Ed Campion February 12, 1996
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone: 202/358-1778)

Jerry Berg
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, AL 35812
(Phone: 205/544-0034)

NOTE TO EDITORS: N96-6

BRIEFINGS SET FOR TETHERED SATELLITE REFLIGHT,
THIRD MISSION OF U.S. MICROGRAVITY PAYLOAD

The goals and objectives of the 75th Space Shuttle mission will be discussed during a series of preflight briefings at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, and the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, on Feb.14.

The planned 14-day STS-75 mission aboard Columbia will be highlighted by the deployment of the Italian Tethered Satellite System (TSS), which first flew on STS-46 in 1992 and the third flight of the United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-3), a series of materials science experiments mounted in the Shuttle's cargo bay. The TSS is expected to be unreeled to a distance of almost 13 miles from Columbia at the end of a tether to study the management of satellites in orbit and the production of electricity in low-Earth orbit.

The briefings will begin at 8 a.m. CST at Johnson with the Mission Overview briefing featuring Lead Flight Director Chuck Shaw. At 9 a.m. the briefing will shift to Marshall for an overview of the TSS, followed at 11:30 a.m. with the USMP-3 briefing. Scientific data from the TSS and the USMP-3 will be acquired and analyzed at the Spacelab Mission Operations Control Center at Marshall. At 1 p.m. CST, a briefing on the latest findings from the Commercial Protein Crystal Growth experiment will be held, originating from Johnson. The day's briefings will conclude at Johnson at 2 p.m. with the Crew News Conference.

All of the briefings will be carried live on NASA Television with two-way question and answer capability from participating NASA locations.

Following is the briefing schedule (all times are CST):

February 14, 1996

8 a.m. Mission Overview (originating from Johnson)

Chuck Shaw, Lead Flight Director

9 a.m. Tethered Satellite System Overview (originating from Marshall)

Robert McBrayer, TSS Mission Manager

Dr. Nobie Stone, TSS Mission Scientist

Dr. Carlo Bonifazi, ASI TSS Program Mgr. (Italian Space Agency)

11:30 a.m. USMP-3 Overview (originating from Marshall)

Sherwood Anderson, USMP-3 Mission Manager

Dr. Peter Curreri, USMP-3 Mission Scientist

Dr. Archibald Fripp, AADSF Experiment

Dr. Robert Gammon, Zeno Experiment

Dr. Martin Glicksman, IDGE Experiment

Dr. Iwan Anderson, Mephisto Experiment

Dr. Kurt Sacksteder, FFFT Investigation

1 p.m. Commercial Protein Crystal Growth Experiment Overview (from Johnson)

Dr. Larry DeLucas, CPCG Principal Investigator

2 p.m. Crew News Conference (originating from Johnson)

Andrew Allen, Commander

Scott Horowitz, Pilot

Jeffrey Hoffman, Mission Specialist 1

Maurizio Cheli, Mission Specialist 2

Claude Nicollier, Mission Specialist 3

Franklin Chang-Diaz, Mission Specialist 4 (Payload Commander)

Umberto Guidoni, Payload Specialist

NASA Television is located on Spacenet 2, Transponder 5, Channel 9 at 69 degrees West longitude. The transponder frequency is 3880 Mhz and the audio subcarrier is 6.8 Mhz. Polarization is horizontal.

Huntsville area media representatives wishing to participate in briefings with questions should come to the MSFC TV Studio, Bldg 4207.