🚀 go-pugleaf

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Thursday, November 9, 1989                    audio: 202/755-1788
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This is NASA headline news for Thursday, November 9....


Office of Space Flight and Space Station employees at NASA 
headquarters were briefed on the formal consolidation of the two 
organizations yesterday. The newly formed Office of Space Flight 
is headed by Dr. William B. Lenoir.  George Abbey will serve as 
deputy associate administrator.  The space flight organization 
now includes four major areas:  space shuttle, space station 
Freedom, space flight systems and human resources and 
institutions.


NASA and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency personnel at 
Dryden Flight research facility at Edwards Air Force Base are 
conducting taxi tests and a captive flight of the 
NASA-B-52/Pegasus air launched orbital booster today. The flight 
is the first of two that will qualify the project for its initial 
orbital flight mission.  Video tape highlights of today's test 
will be broadcast over NASA Select TV at 4:00 p.m. ,eastern time, 
today.  


The Cosmic Background Explorer satellite...or COBE...is ready to 
be launched from Space Launch Complex 2-West at Vandenberg Air 
Force Base, Calif., November 17.  A media briefing will be held 
at Jet Propulsion Laboratory next Tuesday prior to the launch.  
Both events will be broadcast over NASA Select TV.


The Washington Times says a Maryland communications satellite 
company...CONTEL ASC...has sued NASA for $70 million, "charging 
that the Space Agency breached a 1984 contract to launch Contel's 
ASC-2 communication satellite on the space shuttle". The suit was 
filed in late September to recover the difference between the 
cost of a commercial and a shuttle launch.


Final preparations for the launch of the DOD STS-33 mission 
November 20 continue at Kennedy Space Center.  As on previous DOD 
missions, NASA Select Television will provide only launch and 
landing video of the event.  Although a four hour launch period 
opens at 6:30 p.m., eastern time, the exact time of the launch is 
classified.


 Ron Baalke                       |    baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov 
 Jet Propulsion Lab  M/S 301-355  |    baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov 
 4800 Oak Grove Dr.               |
 Pasadena, CA 91109               |