Headline News Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA Headquarters Thursday, November 15, 1990 Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788 This is NASA Headline News for Thursday, November 15, 1990 The countdown for the launch of STS-38 continues to go smoothly. No hardware anomalies have been reported and presently there are no constraints to tanking operations. However, weather at launch time remains somewhat of a concern. A high pressure area over the Carolinas is pushing easterly winds and stratocumulus clouds across the Florida peninsula. The principal concerns are scattered to broken clouds at the 4,000 to 7,000 foot level in the area, and crosswinds which might exceed 12 knots at the launch pad and the Shuttle Landing Facility. The probability of violating launch and Return-to-Launch-Site abort constraints has risen from yesterday's 40 percent to 60 percent today. The prediction for a 24-hour launch delay calls for a probability of no more than 30 percent violation of launch or RTLS constraints. Activities associated with the Columbia STS-35 Astro-1 mission continue to progress smoothly. Yesterday, orbiter operations included topping off the hydrazine tanks for the onboard auxiliary power units. Also yesterday, Johnson and Marshall Space center personnel participated in another joint integrated simulation of the 10-day astronomy mission. The Flight Readiness Review for this mission is currently set for Tuesday, Nov. 27, at the Kennedy Space Center. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Science instrument turn-on activities on the Ulysses spacecraft will conclude this week, as the last of the nine experiments is activated. Jet Propulsion Laboratory flight controllers executed a pair of maneuvers yesterday which more precisely aimed Ulysses' high gain antenna at Earth. Starting today, the spacecraft will begin to transmit its data on X-band. The X-band offers higher data transmission rates. The flight control team has continued to analyze a slight wobble which was noticed just after the deployment of the Ulysses axial boom, nine days ago. The analysis team is still considering what, if any, corrective action to take. As of yesterday, Ulysses is 22 million miles from Earth moving outward at a heliocentric velocity of 86,000 miles per hour. This is about 26,000 mph faster than Galileo at the current time. Following the Earth 1 Gravity Assist Flyby, Saturday, Dec. 8, Galileo will be travelling at about 72,000 mph relative to the Sun. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Magellan project officials will hold a mission news conference tomorrow at 1:00 pm EST to discuss current spacecraft status and recent science results. A Venus radar image 3-D computer animation sequence will be featured during the press briefing. Project manager Anthony Spear, project scientist Dr. Stephen Saunders, MIT scientists Dr. Gordon Pettengill and Dr. Sean Solomon, and Washington University scientist Dr. Ray Arvidson will participate. The press briefing will be shown on NASA Select TV. Magellan, meanwhile, continues to perform well since its mapping mission resumed last Saturday. On Tuesday, flight controllers transmitted a software patch to correct oscillation of the onboard solar panels. The new software patch corrects an onboard computer conflict which was causing the oscillations. Spacecraft performance analysis has indicated that there may be some degradation in one track of the onboard A-side tape recorder. JPL is studying data management strategies which would work around the use of that track. Another problem with timing, which affects pointing of the radar antenna beam, is also being studied. This timing problem may cause minor to moderate image quality degradation, however the onboard processor may be able to be compensate for it. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * NASA has selected the principal investigators and science teams for the Saturn Orbiter portion of the Cassini mission, scheduled for launch in 1996. The investigators come from 11 U.S. universities, 3 NASA centers and 3 other U.S. laboratories, as well as 13 foreign countries. The Saturn Orbiter will include 62 investigations encompassing analysis of the structure and composition of Saturn's atmosphere, the physical properties of ring particles, a survey of moonlets within the rings, and a close look at several moons. The NASA centers are the Ames Research Center, the Goddard Space Flight Center, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern. **indicates a live program. Thursday, 11/15/90 11:30 am NASA Update will be transmitted. 4:30 pm **NASA Select will begin coverage of STS-38. 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.