For Release: March 18, 1996

Kathryn Cataldo
Office of Media Services
(205) 544-2188

NOTE TO ASSIGNMENT EDITORS/PRODUCERS: 96-17N

LIVE INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE ON HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE SERVICING MISSION PREPARATIONS

Astronauts are preparing to work in space by going underwater. Today, astronauts and engineers are preparing for the next mission to service NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The simulator provides astronauts and engineers with a simulation of the near-weightless conditions of space for the development of equipment and procedures used during actual spacewalks.

The periodic servicing missions maintain and update the telescope in space. The next servicing mission, scheduled for next year, will extend the telescope’s observation capabilities, which currently include the visible and ultraviolet wavelengths, into the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. manages the Hubble servicing missions and the Hubble Space Telescope program.

Live and taped interviews are available via satellite Tuesday, March 19, with the technicians and managers who are working with the astronauts.

Interviewees can discuss why this servicing mission is important to advancing our understanding of the universe. Viewers will also learn how Hubble technology has directly contributed to commercial healthcare spin-offs that includes better breast cancer detection devices.

Visually compelling B-roll of the underwater activity is available. NASA TV is located on C-Band, Spacenet -2, Transponder 5, Channel 9 at 69 degress west longitude. The transponder frequency is 3880 Mhz and the audio subcarrier is 6.8 Mhz.

To request an interview or further information, please contact Kathryn Cataldo at NASA at (205) 544-2188.