Headline News Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA Headquarters Tuesday, December 3, 1991 Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788 This is NASA Headline News for Tuesday, December 3, 1991 . . . Ground service technicians from Kennedy Space Center have moved Atlantis from its end-of-the-runway position at Edwards Air Force Base to the California facility's shuttle-747 mate/demate device. The ground team will be completing post-mission safing of the orbiter throughout the week and expects to have Atlantis ready for a two-day ferry flight back to Florida by this weekend. An initial inspection of Atlantis showed very little reentry damage with only 12 thermal insulation tiles reported dinged. Meanwhile in Florida, Discovery processing team members continue to prepare that orbiter for its early-1992 International Microgravity Laboratory Spacelab mission. The STS-42 flight crew equipment interface test will take place tomorrow. The seven-day, seven-crewmember mission is presently slated for launch in January. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Goddard Space Flight Center controllers for the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory also report that spacecraft is doing equally well and continues with its scheduled science observation program. The current target is the Galaxy NGC 1275. The Burst and Transient Source Experiment continues to log new gamma-ray burst sources. The Marshall Space Flight Center BATSE science team reports they have sighted 176 sources so far. The Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope's spark chamber was refilled with neon gas yesterday. The neon refill is expected and engineers report the instrument's use of the gas is at a nominal depletion rate. There is enough onboard neon for four more refills. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * NASA will hold a press briefing on the status of the Space Station Freedom, including results of the recently completed preliminary design review for the man-tended capability, at the Space Station Freedom Review Center, Parkridge IV Building, Reston, this Friday, Dec. 6, at 11:00 am. The briefing will feature NASA Administrator Richard Truly, space development chief Arnold Aldrich, space station chief Richard Kohrs and representatives from the four NASA development centers, the four prime contractors and NASA's international partners. The briefing will be carried live on NASA Select TV. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The second national technology transfer conference and exposition began today the San Jose Convention Center, Calif. The conference, Technology 2001, is showcasing leading-edge technologies from NASA and other federal agencies and their contractors and will continue through Thursday. This year's conference features technical advances in 15 critical technology areas including biotechnology and artificial intelligence. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Goddard flight controllers also report that the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite is performing nominally during the current validation phase of its mission. The satellite has been on orbit for 78 days now and has already taken measurements of the upper atmosphere's chlorine monoxide, ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitric oxide, and water vapor levels as well as stratospheric temperature profiles and flux measurements of incoming solar ultraviolet light. The validation team expects to complete the calibration process on schedule this coming March. In anticipation of the flood of data the spacecraft will produce, Goddard ground systems engineers recently completed an upgrade of the Central Data Handling Facility to increase overall ground system performance. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * NASA Headquarters will hold another in its series of Total Quality Management Colloquia on December 10 at 1:00 pm in the Headquarters auditorium. Guest speaker for this session will be Dr. Daniel Roos, from the Center for Technology Policy and Industrial Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Roos is also the co-author of The Machine that Changed the World. He will discuss global competition's effects on the aerospace community. His remarks will be followed by a question-and-answer session. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Marshall Space Flight Center education officials report the use of their educational space-based computer database -- Spacelink -- continues to grow. The Marshall group reports an exceptionally heavy load occurred over the Thanksgiving holiday. About one-third of all calls to the system are from students with another fifth of the calls coming from teachers. 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. Tuesday, December 3, 1991 12:00 pm NASA Today news program. 12:15 pm One Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words. 12:30 pm Visions of Other Worlds. 1:00 pm Life in the Universe program #1. 1:30 pm Adapting to Space. 2:00 pm Starfinder program #30. 2:15 pm Violent Universe. 2:30 pm Freedom 7. 3:00 pm Journey Through the Solar System -- the Sun. 3:30 pm Looking Ahead and Back. 4:00 pm NASA Today and subsequent programming repeats. 8:00 pm NASA Today and subsequent programming repeats. 12:00 am NASA Today and subsequent programming repeats. This report is filed daily at noon, Monday through Friday. It is a service of NASA's Office of Public Affairs. The editor 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 3960 MegaHertz, audio subcarrier is 6.8 MHz, polarization is vertical.