From: yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Daily News for 09/28/92 (Forwarded)
Apparently-To: sci-space-news@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Followup-To: sci.space
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 04:57:52 GMT

Daily                 News
24-hour audio service at 202/755-1788

 % Mars Observer doing fine, now half-a-million miles from Earth;
 % JPL reports TOPEX/Poseidon recovered from safehold, also doing fine;
 % Administrator Goldin announces minority contractor awards;
 % STS-47 crew to report on flight experiences tomorrow at 11:00 am EDT;
 % Columbia now on Pad 39-B, workers to replace main engine;

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

The Mars Observer was launched Friday at 1:05 pm EDT aboard a Titan
3/Transfer Orbital Stage booster.  The spacecraft is presently about a
half-million miles from Earth heading toward Mars at a heliocentric
velocity of just over 74,000 miles per hour.  All systems aboard the
spacecraft appear to be nominal at present according to the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory flight controllers.

The launch was essentially nominal with a minor hold as pad clearance
procedures at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Pad 40 area
were verified.  Solid rocket and first and second stage Titan
performance was nominal.  For still unexplained reasons, telemetry from
the Transfer Orbital Stage was not received, leaving flight controllers
and project staff in a holding pattern for the 40-minute period it took
the Mars Observer to be acquired by the Deep Space Network's Canberra
tracking station.

Following the staging events, Mars Observer experienced a series of
additional anomalies including initial problems with sun acquisition
through its sensors and its first star calibration.  These now all
appear to have been minor startup problems.  Activities planned today
include the transmission of command sequences to deploy the
spacecraft's scientific booms for the gamma ray spectrometer and
magnetometer instruments.  Arrival at Mars will be in August 1993.

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

JPL flight controllers working on the TOPEX/Poseidon spacecraft report
that it continues to perform nominally.  The spacecraft went into an
Earth-pointing safehold last week but now has been fully recovered.
Controllers have concluded that the cause of the safehold action was an
erroneous set of numbers stored in onboard computer memory.  The
correct numbers now have been transmitted and stored onboard.  The NASA
altimeter is presently on and working in its track mode.

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

NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin Friday announced the recipients of the
Minority Contractor and Subcontractor of the Year Awards.  Named as
Minority Contractor of the Year is Jackson & Tull, Chartered Engineers,
Seabrook, Maryland.  The firm was nominated by Goddard Space Flight
Center for having provided outstanding technical support for programs
such as the Hubble Space Telescope.  B&W Services, Inc., Bay St. Louis,
Miss., was named as the Minority Subcontractor of the Year.  Stennis
Space Center nominated B&W as an outstanding firm that has provided
consistently excellent support to the center for many years.

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

The spaceflight crew of STS-47 will report on their Spacelab mission at
a post-flight briefing tomorrow at 10:00 am EDT.  The crew will show
video and still photographs taken during the mission and report on the
many experiments performed during the Spacelab-Japan flight.  The
briefing will be carried live on NASA Select TV.

Work to prepare Columbia for its upcoming STS-52 mission to deploy the
LAGEOS II and several other smaller payloads continues at the Kennedy
Space Center.  Columbia was rolled from the Vehicle Assembly Building
out to Launch Pad 39-B yesterday.  Also, late last week KSC officials
decided to replace Columbia's shuttle main engine number 3 because of
concerns about small welds in the nozzle's aft manifold.

Rather than taking time-consuming X-rays of the weld areas, management
opted to change the engine out while the vehicle is on the launch pad.
Workers are installing aft compartment platforms around Columbia today
and should begin engine change-out procedures tomorrow.

The Flight Readiness Review for the STS-52 mission is set to occur at
Kennedy Space Center next Tuesday, Oct. 6.  The mission remains
targeted for a mid-October launch.  STS-52 will be a six-person
nine-day science and engineering flight.  The second Canadian Space
Agency payload specialist also will fly on this mission to manage and
execute a series of experiments to continue the development of the
Canadian robotics contribution to the Space Station Freedom program.

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.

  
Live  12:00 pm  NASA Today news program, today featuring 
                a report on Friday's launch of the Mars Observer; a look 
                forward to the next space shuttle mission and the various 
                experiments it will be carrying onboard; a report on NASA 
                Administrator Daniel Goldin's remarks at the 
                Congressional Black Caucus.
      12:15 pm  Replay of NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin's 
                remarks this past Friday, Sept. 25, to members of the 
                Congressional Black Caucus.
       1:00 pm  And Then There Was Voyager.
       1:30 pm  Looking Ahead and Back.
       2:00 pm  Starfinder program #16.
       2:15 pm  Aeronautics & Space Report.
       2:30 pm  Skylab: Space Station #1.
       3:00 pm  Total Quality Management program #35 (U. of New Mexico series).
       4:00 pm  8:00 pm and 12:00 midnight - NASA Today and subsequent
                programming repeats.
Tuesday, September 29, 1992
Live  10:00 am  STS-47 crew post-flight briefing from Johnson Space Center.
Live  12:00 pm  NASA Today news program
      12:15 pm  Pathway to the Stars.
      12:30 pm  Magnetic Effects in Space.
       1:00 pm  Safe Computing.
       1:30 pm  America's Wings.
       2:00 pm  Starfinder program #17.
       2:15 pm  Aeronautics & Space Report.
       2:30 pm  Four Days of Gemini.
       3:00 pm  Total Quality Management program #36 (U. of New Mexico series).
       4:00 pm  8:00 pm and 12:00 midnight - NASA Today and 
                subsequent programming repeats.
Wednesday, September 30, 1992
Live  12:00 pm  NASA Today news program
      12:15 pm  Aerospace Oddities.
      12:30 pm  Gyroscope in Space.
       1:00 pm  Freedom 7.
       1:30 pm  Setting the Stage for the Future.
       2:00 pm  Starfinder program #18.
       2:15 pm  Aeronautics & Space Report.
       2:30 pm  Four Rooms with an Earth View.
       3:00 pm  Total Quality Management program #37 (U. of New Mexico series).
       4:00 pm  8:00 pm and 12:00 midnight P NASA Today and 
                subsequent programming repeats.
Thursday, October 1, 1992
Live  12:00 pm  NASA Today news program
      12:15 pm  Flight without Wings.
      12:30 pm  Second Science Harvest.
       1:00 pm  Apollo 7.
       1:30 pm  Behind the Scenes at the Air & Space Museum.
       2:00 pm  Starfinder program #19.
       2:15 pm  Aeronautics & Space Report.
       2:30 pm  Adapting to Space.
       3:00 pm  Total Quality Management program #38 (U. 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.
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