Headline News
Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA 
Headquarters

  Friday, November 9, 1990	Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788

This is NASA Headline News for Friday, November 9, 1990

At the Kennedy Space Center, preparations for STS-38 
continue to go according to schedule.  Atlantis close out 
activities are going well, with aft compartment closeout 
scheduled to be completed Sunday evening.  Purging operations 
on Atlantis' three fuel cells were finished yesterday.   Ordnance 
activities are set for early tomorrow morning, during which time 
Launch Pad 39-A will be closed to all non-essential personnel.  
The countdown process picks up at 10:30 pm EST, Sunday, Nov. 
11.

At Launch Pad 39-B, technicians are servicing the Astro-1 
Broad Band X-ray Telescope with argon again.  The film in the 
Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope has been removed and will be 
replaced with fresh film just prior to launch of Columbia.  Work 
to close out orbiter activities progresses with activities such as 
updating the mission data contained in the onboard mass 
memory unit.

SLS astronauts were at the Operations & Checkout 
building yesterday for a series of integration activities.  A Space 
Life Sciences-1 team photo was also taken.

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

The Galileo spacecraft is now less than 15.4 million miles 
from Earth, approaching us at a velocity of more than 23,000 
miles per hour.  The first of the twin Earth Gravity Assists is 
now just one month away on Dec. 8.  Galileo is in excellent 
condition, and the general level of spacecraft activity remains 
fairly low.  Galileo will undergo a course correction maneuver 
next week to allow for additional fine tuning of its Earth flyby 
trajectory.

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

Magellan remains in good condition.  Earth and Venus are 
still in superior conjunction with the Earth-Sun-Venus angle, 
still less than 2.5 degrees.  The downlink from the spacecraft, on 
both X and S bands, is reasonably good, with few data 
transmission errors resulting from solar interference.  However, 
the uplink from the Deep Space Network to Magellan is not 
nearly as good, and is accompanied by numerous data errors.

Since the resumption of mapping activities requires a new 
mapping sequence to be transmitted to Magellan, Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory flight controllers have deferred the mapping 
activities until tomorrow.  JPL has predicted that the uplink 
data integrity will be regained by later today, and will attempt 
to uplink the new mapping sequence at that time.


Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA 
Select TV.  All times are Eastern.  **indicates a live program.

NASA Select TV programming will resume Tuesday, 11 / 
13 / 90
	

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.