For Release: Feb. 9, 1995

Steve Roy
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.
(205)54-6535

FOR RELEASE: N95-10

RECORD NUMBER OF MARSHALL-MANAGED PROTEIN CRYSTAL GROWTH EXPERIMENTS FLYING ABOARD SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY

An unprecedented 378 individual protein crystal growth experiment samples are housed within the middeck lockers of the Space Shuttle Discovery on this STS-63 mission. On previous Shuttle flights, facilities accommodated a maximum of 60 experiment samples.

The STS-63 mission includes the Marshall-managed Protein Crystallization Apparatus For Microgravity experiment, developed for growing large quantities of protein crystals for scientific applications and a microgravity glovebox, developed and designed by Marshall scientists and engineers, which allows for interactive science operations by the crew with the experiments.

Five teams of scientists from three countries are participating in the protein crystal growth experiments located aboard Discovery. The microgravity conditions of space provide an excellent environment for the development of large, pure crystals, facilitating the determination of molecular structures of protein crystals and assists the pharmaceutical industry in the development of disease-fighting drugs. For example, among the protein samples on the Discovery is Human Cytomegalvirus Assemblin, a major drug targeted to expedite the development of treatments for Herpes.

The Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to land at NASA's Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. at 5:52 a.m. CST, Saturday, Feb. 11.

Note To Editors: A second Marshall-managed microgravity experiment, known as the Hand-held Diffusion Test Cell, is also aboard the Discovery. This device is a precursor for optical analysis of protein crystals in orbit. For additional information on the Marshall-managed experiments, news media representatives may contact Steve Roy at (205)544-0034. Also, scientists and investigators of the Protein Crystal Growth and the Hand-held Diffusion Test Cell experiments are available for interviews, upon request.