential, then 
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     | ignore it.

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