From: yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Daily News for 10/02/92 (Forwarded)
Apparently-To: sci-space-news@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Followup-To: sci.space
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 19:57:59 GMT

Daily                 News
Friday, October 2, 1992  24-hour audio service at 202/755-1788

 % STS-52 dress rehearsal concludes in Florida, mission slated for Oct. 22;
 % Administrator Goldin awards astronaut John Young Leadership Medal;
 % Disadvantaged business association gives Goldin its meritorious award.

The STS-52 Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, a dress rehearsal for
flight crew and launch and mission controllers, concluded with a
simulated liftoff of the orbiter this morning at 11:00 am EDT.  The
mission is presently targeted for the third week of October,
tentatively Thursday, Oct. 22.  The Office of Space Flight formal
Flight Readiness Review is set to take place at Kennedy Space Center
next Tuesday, Oct. 6.  At the conclusion of that review, flight
management will issue a firm launch target date.

The mission is a nine day science and engineering flight with one major
deployable and several onboard payloads.  The major deployable payload
is the U.S.-Italian Laser Geodynamics Satellite, LAGEOS II, which will
be deployed and subsequently boosted by its attached apogee kick motor
into a 52-degree inclination orbit.  The satellite consists of a sphere
with 426 embedded light reflectors.  Using ground-based telescopes to
aim laser light at the satellite will enable geodynamic scientists to
better understand the motions of the continental plates.

The Canadian Space Agency will be flying two separate sets of
experiments and a payload specialist - Steve MacLean - on this
mission.  The CSA Space Vision System will be tested by STS-52
crewmembers using the orbiter's robot arm to maneuver a target in front
of the Vision System camera.  The system is being developed to assist
astronauts who would be using any of the proposed manipulation systems
being considered for Space Station Freedom.  MacLean will be the third
astronaut from the CSA to have flown on a shuttle mission.  The first,
Patrick Baudry, flew on Discovery in June 1985 on the STS-51G mission.
Roberta Bondar was next, flying on last January's STS-42 mission, again
aboard Discovery.  (On Wednesday, Daily News erroneously reported
MacLean would be the second CSA astronaut to fly.)

Other payloads scheduled for the STS-52 mission include the first
flight of pallet-mounted experiments for the U.S. Microgravity Payload
1, an Attitude Sensor Package mounted on a Hitchhiker carrier also in
the payload bay, a heat pipe technology experiment and additional crew
physiological experiments.

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

Administrator Daniel Goldin yesterday awarded the NASA Outstanding
Leadership Medal to astronaut John Young in a ceremony held at NASA
Headquarters.  Goldin said "today, we're here to honor one of NASA's
finest and an authentic American hero if there ever was one."  Young
first flew in space on the first Gemini mission in 1962.  He later flew
around the moon on the Apollo 10 mission and later still, landed on the
moon on Apollo 17 in 1972.  In 1983 Young and Robert Crippen test flew
the Columbia on the first shuttle mission.

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

The National Association of Small Disadvantaged Business yesterday
awarded NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin its Meritorious Award for
opening up NASA to minority businesses.  Goldin had previously also won
the association's award during his period as CEO of the TRW Space &
Technology Group.  The association president, Henry Wilfong, said that
while they considered Goldin's performance at TRW to have been worthy
of recognition, "we feel your performance to date at NASA indicates
that your performance as Administrator will be of even more note and
benefit to minority firms throughout America." Goldin has taken a
number of steps to speed NASA's involvement in America's minority
business community including creating a Minority Business Resource
Advisory Committee and establishing firm percentages of NASA's business
to be contracted with minority firms.

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

  
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.

Friday, October 2, 1992
Live   12:00 pm  NASA Today news program, today 
                 featuring a report on the dress rehearsal for the 
                 upcoming STS-52 mission and a preview of the mission's 
                 experiments; a story on the enshrinement of astronaut Joe 
                 Engle into the Aerospace Walk of Honor; and a story about 
                 a Mississippi space tug.
       12:15 pm  Adventures in Research.
       12:30 pm  Regenerative Processes.
        1:00 pm  Testimony by Dr. Michael Griffin, NASA Associate Administrator
	         for Space Exploration  before Subcommittee on Investigations
		 and Oversight, House Committee on Science, Space and
		 Technology (taped 10/1/92).
        4:00 pm  8:00 pm and 12:00 midnight - NASA Today 
                  and subsequent programming repeat.
  
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