From: yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Daily News for 08/27/92 (Forwarded)
Apparently-To: sci-space-news@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Followup-To: sci.space
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 20:21:35 GMT

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

% Endeavour launch dress rehearsal presently underway in Florida;
% Flight Readiness Review for STS-47 Spacelab-J mission set for next Tuesday;
% JPL reports Galileo doing well as it rapidly approaches Earth for 2nd Flyby;
% Goddard team investigating use of radar to speed satellite rescue operations;
% Parade of robots set to occur Monday; Robot open-house follows on Tuesday.

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

The Rotating Service Structure was moved into place around Endeavour on
Launch Pad 39-B yesterday afternoon.  The STS-47 vehicle, crew and
launch and mission support teams are undergoing the dress rehearsal
Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test today.  The test will conclude
with a simulated launch at 11:00 am EDT tomorrow.  The seven-member
flight crew, led by mission commander Robert Gibson, arrived earlier
than expected yesterday to avoid any adverse weather which might have
been spawned by the remnants of Hurricane Andrew.

The remainder of preparations for the planned mid-September launch of
Endeavour include the helium signature leak test of the three main
engines, scheduled for this weekend, and final closeout activities of
the orbiter's aft engine compartment, the crew compartment and the
payload bay.  The Flight Readiness Review for the Spacelab-Japan STS-47
mission is set for Tuesday, September 1.  Flight management will
conclude the FRR by issuing an official launch date, though the current
schedule supports a launch date of Sept. 12 for the seven-day
international science mission.

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

Jet Propulsion Laboratory Galileo flight controllers report their
spacecraft is closing fairly rapidly for its upcoming December fly-by
of the Earth.  The present spacecraft distance is less than 82 million
miles.  Galileo is closing in at a rate of about 1.25 million miles a
day.  Round-trip communications time has been reduced to only 14
minutes.  Since its launch, Galileo has traveled over 1.36 billion
miles.  The High Gain Antenna is still not unfurled, but otherwise
onboard systems continue to perform nominally.  The spacecraft is
presently concluding a two-week quiescent period and is conducting a
routine set of thruster maintenance tasks.  The next scheduled event
for the interplanetary probe is a maneuver planned for early October to
tweak the trajectory for the December Earth Flyby.

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

Satellite and rescue system engineers at the Goddard Space Flight
Center have been investigating the use of radar as an aid in finding
downed aircraft.  This enhancement would assist in actual sighting of
craft which are equipped with the Search and Rescue emergency beacon.
Goddard staff, along with colleagues from JPL and the Ames Research
Center, have been experimenting since 1985 with a synthetic aperture
radar system flown aboard a search aircraft to detect wreckage which
might be obscured by intervening layers of foliage or tree cover.  To
date, the NASA team has tested the system in wooded areas of North
Carolina, Maine, Michigan, Pennsylvania, California, Oregon and
Alaska.  The tests, which involved finding actual aircraft wreckage
which was hidden in forested areas, have proven very successful.

NASA has the responsibility for developing applicable search and rescue
technology.  Proponents of this new element of the system note that in
highly wooded areas or remote regions such as Alaska, the rescuers are
often in danger themselves because of the roughness of the territory
and any advantage in finding a downed craft will help reduce the danger
to the rescuer as well as speed the possible rescue of any survivors.
Goddard engineers working on the project point out that it will be
several more years before an operational system using the radar can be
placed into use.

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

Members of the press have been invited to a robot parade and press
preview Monday, Aug. 31, at 11:00 am EDT on the Mall in downtown
Washington.  Providing the preview will be NASA Administrator Daniel
Goldin, National Air and Space Museum Director Martin Harwit, Planetary
Society Executive Director Louis Friedman, and representatives from the
Russian Space Agency.

The parade will be the largest gathering of interplanetary rovers ever
and will feature the robots ambling from the Air and Space Museum to a
tent about a block away.  Following the parade, the robots will be on
display to the public Sept. 1 and 2.  The parade and exposition are
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.

During the exposition period, the robots will be demonstrating their
capabilities each day from 10:00 am through 6:00 pm EDT as they perform
on a 24-by-40 foot section of simulated Martian surface.

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

  
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  Total Quality Management seminar, live from NASA Headquarters
                 auditorium.
        1:30 pm  Life in the Universe program #4 P Project Mercury.
        2:00 pm  Space for Women.
        2:30 pm  Safe Computing.
        3:00 pm  Total Quality Management program #29 U. of New Mexico series.
        4:00 pm  Programming repeats.
        8:00 pm  Programming repeats.
       12:00 am  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