For Release: Sept. 25, 1995

Steve Roy
Office of Media Services
(205) 544-0034
steve.roy@msfc.nasa.gov

NOTE TO EDITORS: 95-61N

HOW TO COVER THE SECOND UNITED STATES MICROGRAVITY LABORATORY SPACELAB MISSION SET TO FLY ON STS-73

NASA is scheduled to launch the Second United States Microgravity Laboratory (USML-2) aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on mission STS-73 at 8:35 a.m. CST, Thursday, Sept. 28. The 16-day mission will continue a cooperative effort of American government, universities and industry to expand knowledge of science and technology in the near weightless environment of space.

The Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will manage and control the scientific activities of the mission from NASA’s Spacelab Mission Operations Control Center there. The USML-2 mission will consist of a wide variety of science experiments in fluid physics, materials sciences, biotechnology, combustion science and commercial space processing technologies. Also, making its first flight is a new six-channel video system which will provide enhanced experiment observations and data collection to researchers on the ground.

NASA’s USML-2 Spacelab News Center in Trailer 254 at the Marshall Center will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, during the mission. The News Center will also be open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekends and holidays. News Center telephone numbers are (205) 544-6381 and (205) 544-0034.

Written USML-2 status reports will be issued by the News Center at approximately 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays and at 6 a.m. on weekends. The reports will be available on Internet through the World Wide Web, Marshall Center payload homepage at http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov.spacelab/usml2 or the payloads portion of the mission "Overview" section of the NASA Shuttle Web homepage at http://shuttle.nasa.gov. The status reports will also be available on the NASA Headquarters Public Affairs Internet Bulletin Board address at ftp.pao.hq.nasa.gov. Media desiring to receive the status reports by telefax should contact the news center. Media may also access an audio recording of each status report by calling (205) 544-6397.

Television news organizations may arrange live interviews with mission participants in the Spacelab Mission Operations Control Center during the mission by calling the News Center. Interviews and b-roll of the mission activities will be provided without charge via satellite. Print and broadcast media may also arrange telephone interviews through the News Center. Mission photography of on-orbit activities and video will be also be available on request.

Twenty-four hour coverage of the mission originating from both Marshall Center and Johnson Space Center will be broadcast on NASA Television which is available via satellite and many cable systems. Programming can be accessed on Spacenet-2, Transponder 5, channel 9, at 69 degrees west longitude; frequency 3880.0 Mhz, audio 6.8 Mhz. Although air to ground and mission television will be broadcast around-the-clock, there will be no mission commentary between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. from either the Johnson or Marshall Centers.

In addition to ongoing mission coverage, "Mission Update", a daily summary of mission science activities, and periodic news media briefings will be carried on NASA TV.