jordankatz@cdp.UUCP (04/26/89)
CONTACT: For Immediate Release
Leonard David
David Brandt
Dial-A-Shuttle Update:
STARS ON EARTH BRING YOU OUR STARS IN SPACE
DIAL-IT 900 SERVICE ALLOWS PUBLIC TO HEAR LATEST NEWS AND
VOICES OF ASTRONAUTS; STAR TREK CREW TO ADD COMMENTARY
DIAL 1-900-909-NASA
The National Space Society has announced that it will provide continuous
24-hour Dial-A-Shuttle coverage of America's pioneering step toward
Earth's mysterious sister planet Venus.
Fictional spacefarers from the popular TV show "Star Trek - The Next
Generation" and ABC News broadcaster Hugh Downs will participate with
the regular team of announcers in providing live coverage of the STS-30
mission from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX.
The Dial-A-Shuttle team will offer news updates, interviews, and feature
stories wrapped around all available live conversation between the
astronauts aboard the shuttle orbiter Atlantis and NASA's mission
control.
The coverage will commence two hours prior to the launch from Kennedy
Space Center in Florida of Atlantis and her Magellan scientific probe.
This will be the first American planetary mission since 1978 and the
first planetary probe to be carried aboard the shuttle. STS-30 mission
Commander David M. Walker and his crew of four will deploy the $378
million spacecraft about six hours after launch.
The crew will release the probe from the shuttle's payload bay, and a
rocket attached to Magellan will send the spacecraft toward Venus on a
466-day voyage. Once in orbit around Venus, Magellan will use high-
resolution radar to make the most detailed topographical map of the
landscape of the second planet from the Sun.
Secondary experiments will keep the four man, one woman crew busy for
four days, at the end of which the orbiter will land at Edwards Air Force
Base in California. Dial-A-Shuttle service will cease after the post-
flight press conference.
Dial-A-Shuttle is produced by the National Space Society in cooperation
with AT&T's Dial-it 900 Service program and the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration.
EDITORS NOTE: PLEASE INFORM YOUR READERS/LISTENERS/VIEWERS THAT THERE IS
A TOLL CHARGE FOR DIAL-A-SHUTTLE; IT IS $2.00 FOR THE FIRST MINUTE, 45
CENTS FOR EACH ADDITIONAL MINUTE.
ASSIGNMENT EDITORS CAN FOLLOW THE MISSION ON A REAL-TIME BASIS BY CALLING
DIAL-A-SHUTTLE - NO NEED TO WAIT FOR WIRE SERVICE REPORTS.