yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) (12/21/89)
----------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, December 20, 1989 Audio: 202/755-1788 ----------------------------------------------------------------- This is NASA Headline News for Wednesday, December 20.... Work continues at launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in preparation for the STS-32 space shuttle mission now scheduled for no earlier than January 8. Workers continue to validate fuel loading systems. Aerospace Daily says U.S. astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts will be monitored in orbit to develop databases of information relative to the effects of long duration space flight. The compatible databases were negotiated by officials from NASA and the Soviet space organization last month. NASA's Director of Life Sciences Dr. Arnauld Nicogosian says a NASA team will go to the Soviet Union in January to train Soviet technicians to use a Holter heart monitor and ultrasound equipment for use aboard the Mir space station. U.S. astronauts will be monitored on space shuttle flights in 1990 and 1991. Orbital Sciences Corporation and Hercules Incorporated have signed a reservation agreement with the Swedish Space Corporation for a 1992 launch of a scientific satellite using the Pegasus air launched orbital space booster. The Swedish satellite will carry instruments to investigate the aurora and other magnetospheric phenomena. President Bush formally authorized the export of three U.S.-built communications satellites to China yesterday. The chief executive said the delivery "is in the national interest of the United States". The satellites were built by Hughes Aircraft Company...two for an Australian consortium...the other for a British-Chinese consortium. The scheduled launch of a commercial Titan 3 rocket carrying two communications satellites from Cape Canaveral was postponed last night for the fourth time. The reason....high winds over the Cape area. And....the Kennedy Space Center has awarded McDonnell Douglas Space Services Co. a three-year extension to an existing contract for payload ground operations services. The extension was valued at approximately $192 million. * * * * ----------------------------------------------------------------- Here's the broadcast schedule for public affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern. Thursday, December 21..... 11:30 A.M. NASA Update will be transmitted. All events and times are subject to change without notice. ----------------------------------------------------------------- These reports are filed daily, Monday through Friday, at 12 noon, Eastern time. ----------------------------------------------------------------- A service of the Internal Communications Branch (LPC), NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.