Headline News Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA Headquarters Wednesday, April 24, 1991 Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788 This is NASA Headline News for Wednesday, April 24, 1991 . . . Kennedy Space Center staff are nearly ready to gain access to Discovery's aft compartment for troubleshooting of the suspected faulty sensor on engine #3. Yesterday, the main tank was drained and the rotating service structure moved back around the orbiter. This morning work continues to drain fuel cell reactant tanks. Technical team members should be ready to inspect the engine #3 aft compartment area by this afternoon. Marshall Space Flight Center and Kennedy officials estimate repairs could be underway tomorrow if the problem turns out to be the sensor or the wiring harness. Should troubleshooting point to the engine controller, additional time may be required for removal and testing. Presently, the KSC and Marshall team are indicating a possibility of picking up the launch countdown Saturday morning, to support a launch no earlier than Sunday, April 28. In orbiter processing facility bay 1, Columbia is nearly ready to be transported to the vehicle assembly building. Final orbiter preparations for the rollover have been completed. The orbiter will undergo weight and center-of-gravity checks today. Columbia's STS-40 solid rocket booster/external tank stack is ready for mating with the orbiter. The launch of Columbia for the Spacelab Life Sciences mission is still set for May. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * For the 84 students from Copley High School and Copley- Fairlawn Middle School, Akron, Monday was much more than just any ordinary Earth Day. The 84 students had just emerged from 10 days of seclusion in Moonbase America, a cluster of nine domes set up to simulate an actual extraterrestrial base. The $3 million project is jointly sponsored by NASA with the education community and corporate support. NASA Administrator Richard Truly helped kick off the project ten days earlier. The 84 students spent their time working around the clock, in eight-hour shifts, to attend to a host of environmental, electronics, computer and hydroponics experiments spaced throughout the nine-dome city. NASA Lewis Research Center computer specialist Bill Crell helped to debrief the students following their "journey." Additionally, 12 middle-school and high school students staffed the "control facility" which monitored the Moonbase's operations. Homework, the teachers say, was "faxed" to the base. Former NASA astronauts Al Worden and John Glenn helped with the project, which was entirely managed by Carolyn Staudt, Copley High School physics teacher. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space (Albert Gore, D-Tenn., chairman) holds hearings today in the Russell Senate Office Building, room 253, from 9:30 through noon. Today's hearing is on the NASA Office of Space Science and Applications Fiscal Year 1992 budget request. OSSA Associate Administrator, Dr. Lennard Fisk, will be the principal witness. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The newest space shuttle orbiter, the Endeavour, will be rolled out tomorrow in a ceremony at Rockwell's Space System Division plant in Palmdale, Calif. Several thousand Rockwell employees, their families, government leaders and top NASA and Rockwell officials will be on hand for the ceremony, which begins at 1:30 pm EDT. The rollout ceremony will be covered live on NASA Select TV from 1:30 to 3:30 pm EDT. Also appearing at the ceremony will be Dr. Robert Duce, University of Rhode Island vice Provost for Marine Affairs, who will present NASA with a sternpost remnant recovered from Endeavour's namesake ship -- the first sailing ship commanded by British Captain James Cook. On that trip, during the period from 1768 through 1771, Captain Cook observed and recorded the transit of the planet Venus. The sternpost will be carried aboard Endeavour on its first flight, now scheduled for STS-52 in February 1992. Endeavour is expected to arrive at the Kennedy Center next Friday, May 3. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Stennis Space Center's Teacher Resource Center is hosting an Earth Day workshop all day today to assist Mississippi and Louisiana educators with their science teaching requirements. The teachers received a series of briefings on Earth and the environment from scientists working at Stennis. In addition to the scientists from Stennis, the workshop is also being supported by Stennis contractor, Environmental Protection Agency, and other Stennis resident-agency staff scientists. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) holds its annual meeting next Tuesday through Thursday, April 30 - May 2, in Arlington. This year's theme is "Aerospace 1991: The Changing Course." The meeting will be in the Crystal City Hyatt Regency Hotel. Key speakers for the sessions will include NASA Deputy J.R. Thompson, Office of Aeronautics, Exploration and Technology Associate Administrator Arnold Aldrich, and Norman Augustine, chief executive officer of Martin Marietta Corp. 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. Wednesday, 4/24/91 1:15 pm Magellan-at-Venus status briefing, live from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Thursday, 4/25/91 1:30 pm Rollout ceremonies for space shuttle Endeavour, live from Rockwell International's Palmdale, Calif., orbiter assembly plant. This report is filed daily at noon, Monday through Friday. It is a service of NASA's Office of Public Affairs. The contact 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 3954.5 megaHertz, audio is offset 6.8 MHz, polarization is vertical.