From: yee@atlas.arc.nasa.gov (Peter Yee)
Subject: NASA Daily News for 12/16/92 (Forwarded)
Apparently-To: sci-space-news@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Followup-To: sci.space
Originator: yee@atlas.arc.nasa.gov
Reply-To: yee@atlas.arc.nasa.gov (Peter Yee)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 01:20:37 GMT

Daily                 News
Wednesday, December 16, 1992  Two Independence Square, 
Washington, D.C.  Audio service: 202/358-3014

 % Terminal Countdown Test for STS-54 successfully concludes this morning;
 % Rice Astronomer to present Hubble images of proto-solar systems today; 
 % New "role model" video solicits high school students 
                 for science and tech fields;
 % Seattle NASA Town Meeting gets underway at 4:00 am EST today, live on TV;
 % Innovative research program high altitude aircraft "rolls out" this Friday;
 % Galileo science team to present first look data from 
                 Earth-Moon flyby next week.

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

The launch dress rehearsal for Endeavour's January STS-54 launch
concluded successfully this morning at the Kennedy Space Center.  The
five-member STS-54 flight crew will depart Kennedy for Houston later
today.  KSC launch management will hold their center-wide launch
readiness review tomorrow.  Also tomorrow, Endeavour's three main
engines will have their hydraulic and control systems tested as part of
the final readiness processing for the launch.  The Office of Space
Flight formal flight readiness management review will occur next
Tuesday, Dec.  22.  Following the formal review, Space Flight
management will set a target launch date.

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

Rice University astronomer C. Robert O'Dell and colleagues will discuss
his recent discovery of proto- solar systems in the Orion Nebula today
at 1:00 pm EST in the NASA Headquarters auditorium at 400 Maryland
Ave., SW.  O'Dell will show Hubble Space Telescope images taken by the
Wide Field/Planetary Camera of extended disks of dust encircling stars
in the NebulaPlong known to be a birthing ground for stars themselves.
Dust disks such as the ones discovered by O'Dell have long been
considered an elemental step in the formation of a solar system.  In
addition to still photographs, O'Dell will also show a video which
depicts what one would see when looking deeper and deeper into the
Orion Nebula, finally winding up with these dust-encircled, young
stars.

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

This afternoon at 2:00 pm EST, the Virginia Space Grant Consortium will
present the first program in a five-part series designed to highlight
the student careers of female and minority students.  The series is
intended to show middle and high school students that there are real
and valid choices they can make to pursue academic or career paths in
the science and engineering fields.  The first program today will focus
on Apriel Hodarie, a master's degree candidate in physics at Virginia's
Hampton University.  Hodarie is researching ways in which a laser can
be used to detect deadly windshear.  The next program will be shown on
February 10, also at 3:00 pm EST.

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

The next NASA Town Meeting begins today at 4:00 pm EST, in Seattle,
Washington, at the Student Union Building on the campus of the
University of Washington.  The four- hour-long program will be
broadcast live on NASA Select television.  NASA Administrator Daniel
Goldin and other senior NASA officials are in Seattle today in
preparation for their participation later this afternoon.  NASA Select
television will carry the Town Meeting live.

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

NASA Daily News will cease publication for the Christmas and New Year
holidays with this issue.  We will begin publication again on Monday,
January 4, 1993.  Until then, Happy Holidays ! ! !

Aurora Flight Sciences Corp. will unveil a key element in NASA's High
Speed Transport program this Friday, Dec. 18, at 11:00 am EST at the
Manassas, Virginia, airport.  The company will show off their Perseus
remotely-piloted extremely-high-altitude research aircraft.  The
aircraft, which uses technology first pioneered in the design and
construction of the human-powered Daedalus aircraft, uses lightweight
composite materials and is powered by a innovative 4-cycle, 4-cylinder
engine which burns gasoline and oxygen diluted through recirculated
exhaust gases.  The aircraft will also use the Global Positioning
System as the navigation reference for its onboard guidance system.
The craft can operate using pre- programmed flight sequences and also
can be remotely piloted.  NASA has ordered two Perseus aircraft from
Aurora.  The company expects the vehicle to provide fundamental science
data about the environment at altitudes up to 25 kilometers (82,000
feet).  NASA wants to use the vehicle to provide information about
exhaust emissions from next-generation supersonic airliners.

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

Next Tuesday, Dec. 22, Galileo project managers and scientists will
present the first look results of the spacecraft's Dec. 8
near-encounter with the Earth and its high-resolution reconnaissance of
the Moon's polar regions in a presentation from the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.  The spacecraft trajectory past the Earth enabled it to
photograph the Earth and Moon in sequential, receding, views which JPL
expects to make into an Earth-Moon rotation computer-reconstructed
video.  The presentation will be shown live on NASA Select TV.

  
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
transmittlive.

Wednesday, December 16, 1992
       12:15 pm  Aeronautics & Space Report.
       12:30 pm  STS-52 post-mission review with mission 
                 pilot Michael Baker and mission specialist Charles Lacy 
                 Veach.
Live    1:00 pm  Hubble Space Telescope briefing on proto-
                 planetary system discoveries with astronomer Bob O'Dell, 
                 Rice University 
Live    2:00 pm  Virginia S;ace Grant Consotrium role model 
                 video for high school and middle school students.
Live    4:00 pm  NASA Town Meeting from Seattle, Washington.
     at 4:00 and 8:00 pm and 12:00 midnight the broadcast 
                 schedule of the day repeats.

Friday, December 18, 1992
Live    2:00 pm  Total Quality Management Colloquium from NASA Headquarters.

Tuesday, December 22, 1992
Live    3:30 pm  Galileo-Earth 2/Moon flyby encounter post-
                 encounter science press briefing from Jet Propulsion 
                 Laboratory.

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, 202/358-3014 or CREDMOND on NASAmail.  NASA Select TV is
carried on GE Satcom F2R, transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees West
Ltude, transponder frequency is 3960 MegaHertz, audio subcarrier is 6.8
MHz, polarization is vertical.
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