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Daily                 News
Monday, January 11, 1993
Two Independence Square, Washington, D.C.
Audio service: 202/358-3014

 % Shuttle countdown underway for Wednesday launch of Endeavour;
 % Hawaii and Alaska residents to get two-hour synapses of STS-54 mission;
 % Student group expects to launch ozone-monitoring balloon today

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Test Director Al Sofge said this morning
that the countdown for Wednesday's 8:52 am EST launch of Endeavour for
the STS-54 mission got underway as planned yesterday.  The team is
tracking no problems and expects the remainder of the countdown to go
smoothly, according to Sofge.  The flight crew will enter Endeavour's
crew cabin at about 5:32 am EST on Wednesday.

Ed Priselac, KSC weather officer, said this morning that the launch
weather forecast looks pretty good for Wednesday with no current
concerns.  Priselac said that should the launch be delayed one day,
Thursday's weather looked moderately good with only a 30 percent
probability of a launch weather constraint violation.  Overall, the
launch team expects the weather to be favorable for a launch Wednesday,
Jan. 13, and to remain favorable through the end of this week.

The mission is scheduled as a 5-day, 23-hour flight with a nominal
end-of-mission landing at the Kennedy Shuttle Landing Facility on
Tuesday, Jan. 19, at 8:24 am EST.

Tomorrow, Jan. 12, NASA will hold a series of briefings from the
Kennedy Space Center on the countdown, mission and payloads for
Endeavour's flight.  At 9:00 am EST, the launch team will brief on
current countdown status.  At 9:30 am EST, scientists from the Goddard
Space Flight Center and the University of Wisconsin-Madison will brief
on the Diffuse X-ray Spectrometer payload.  At 10:30 am EST,
representatives from the commercial sector will brief on their
payloads.  At 11:00 am EST, NASA and KSC management will present the
traditional pre-launch press conference.  All the briefings will be
carried live on NASA Select television.

NASA will provide continuous live television coverage on NASA Select of
the STS-54 mission beginning at 6:00 am EST on Wednesday, Jan. 13,
through the egress of the crew following landing.  Also, NASA will
again provide a two- hour edited program containing daily highlights of
the mission on a different satellite for the benefit of interested
individuals and organizations in Alaska and Hawaii.  Beginning with
this mission, the two-hour programming will be on transponder 19 (4080
MHz, audio at 6.2 and 6.8 MHz) on the Galaxy 6 satellite located at 99
degrees West Longitude.  Transmission times for the two- hour
highlights program are from midnight through 2:00 am EST each day of
the mission.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A NASA-sponsored university group was to have launched a high-altitude
research balloon today from the South Shore Harbor Resort and
Convention Center, League City, Texas, at 9:00 am EST.  The 76-foot
diameter balloon is to ascend to an altitude of 110,000 feet (33.5
kilometers) and fly across the Gulf of Mexico to Florida, measuring
ozone data and relaying video pictures to a Utah State University
chase-van.  This program inaugurates a cooperative NASA-university
ozone-measurement program.  The program also involves other individuals
serving as radio relay operators who will follow the balloon's progress
from fixed stations in the states between Texas and Florida.  The
cooperative program is sponsored by the National Space Grant College
and Fellowship Program.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *



Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select
TV.  Note that all events and times may change without notice, and that
all times listed are Eastern.  Live indicates a program is transmitted
live.

Monday, January 11, 1993
Live   12:00 pm  NASA Today news program.
       12:15 pm  Aeronautics & Space Report.
       12:30 pm  Space CAD.
        1:00 pm  Space Navigation.
        1:30 pm  Reach for Tomorrow.
        2:00 pm  Launch Box program #1.
        2:30 pm  Assignment: The Stars.
        3:00 pm  Total Quality Management program #19 from 
                 the University of New Mexico series.
        at 4:00 and 8:00 pm and 12:00 midnight the broadcast 
                schedule of the day repeats.

Tuesday, January 12, 1993
Live    9:00 am  Countdown status briefing from Kennedy 
                 Space Center with Mike Leinbach, Shuttle Test Director, 
                 and Todd Corey, KSC STS-54 Payload Operations Engineer.
Live    9:30 am  Diffuse X-ray Spectrometer payload 
                 briefing from KSC with Chris Dunker, Goddard Space Flight 
                 Center mission manager, and Dr. Wilton Sanders, 
                 University of Wisconsin-Madison principal investigator.
Live   10:30 am  Commercial payloads briefing from KSC with Dr. Louis Stodieck,
                 Bioserve project manager.
Live   11:00 am  Pre-launch press conference for STS-54 mission from KSC with
                 Charles Force, Associate Administrator for the Office of Space
 		 Operations, Al Diaz, Deputy Associate Administrator for the
  		 Office of Space Science and Applications; Leonard Nicholson,
  		 Space Shuttle Director, Robert Sieck, Kennedy Space Center 
                 Launch Director, and CPT Dean Hazen, US Air Force Weather 
                 Liaison Officer.

Wednesday, January 13, 1993
Live    6:00 am  Begin continuous coverage of STS-54 mission.
Live    8:52 am  Scheduled launch of Endeavour for STS-54 mission.
  
This report is filed daily at noon, Monday through Friday.  It is a
service of NASA's Office of Public Affairs.  The editor is Charles
Redmond, 202/358-3014 or CREDMOND on NASAmail.  NASA Select TV is
carried on GE Satcom F2R, transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees West
Longitude, transponder frequency is 3960 MegaHertz, audio subcarrier is
6.8 MHz, polarization is vertical.