Headline News Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA Headquarters Monday, December 10, 1990 Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788 This is NASA Headline News for Monday, December 10, 1990 Shuttle mission controllers at Johnson Space Center this morning decided to bring Columbia and its seven-person crew home tonight. The decision to come home tonight was based on expected unacceptable weather conditions at Edwards Air Force Base for both tomorrow and Wednesday. The planned deorbit maneuver for tonight's landing will occur at 11:49 pm EST with an Edwards landing on runway 22 at 12:51 am tomorrow morning. The Astro-1 crew will spend the rest of today stowing equipment, including the payload bay telescopes, closing the payload bay doors, testing the ship's reentry systems and, in general, making Columbia shipshape for its return. Astro-1 science activities this morning consisted of joint observations with all three ultraviolet telescopes of several galaxies and the nearby supergiant star Betelgeuse. The X-ray telescope observed several binary star systems and a quasar during this same period. The science management team, at this morning's press briefing, remarked that they consider the mission a complete success and expect the science gain from this Spacelab flight will exceed all previous such science flights. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The final report of the Advisory Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program was presented at a press briefing at 11:00 am today from the Old Executive Office Building. Participants included Vice President Dan Quayle, Committee Chairma7hNorman R. Augustine, and NASA Administrator Adm. Richard Truly. Admiral Truly later today will conduct a press briefing at the NASA Headquarters Auditorium to discuss the report 's findings. The briefing will be held at 4:00 pm and will be carried live on NASA Select TV. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Honorable James Baker, Secretary of State, and the Honorable Eduard A. Schevardnadze, Foreign Minister of the U.S.S.R, will both be guests in JSC's Mission Control Center this afternoon at 1:50 pm EST. The two are in Houston for a continuation of the arms limitation discussions and will take this opportunity to observe shuttle mission activities. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Galileo Earth 1 gravitational assist flyby went according to the plan this past Saturday. At 3:35 pm EST, Galileo flew above the Earth, over the Carribean Basin, at an altitude of 597 miles. Columbia was on an ascending pass moving toward the coast of Chile at that time. Galileo gained about 10,800 miles per hour during the flyby. A photo of the moon and another of Australia were downlinked within minutes of the flyby. More than 2,000 images of the Earth and moon are scheduled to be downlinked in the next few days. Hubble Space Telescope flight controllers at the Goddard Space Flight Center expected to have the spacecraft up and running again today following the failure of a redundant gyro which placed Hubble in a safe mode since last Monday. A preliminary assessment as to the cause indicates a possible wiring fault in the electronics associated with gyro 6. Following the entry into safe mode, Goddard controllers brought one of the two backup gyros on line and began gyro alignment activities and a routine recovery from safe mode. An inquiry board has been established to define the most probably cause of the failure and to provide recommendations concerning further actions. The gyro is one of many on-orbit replaceable units and planning to permit the inclusion of a replacement pair of gyros on the 1993 orbital servicing mission. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Kennedy Space Center named a new director of engineering development last week. Walter T. Murphy, formerly deputy, was named director last Wednesday. He replaces Jim Phillips, who recently retired. Murphy has previously been manager of all shuttle engineering activities at Vandenberg and prior to that was manager for the checkout of shuttle avionics. Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern. **indicates a live program. Monday, 12/10/90 11:00 am **Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program report from Old Executive Office Building. 1:00 pm **Galileo status report from JPL. 4:00 pm **Adm. Truly press briefing on Augustine committee report from NASA Headquarters. Throughout the day mission coverage of the STS-35 Astro-1 mission will continue live, except as noted above. All events and times may change without notice. This report is filed daily, Monday through Friday, at 12:00 pm, EST. It is a service of Internal Communications Branch at NASA Headquarters. Contact: CREDMOND on NASAmail or at 202/453-8425. NASA Select TV: Satcom F2R, Transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees West Longitude, Audio 6.8, Frequency 3960 MHz.