Daily                 News
Monday, November 2, 1992  24-hour audio service at 202/755-1788

 % Columbia and STS-52 crew land safely in Florida;
 % US, Russian, Japanese and European scientists sign collaboration agreement;
 % JSC names Grumman award winner for institutional computing contract;
 % SLS-2 payload specialists named by Space Science Office;
 % PBS airs next episode in Space Age series tonight - To the Moon and Beyond.

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

Columbia landed yesterday morning at 9:05 am EST at Kennedy Space
Center's Shuttle Landing Facility, ending the 9-day and nearly 21-hour
STS-52 mission.  All six crewmembers were in good condition as they
exited the orbiter following the normal post-landing safing
procedures.  The crew departed late yesterday afternoon for Houston.
The orbiter traveled more than 4.1-million miles in its orbit during
this mission, bringing the total number of shuttle fleet orbit-miles
for the 10- year-old shuttle program to more than 120 million miles.

Saturday, the STS-52 crew had lowered Columbia's orbit another 40 miles
to obtain data for the Orbiter Glow Experiment.  The crew took a number
of photographs of the Canadian Tracking Assembly, a panel-shaped device
which was being held in front of the orbiter, facing the orbiter's
direction of travel, as part of the glow experiment.  This was the
third such exposure of "witness plates" to the atomic oxygen
environment present at the shuttle's orbital altitude and will be
analyzed by ground investigators studying the effects of the atomic
oxygen on a variety of materials.  The overall goal of these studies is
to develop new coatings for spacecraft exteriors which will be able to
withstand the oxidizing effects of the atomic oxygen.

Prior to the flight crew's reentry, the payload team in Houston and
Huntsville expressed to the crew their appreciation for the crew's
diligent work during the previous 10 days and said that all the
experimenters were quite pleased with the data they had received and
the high degree of interaction which had been accomplished between the
experimenters and the mission and payload specialists aboard Columbia.

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

Scientists from the U.S., Japan, Russia and Europe signed an agreement
this past Friday to mount a coordinated multi-mission investigation of
the Earth's magnetosphere during the coming decade.  The investigations
will involve as many as 35 different spacecraft from the participating
nations, including the Japanese GEOTAIL spacecraft launched this year
and the NASA Wind and two Russian Interball spacecraft scheduled to be
launched next year.  The executive secretary of the Inter-Agency
Consultative Group for Space Science, Professor Atsuhiro Nishida, said
this collaboration will produce major science accomplishments not
possible by any single space agency and "could serve as a model for
future international collaboration."

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

The Johnson Space Center Friday named Grumman Technical Services
Division, Titusville, Florida, as the award winner in a five-year,
$300-million contract for all non- mission computing services at the
Houston center.  The firm will provide data systems maintenance and
operations, personal workstation installation and maintenance, networks
and telecommunications services and program integration and development
for the institutional requirements of the center for the five-year
period beginning January 1, 1993.

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

Last Friday, Dr. Lennard Fisk named Dr. Martin J.  Fettman, D.V.M., as
the prime payload specialist for the second dedicated Life Sciences
Spacelab mission, SLS-2, set for launch in August 1993.  Fettman is a
professor of pathology at Colorado State University's College of
Veterinary Medicine.  Jay Buckey, M.D., an assistant professor at the
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, and Laurence
Young, Sc. D., professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Mass.
Institute of Technology, will serve as alternate payload specialists
for the planned 13-day mission.

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

The fourth program in the Public Broadcasting Service's six-episode
series Space Age, will air this evening at 9:00 pm EST.  The program,
entitled "To the Moon and Beyond," considers the possibility of a
return to the Moon to establish a permanent base for exploring the rest
of the solar system.

  
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, November 2, 1992
Live   12:00 pm  NASA Today news program.
       12:15 pm  Aeronautics & Space Report.
       12:30 pm  Shuttle Flow at Kennedy Space Center.
        1:00 pm  Journey through the Solar System.
        1:30 pm  Artists of NASA.
        1:45 pm  Aquanauts.
        2:00 pm  NASA Videoconference Series from Oklahoma 
                 State University (replay of Space Science taped 10/21/92).
        4:00 pm  8:00 pm & 12:00 midnight - NASA Today and 
                 subsequent programming repeats.
  
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, 202/453-8425 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.