yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) (02/06/91)
Headline News Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA Tuesday, February 5, 1991 Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788 This is NASA Headline News for Tuesday, February 5, 1991 Technicians working on Discovery continue to make good progress in preparing that vehicle for roll over to the Vehicle Assembly Building. That rollover is now expected to be no earlier than late Friday, Feb. 8, and possibly early Saturday, Feb. 9. Inspection of the thruster heater, which had failed in an earlier check, showed an open circuit in one of the control wires. That is being spliced now, and will be tested later today. Weight and center-of-gravity measurements are expected to be taken later this week. Atlantis' flow is also continuing on schedule. Workers installed the right orbital maneuvering system pod over the weekend. Tests of that pod should begin tomorrow. Technicians are still preparing the orbiter cabin for installation of windows #1 and #6. Activity today includes work on the window frames. The external tank was mated to Atlantis' STS-37 solid rocket booster stack yesterday. Field joint closeouts and inspections on both SRBs were also completed. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * NASA yesterday issued its February 1991 Mixed Fleet Manifest for Space Shuttle and expendable launch vehicle planned flights. Nearly 70 percent of the 26 shuttle flights planned for the next 3 years are for NASA payloads or joint NASAJ/Jinternational payloads. Seven shuttle flights are planned this year, eight in 1992 and eleven in 1993. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * NASA yesterday released its 1992 Fiscal Year budget request. The request seeks $15,754 billion, with 46 percent going for research and development activities and another 35 percent allocated for space flight operations. The FY 1992 request represents a 13.6 percent increase over the current year's appropriation. The request includes two significant new initiatives: a New Launch System to be jointly developed with the Department of Defense; and Lifesat, a multi-launch recoverable biosatellite system. The new budget request also includes funding for construction of an Earth Observing System Data Facility at Goddard and construction of the Space Station Processing Facility at Kennedy. NASA's FY 1992 request represents only one percent of the total Federal Budget. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * This is Black History Month, and as part of its observation, NASA has scheduled four special events to be held in the Headquarters auditorium. Tomorrow, at 11:00 am, NASA will present Dr. Edward Fort, Chancellor of North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro. Dr. Fort will address the theme of this year's Black History observation and comment on "Historically Black Colleges and Universities." The presentation will be shown live on NASA Select TV. Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern. **indicates a live program. Tuesday, 2/5/91 12:00 pm NASA Video Productions will be transmitted. 6:00 pm NASA Video Productions repeats. Wednesday, 2/6/91 11:00 am **"Historically Black Colleges and Universities," presentation by Dr. Edward Fort, Chancellor of North Carolina A&T State University. 1:15 pm **Magellan-at-Venus update from Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 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.