Ed Campion
Headquarters, Washington, DC               April 18, 1996
(Phone:  202/358-1778)

Rob Navias
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone:  713/483-5111)



NOTE TO EDITORS:  N96-26

STS-77 PREFLIGHT MEDIA BRIEFINGS SET FOR APRIL 30

     A series of press briefings detailing the objectives 
planned for 
NASA's 77th Space Shuttle mission is scheduled for April 30 
at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, and the Goddard 
Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD.
     Endeavour will carry a crew of six on mission STS-77, 
currently 
targeted for launch in mid-May.  The crew includes Commander 
John Casper, 
Pilot Curt Brown and Mission Specialists Andy Thomas, Dan 
Bursch, Mario Runco and Marc Garneau. 

      During the planned ten-day mission, the astronauts 
will perform a total of four rendezvous operations with two 
research satellites -- the most ever during a single Space 
Shuttle flight.  The crew will deploy the SPARTAN-207 
spacecraft with the Inflatable Antenna Experiment and will 
conduct stationkeeping operations with a satellite called 
the PAMS/STU, which will investigate a new laser-based 
attitude system. 

      The SPACEHAB module containing a variety of 
experiments will be carried aboard Endeavour in addition to 
a dozen Get Away Special canisters  mounted in the cargo bay 
that are sponsored by investigators from the U.S., Canada 
and Europe.

     NASA TV can been seen on Spacenet 2, Transponder 5 at a 
frequency of 3880 Mhz and an orbital position of 69 degrees 
West longitude. Polarization is horizontal.


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     Following is a schedule for the STS-77 briefings:


STS-77 Pre-Flight Briefings
April 30, 1996
(All times listed are EDT)

9 a.m.      Mission Overview (from Johnson)
            Wayne Hale, STS-77 Lead Flight Director

10 a.m.     Overview (from Johnson)
            Ed Gabris, Director, Space Processing Division, 
NASA Headquarters
            Mike Lounge, Staff Vice President, SPACEHAB, 
Inc.

11 a.m.     Spartan-207/Inflatable Antenna Experiment (from 
Goddard)
            Mark Steiner, Spartan 207 Mission Manager
            Dr. Steven Bard, IAE Project Manager/Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory
            Gordon Veal, Prinicipal Investigator/L’Garde

Noon	NASA TV Video File (from NASA Headquarters)

12:30 p.m. TEAMS/PAMS-STU Briefing (from Goddard)
            Neal Barthelme, TEAMS Mission Manager
            Alex Dula, GANE Prinicipal Investigator
            Linda Pacini, PAMS Principal Investigator
            Al Seigeneur, VTRE Project Manager
            Dave Glaister, LMTE Project Manager

1:30 p.m.   Get Away Special Briefing (from Goddard)
            Charlie Knapp, Goddard
            Lee Shiflett, Goddard
            Tumkur Raghuram, Utah State University
            Dr. Fran Chiarmonte, Lewis Research Center

2:30 p.m.   BETSCE Briefing (from Goddard)
            Dr. Steven Bard, BETSCE Project Manager/Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory

4 p.m.      Crew Press Conference (from Johnson)
            John Casper, Commander
            Curt Brown, Pilot
            Andy Thomas, Mission Specialist 1
            Dan Bursch, Mission Specialist 2
            Mario Runco, Mission Specialist 3
            Marc Garneau, Mission Specialist 4

                   -end-