Terri Sindelar
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                             May 19, 
1994
(Phone:  202/358-1977)

NOTE TO EDITORS:  N94-37

NASA AND MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS ASSOCIATION TO COLLABORATE

    On Monday, May 23, at 9:30 a.m. EDT, NASA Administrator Daniel 
S. Goldin and the President of the Multiple Sclerosis Association 
of America (MSAA), John Hodson Sr., will sign an agreement to work 
cooperatively to advance the state of the art and application of 
cool suit technology for MS patients.  The event, demonstrations 
and tour will take place at the National Rehabilitation Hospital 
(NRH), 102 Irving St., N.W., Washington, D.C.

    Madlyn Rhue, actress, artist, native Washingtonian and MS 
patient, will demonstrate how NASA's cool suit technology, derived 
from the Apollo mission space suit, relieved her symptoms and 
improved her quality of life.

    Jonathan M. Silver, Assistant Deputy Secretary of Commerce, 
and the White House coordinator for the President's new initiative 
to seek liaisons between the federal government and non-profit 
charities and foundations, will attend the event.

    A donation of $10,000 will be presented to MSAA by Mr. William 
Schnirring, President of Technology Utilization Foundation.  The 
gift is to be used to place cool suits with financially challenged 
MS patients.

    At 10:30 a.m., Edward A. Eckenhoff, President and CEO of NRH, 
will lead a tour of the hospital's facilities where doctors 
conduct research on cool suit technology and other advanced 
technologies to help MS patients relieve disabling symptoms.  MS 
patients undergoing treatment at NRH using the cool suit will 
discuss and evaluate their perceived improvement in walking, 
transfers, overall sense of well-being, and duration of the 
benefits of the cooling suit.

    May is MSAA awareness month.  More than 300,000 Americans are 
afflicted with this progressively disabling neurological disease 
that has no known cause, cure or prevention.  The disease attacks 
the myelin, or insulation, of nerve cell fibers.  The cool suit 
lowers the body temperature and some patients report that the suit 
helps alleviate symptoms of slurred speech, impaired vision, 
weakness and unsteady gait, unusual fatigue and improves cognitive 
abilities.
                              -end-