From: yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Daily News for 08/31/92 (Forwarded)
Apparently-To: sci-space-news@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Followup-To: sci.space
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 19:44:20 GMT

[Illness delayed. -PEY]

	Daily                News
Monday, August 31, 1992  24-hour audio service at 202/755-1788

 % Kennedy Space Center STS-47 preparations continue on schedule;
 % Tethered Satellite Investigation Board reports bolt may have caused
       problems;
 % Robots to demonstrate Mars-exploration prowess on Mall in Washington today;
 % Jet Propulsion Laboratory reports Ulysses continues doing fine;
 % Goddard Space Flight Center reports TOPEX/Poseidon entered "safe hold";
 % Administrator Goldin announces strengthening of small business procurement;
 % Stennis Space Center Learjet flies reconnaissance for Florida State
      departments;
 % KSC provides relief supplies including water to South Florida hurricane
      victims.

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

Kennedy Space Center preparations for the upcoming September 12 launch
of Endeavour for its STS-47, Spacelab-Japan, mission continue on
schedule.  The leak test of the three shuttle main engines was
conducted successfully this weekend.  The launch pad will be closed
later today for loading of the hypergolic fuels into Endeavour's
onboard tanks.  The Space Flight management Flight Readiness Review
will be conducted tomorrow at KSC.  Presently, there are no major open
items going into that review.  The flight crew returned to Houston
Friday following the successful conclusion of the Terminal Countdown
Demonstration Test.

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

The Tethered Satellite System Investigative Board has presented an
interim report to Office of Space Flight Associate Administrator
Jeremiah Pearson.  The report cites five problems which occurred to the
TSS deploy system during the recent STS-46 mission.  The problems cited
were the initial failure to deploy , the unplanned stop at a series of
excursions, and the inability to retract.  A detailed inspection of the
reel assembly showed a mechanical obstruction which the report said
could have accounted for all five problems.  The obstruction was a bolt
which had been added to the assembly late in the development process to
strengthen the unit in the area of its attachment to the shuttle
payload bay bridge.  The board expects to report on additional findings
next month.

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

The largest gathering of robots-on-parade ever opened to the public
today on the Mall in downtown Washington.  The robot exposition is
being staged as part of the International Space Year Exhibition of
Robots for Exploring New Worlds.  Among the robots on display will be
one which weighs only 4 pounds and another which weighs nearly 3 tons.
The robots will be demonstrating their capabilities today and tomorrow
from 10:00 am through 6:00 pm EDT as they perform on a 24-by-40 foot
section of simulated Martian surface.

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

Jet Propulsion Laboratory flight controllers report that Ulysses
continues to perform nominally.  It is presently at the furthest
distance it will be from the Earth P 583 million miles.  It is still
traveling at roughly 19,000 miles per hour and moving slowly downward
from the plane of the Ecliptic; currently it is about 9 degrees South
relative to the Sun.  TwoJ routine Earth-pointing maneuvers were
successfully conducted last week.

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

Goddard Space Flight Center controllers report that the TOPEX/Poseidon
spacecraft entered a safe hold mode last week near the end of a planned
propulsion system burn to maneuver the spacecraft to its required
66Pdegree inclination to the Earth's equator.  The inclination maneuver
was successful.  Project management has concluded the cause of the safe
mode entry was a bug in the software related to spacecraft attitude
control.  Goddard controllers expected the spacecraft to have returned
to its nominal operating configuration by today.  Another maneuver is
expected to occur this Wednesday, to be followed by three more.
Otherwise, the ocean investigation satellite is performing fine and all
the onboard instruments have been producing good data.

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

NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin announced Friday a series of
additional actions the agency will undertake to strengthen its Small
and Disadvantaged Business program.  Goldin said he will upgrade the
NASA position of Director of Small and Disadvantaged Business to an
Assistant Administrator and that the agency will reduce by an order of
magnitude the amount of paperwork associated with small business
procurement.  Goldin said NASA also will begin requiring its prime
contractors to increase the percentage of subcontracts with small and
disadvantaged businesses and will begin making that subcontracting an
element of the source evaluation process.

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

Kennedy and Stennis Space Center staff and management have begun a
series of assists for the Florida victims of Hurricane Andrew.  Stennis
is flying its remote-sensor-equipped Learjet over the South Florida
region to provide Florida's Department of Natural Resources, Department
of Transportation, and the Florida Water Management District with
digital imagery of the damage wrought by Andrew.  Stennis and the State
of Florida and its departments have worked together on similar projects
for the past two decades so state agencies are well equipped to make
good use of the Stennis-supplied data.  The flights will help provide
information on the damage to the natural and man- made environment, the
devastation to local and regional transportation networks and the
impact on the State's beaches.

The Kennedy assistance is in the form of extra equipment the center had
to cope with possible hurricane damage it might have incurred, which
has been shipped to Dade County officials for their use.  The center
has also dispatched several 5,000 gallon water tankers to help.  The
relief equipment includes tool boxes, wire fencing, a hoist and
generators, and food, sleeping gear and clothing.  Mike Stevens, of
KSC's Fire and Rescue Office, said the equipment is above what the
center needed for their own hurricane plan.

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

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.

Monday, August 31, 1992
  12:00 pm  NASA Select will be videotaping and rebroadcasting events taking
            place this week in Washington for the World Space Congress.
   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