From: yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee)
Newsgroups: sci.space.news
Subject: NASA Daily News for 07/24/92 (Forwarded)
Date: 25 Jul 92 01:04:21 GMT
Followup-To: sci.space
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Apparently-To: sci-space-news@ames.arc.nasa.gov

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

 % Geotail launches at 10:26 am EDT today; begins Solar-Terrestrial research;
 % STS-46 Atlantis processing nears completion, crew to arrive next week;
 % Kennedy Space Center to dedicate new Processing Control Center;
 % Space Grant program gains states, now covers all 50 states, DC and PR.

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

The launch of the Geotail satellite aboard a Delta II occurred on time
this morning at 10:26 am EDT, from Launch Pad 17-A at the Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station.  Geotail will be placed into a highly
elliptical orbit of 32,000 by 871,000 miles for its first
two-and-a-half years and then into a closer orbit.  This will allow the
instruments to investigate both far and near magnetic tail composition
and activity.  This spacecraft is the first of what will be a series of
five satellites designed to explore the dynamic relationship between
the Sun's solar wind and the Earth's magnetic field and various
magnetosphere components, including the Van Allen belts and the Earth's
geomagnetic tail.

The investigations will be performed by American and Japanese
investigators.  Data from the spacecraft will be received by the Deep
Space Network stations and then transmitted to the Goddard Space Flight
Center.  The investigators will be able to access data directly from
the Goddard data facility while they remain at their home
institutions.  The spacecraft is expected to last four years and is
equipped with seven instruments that will be performing measurements on
the various magnetic field and particle components.  In addition to its
principal payload, the Delta II second stage carried a secondary
scientific instrument, the Diffuse Ultraviolet Experiment, which will
measure the diffuse glow from the interstellar medium and thereby help
our understanding of the evolution of this interstellar matter.  This
experiment was turned on after the Geotail spacecraft had separated
from the Delta second stage.

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

Meanwhile, just up the coast at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex
39, Pad B, work continues to progress on schedule for next week's
launch of Atlantis for the STS-46 Tethered Satellite and European
Retrievable Carrier mission.  Activity today includes stowage of crew
equipment inside the orbiter middeck and inspections of Atlantis's aft
compartment.  The launch countdown begins next Tuesday, July 28, at
4:00 pm EDT.  The seven-member flight crew is scheduled to arrive at
the Cape from Houston on Tuesday, July 28.  Launch is scheduled for
Friday, July 31, at 9:56 am EDT.  The launch and mission will be
carried live on NASA Select television.

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

Kennedy Space Center officials will dedicate the recently- constructed
Space Shuttle Processing Control Center (PCC) next Wednesday, July 29,
at 9:00 am EDT.  The PCC is a three-story, 99,000-square-foot facility
which is designed to test space shuttle orbiters, train launch team
members and maintain the launch processing system.  The $8.9 million
facility is located between the Orbiter Processing Facility and the
Operations Support Building in the industrial area of Launch Complex
39.  Construction began in May last year.

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

NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin this week announced the agency has
expanded the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program with
the addition of the states of Kentucky, Nebraska, Vermont, and Wyoming
and Puerto Rico.  Goldin said this "marks the completion as well as a
beginning to one of NASA's largest education initiatives." With the
addition of the four states and Puerto Rico, the program now has
members throughout the entire 50 states, as well as the District of
Columbia and Puerto Rico.


  
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, July 29, 1992
Live    1:00 pm  Pre-mission briefing on the Topex/Poseidon mission from NASA 
                 Headquarters.
Live    TBD  L-2 briefings on STS-46 mission from Kennedy Space Center.

Thursday, July 30, 1992
Live    TBD  L-1 briefings on STS-46 mission from Kennedy Space Center.

Friday, July 31, 1992
Live    6:00 am  Launch coverage of Atlantis for STS-46 Tethered Satellite and
                 Eureca deploy mission begins from KSC.
Live   9:56 am  Scheduled launch of Atlantis for STS-46 mission. 

  
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