This is NASA Headline News for Wednesday, October 23, 1991 . . . Atlantis begins its move to launch pad 39-A tonight at 8:00 pm. The terminal countdown demonstration test is scheduled for Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. The STS-44 Flight Readiness Review for the 10-day Department of Defense mission is set for Nov. 7, at Kennedy Space Center. NASA will hold a series of preflight briefings on the mission next week, Oct. 28, at the Johnson Space Center. At 10:00 am EDT, STS-44 lead flight director Milt Heflin will provide a mission overview. At 11:00 am DOD payload representatives will have the floor. The flight crew will hold their briefing at 3:00 pm that afternoon. These three briefings will be carried live on NASA Select television. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Today, at 1:30 pm in the House Rayburn Office Building Room 2318, Chairman Ralph Hall (D-Calif) committee on Science, Space and Technology, subcommittee on space, will hold a hearing on the Earth benefits of space biomedical research. NASA witnesses will include OSSA chief Dr. Lennard Fisk, NASA Life Sciences chief Dr. Arnauld Nicogossian, and astronaut Dr. Rhea Seddon, MD. The hearing will be shown live on NASA Select television. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Magellan science team will present another in its series of science seminars highlighting discoveries about Venus tomorrow at 1:00 pm EDT. The seminar will be shown live on NASA Select television and will feature Dr. Richard Simpson, Stanford University Magellan researcher. Dr. Simpson will talk about peaks and pits on Venus' surface and what the team has inferred from the Magellan radar data about recent tectonic activity. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * More than two years ago Voyager 2 peered directly into Neptune's Great Dark Spot, whizzed past the frozen surface of the intriguing moon Triton, and then began its great trek into the dark vastness of extra-planetary space. JPL flight controllers report that Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1, continue to perform nearly flawlessly and continue to provide fields and particles data relevant to the continuing search for the edge of the Sun's influence -- the Heliopause. JPL center director Dr. Edward Stone says that the Voyagers, Voyager 1 most likely, will probably be the first spacecraft to provide direct evidence of the heliopause and what may lie beyond. At this time, Voyager 1 is 4.3 billion miles from Earth and moving outward at a velocity of nearly 40,000 miles per hour. Voyager 2 is a mere 3.3 billion miles from Earth, in the opposite direction from its twin and moving outward at the slightly slower velocity of nearly 37,000 mph. Just where the heliopause is no one can say, although Dr. Stone says current thought puts it at about 7 billion to 14 billion miles out from the Sun. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * This Friday, Oct. 25, several Cleveland-area schools will participate in a ceremony culminating the year-long 50th anniversary celebration of the Lewis Research Center. Some students will be presenting artistic interpretations related to the history of the Lewis center, past, present and even future. The students will come from all 12 grades. Other students will be involved in the planting of an Ohio buckeye tree near the site where a time capsule will be buried. The tree will serve as a living reminder to the day in the year 2041 when the capsule will be opened. Cleveland Boy Scout Troop 215 and the Collinwood High School Band will provide the color guard and musical accompaniment for the program. In a related activity, Lewis center director Lawrence Ross this week accepted a resolution from the Cleveland City Council in honor of the center's 50 years of research contributions. 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. Wednesday, October 23, 1991 12:00 pm NASA Today news program. 12:15 pm Looking Ahead and Looking Back. 12:30 pm "Launching the School Year" with President Bush and astronauts (this program will be repeated every Wednesday throughout October.) 1:30 pm House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, subcommittee on space, hearing on space biomedical research. 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. Thursday, October 24, 1991 12:00 pm NASA Today news program. 12:15 pm NASA historical programming. 1:00 pm Magellan Science Seminar: Peaks and Pits with Dr. Richard Simpson. 2:00 pm NASA educational programming, continues through 4:00 pm. 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. Friday, October 25, 1991 12:00 pm NASA Today news program. 12:15 pm NASA historical programming, continues through 2:00 pm. 2:00 pm NASA educational programming, continues through 4:00 pm. 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.