For Release: June 18, 1996

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

NOTE TO EDITORS: 96-50N

HOW TO COVER THE STS-78 LIFE AND MICROGRAVITY SPACELAB MISSION

NASA is scheduled to launch the Space Shuttle Columbia on the STS-78/Life and Microgravity Spacelab mission at 9:49 a.m. CDT, Thursday. The nearly 16-day mission features a wide variety of international experiments in human physiology, space biology, and the effects of weightlessness on fluid behavior, materials processing and biotechnology.

The Marshall Space Flight Center will manage and control the scientific activities of the mission from NASA’s Spacelab Mission Operations Control Center in Huntsville, Ala.

NEWS CENTER

NASA’s Life and Microgravity Spacelab News Center in Trailer 254 at the Marshall Center will be open 6 a.m. Central Time weekdays and will close at the end of the flight crew work day which varies between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. The Spacelab News Center will be open from 6 a.m. to noon on weekends. News Center telephone numbers are (205) 544-6381 and (205) 544-0034. Current mission status information, interviews with mission participants and photography/video of on orbit activities will be available from the news center.

STATUS REPORTS

Written life and microgravity payload status reports will be issued once daily by the News Center at approximately the end of the flight crew day. The reports will be available on the Internet through the World Wide Web, Marshall Center payload homepage at http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov.spacelab/STS-78 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 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.

LIVE TELEVISION INTERVIEWS

Television news organizations may arrange live satellite interviews with mission participants in the Spacelab Mission Operations Control Center during the mission by calling the News Center.

Interviews and b-roll video of mission activities will be provided via satellite. Print and broadcast media may also arrange telephone interviews through the News Center.

NASA TELEVISION COVERAGE

Twenty-four hour coverage of the mission originating from both Marshall Center and Johnson Space Center in Houston 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. Spacelab mission commentary will be broadcast between 5:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. from Marshall Center and Shuttle operations commentary will be broadcast around-the-clock from the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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.