Conference 7.286::space

	The following is the crew list, of interest is the payload specialists
	are the same ones that flew on the ASTRO-1 mission in December 1990.
	This is Oswald's first mission as Commander.

	STS 67	- Columbia (18) December 1 1994
		- ASTRO-2; CAPL-2; EDO
		- Commander: Stephen Oswald (3)
		- Pilot: William Gregory
		- PC/MS1: Tamara Jernigan (3)
		- FE/MS2: Wendy Lawrence
		- MS3: John Grunsfield
		- PS1: Ronald Parise (2) (US)
		- PS2: Samuel Durrance (2) (US)

			      
			  SPACE SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT
			   Monday, December 19, 1994
 
George H. Diller
Kennedy Space Center
407/867-2468
							
																							
ENDEAVOUR (STS-67) Astro-2
 
	 Installation of the three main engines is underway.  The right
orbital maneuvering system pod has been removed for rework of wiring on
the signal conditioner.  Auxiliary power unit No. 1 has been reinstalled
and connections are being established.  The drag chute has been installed. 
Checkout and servicing of the water spray boilers is continuing. 
 
 

NASA News
National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
 
John F. Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center, Florida 32899
AC 407 867-2468
 
                                        
                                                  
For Release: Feb. 24, 1995
 
Bruce Buckingham
407/867-2468                                      
 
KSC RELEASE NO.   18 - 95
 
SPACE SHUTTLE MISSION STS-67 LAUNCH COUNTDOWN TO BEGIN MONDAY
 
     The countdown for launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on mission 
STS-67 is scheduled to begin Monday, Feb. 27 at 2 a.m. EST, at the T-43 hour 
mark.
 
     The countdown includes 28 hours and 37 minutes of built-in hold time 
leading to the opening of the launch window at 1:37 a.m. (EST) on March 2. 
The launch window extends for 2 1/2 hours, through 4:07 a.m.
 
     STS-67 is the second of eight missions scheduled for 1995. This will be 
the 8th flight of the Shuttle Endeavour and the 68th flight overall in 
NASA+s Space Shuttle program.
 
     The primary purpose of mission STS-67 is to support the Astro-2 
payload, a series of ultraviolet telescopes that will study the evolution 
and composition of stars and galaxies and the interstellar dust between 
galaxies. The Astro-2 telescopes will also look at the planet Jupiter in 
hopes of observing any changes in the planet+s upper atmosphere resulting 
from the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet impacts last summer.
 
     The three telescopes flying on Astro-2 are: Hopkins Ultraviolet 
Telescope (HUT), Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) 
and Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT).
 
     Other payloads located on the middeck are two Protein Crystal Growth 
investigations, the Commercial Materials Dispersion Apparatus 
Instrumentation Technology Associates Experiments (CMIX), and the Shuttle 
Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX-II).
 
     Endeavour was rolled out of Orbiter Processing Facility bay 1 on Feb. 3 
and mated with the external tank and solid rocket boosters in the Vehicle 
Assembly Building.  The Shuttle stack was then transported to Pad 39A on Feb. 
8. Endeavour last flew in September/October 1994.
 
     The STS-67 crew are: Commander Stephen Oswald, Pilot William Gregory, 
Payload Commander/Mission Specialist Tamara Jernigan, Mission Specialists 
John Grunsfeld and Wendy Lawrence, and Payload Specialists Samuel Durrance 
and Ronald Parise.
 
     The crew is scheduled to arrive at KSC at about 11:15 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 
26.  Their activities at KSC prior to launch will include equipment fit 
checks, medical examinations and opportunities to fly in the Shuttle 
Training Aircraft.
 
     As the countdown begins, the KSC launch team in Firing Room 3 of the 
Launch Control Center will verify all systems to assure the Shuttle is 
properly powered up and the data processing and backup flight control 
systems are operating trouble free.
 
     Verifications conducted throughout the launch countdown ensure 
continuous reviews are made of the flight software stored in the orbiter's 
twin memory banks.  Computer controlled display systems will be activated and 
the backup flight system general purpose computer will be loaded.
 
     Operations will also begin to prepare the orbiter for on-board 
cryogenic loading.  Later, orbiter navigation aids will be turned on and 
tested and the inertial measurement units activated.  Ground crews will make 
the final storage of mid-deck and flight deck supplies, perform microbial 
samplings of the flight crew's drinking water and check water levels in the 
waste management system.
 
     At T-27 hours, the countdown enters its first scheduled hold.  This is a 
four-hour hold lasting from 6 p.m. - 10 p.m. Monday, Feb. 27.
 
     When the countdown resumes, the launch pad will be cleared of all 
personnel for loading cryogenic reactants.  Reactants are loaded into the 
power reactant storage and distribution system tanks located under the 
payload bay lining and the extended duration orbiter pallet tanks in the aft 
end of the payload bay.  The reactants are used by the orbiter's fuel cells 
to provide electricity to the orbiter and drinking water for the crew. 
Cryogenic flow operations are scheduled to start at about 10 p.m. Monday and 
continue for about 12 hours.
 
     As servicing of the cryogenic tanks nears completion, the clock will 
enter an eight-hour built-in hold at the T-19 hour mark.  This hold will last 
from 6 a.m. - 2 p.m. Tuesday.
 
     Following cryogenic loading operations, the pad will be re-opened for 
scheduled pre-launch activities.  The orbiter mid-body umbilical unit, used 
to load the super-cold reactants in the orbiter's fuel cell tanks, will be 
demated and retracted into the launch structure.
 
     When the countdown resumes, technicians will complete final vehicle and 
facility close-outs and begin configuring Endeavour's cockpit for flight. 
The orbiter's flight control system and navigation aids will be activated. 
The stowable crew seats will be installed in the flight and mid-decks.
 
     The countdown will enter another built-in hold at the T-11 hour mark at 
10 p.m. Tuesday.  This 13-hour, 17-minute hold will last until 11:17 a.m. 
Wednesday. During this hold, time critical equipment will be installed in 
the orbiter's cockpit.  The inertial measurement units and the orbiter's 
communications systems will be activated.
 
     At about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Rotating Service Structure is 
scheduled to be moved away from the vehicle and placed in launch position.
 
     At T-9 hours (1:17 p.m. Wednesday) the onboard fuel cells will be 
activated.  At T-8 hours, the launch team will evacuate the blast danger area 
and clear the pad for loading the external tank with the cryogenic 
propellants for the orbiter's main engines.  At T-7 hours, 30 minutes, 
conditioned air that is flowing through the orbiter's payload bay and other 
areas on the orbiter will be switched to gaseous nitrogen in preparation for 
fueling the external tank.  The inertial measurement units will transition 
from the warm-up stage to the operate/attitude determination mode at T-6 
hours, 45 minutes.
 
     The countdown will enter another planned built-in hold at the T-6 hour 
mark at 4:17 p.m. Wednesday.  During this one-hour hold, final preparations 
for loading the external tank will be completed.  Also, a pre-tanking weather 
briefing will be conducted for the benefit of the Mission Management Team 
prior to their giving approval to begin tanking operations.
 
     Chilldown of the lines that carry the cryogenic propellants to the 
external tank begins when the clock starts counting again at 5:17 p.m. 
Wednesday.  Filling and topping off the external tank should be complete 
about three hours later at the beginning of the next planned hold at T-3 
hours, or 8:17 p.m. Wednesday.
 
     During the two-hour hold at the T-3 hour mark, the Final Inspection 
Team will conduct a final survey of the pad and various Shuttle components 
ensuring their readiness for flight.  Also, the close-out crew will be 
dispatched to the pad and begin configuring the crew module and white room 
for the flight crew's arrival.  Liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen will be in 
a stable replenish mode during this time to replace any propellant that 
"boils" off.
 
     The seven flight crew members will be awakened at about 8:42 p.m. 
Wednesday and seated for their final meal before launch at about 9:12 p.m. 
Following their meal, the crew will receive a briefing on weather conditions 
at KSC and at the TransOceanic Abort Landing sites.
 
     The flight crew will suit-up in their partial-pressure suits, then 
leave the Operations and Checkout Building at about 10:22 p.m. Wednesday. 
They will arrive at the Pad 39A white room at about 10:52 p.m. and be 
assisted into the crew cabin by white room personnel.
 
     Just prior to the T-60 minute mark, the test team and the flight crew 
will get another weather update, including observations from astronaut Bob 
Cabana flying in a Shuttle Training Aircraft in the KSC area.
 
     The next built-in hold occurs at the T-20 minute mark (12:57 a.m. 
Thursday) and lasts for 10 minutes.  The final built-in hold occurs at the 
T-9 minute mark (1:18 a.m.) and extends for 10 minutes.  During the final 
hold, the flight crew and ground team receive the NASA launch director's and 
the mission management team's final "go" for launch.
 
     Milestones after the T-9 minute mark include start of the ground launch 
sequencer; retraction of the orbiter access arm at T-7 minutes, 30 seconds; 
start of the orbiter's auxiliary power units at T-5 minutes; pressurization 
of the liquid oxygen tank inside the external tank at T-2 minutes, 55 
seconds; pressurization of the liquid hydrogen tank at T-1 minute, 57 
seconds; ground power disconnection from the orbiter at T-50 seconds; and 
the electronic "go" to Endeavour's onboard computers to start their own 
terminal countdown sequence at T-31 seconds. The orbiter's three main 
engines will start at T-6.6 seconds.
 
 
COUNTDOWN MILESTONES
 
Launch - 3 Days (Monday, Feb. 27)
 
o Prepare for the start of the STS-67 launch countdown
o Perform the call-to-stations at the T-43 hour mark
o All members of the launch team report to their respective consoles in 
Firing Room 3 in the Launch Control Center for the start of the countdown.
o Countdown begins at 2 a.m. EST
o Start preparations for servicing fuel cell storage tanks
o Begin final vehicle and facility close-outs for launch
 
Enter first planned built-in hold at T-27 hours for duration of four hours 
(6 p.m.)
 
o Check out back-up flight systems
o Review flight software stored in mass memory units and display systems
o Load backup flight system software into Endeavour's general purpose 
computers
o Begin stowage of flight crew equipment
o Inspect the orbiter's mid-deck and flight-deck and remove crew module 
platforms
o Perform test of the vehicle's pyrotechnic initiator controllers
 
Resume countdown (10 p.m.)
 
o Clear launch pad of all personnel
o Begin the 12 hour operation to load cryogenic reactants into Endeavour's 
fuel cell storage tanks and the extended duration orbiter pallet
 
Launch - 2 Days (Tuesday, Feb. 28)
 
Enter eight-hour built-in hold at T-19 hours (6 a.m.)
 
o After cryogenic loading operations, re-open the pad
o Resume orbiter and ground support equipment close-outs
o Demate orbiter mid-body umbilical unit and retract into fixed service 
structure
 
Resume countdown (2 p.m.)
 
o Start final preparations of the Shuttle's main engines for main propellant 
tanking and flight
o Activate flight controls and navigation systems
o Install mission specialists' seats in crew cabin
o Close-out the tail service masts on the mobile launcher platform
 
Enter planned hold at T-11 hours for 13 hours, 17 minutes (10 p.m.)
 
o Perform orbiter ascent switch list in crew cabin
o Install film in numerous cameras on the launch pad
o Activate the orbiter's communications systems
o Activate orbiter's inertial measurement units
o Fill pad sound suppression system water tank
 
Launch -1 Day (Wednesday, March 1)
 
o Safety personnel conduct debris walkdown
o Move Rotating Service Structure (RSS) to the park position at about 8:30 
a.m.
o Following the RSS move, begin final stowage of mid-deck experiments and 
flight crew equipment
 
Resume countdown (11:17 a.m.)
 
o Install time critical flight crew equipment
o Perform pre-ingress switch list
o Start fuel cell flow-through purge
o Activate the orbiter's fuel cells
o Configure communications at Mission Control, Houston, for launch
o Clear the blast danger area of all non-essential personnel
o Switch Endeavour's purge air to gaseous nitrogen
 
Enter planned one-hour built-in hold at the T-6 hour mark (4:17 p.m.)
 
o Launch team verifies no violations of launch commit criteria prior to 
cryogenic loading of the external tank
o Clear pad of all personnel
 
Resume countdown (5:17 p.m.)
 
o Begin loading the external tank with cryogenic propellants (5:17 p.m.)
o Perform inertial measurement unit preflight calibration
o Align Merritt Island Launch Area (MILA) tracking antennas
o Complete filling the external tank with its flight load of liquid hydrogen 
and liquid oxygen propellants (8:12 p.m.)
 
Enter two-hour hold at T-3 hours (8:17 p.m.)
 
o Perform open loop test with Eastern Range
o Conduct gimbal profile checks of orbital maneuvering system engines
o Close-out crew and Final Inspection Team proceeds to Launch Pad 39A
 
Resume countdown at T-3 hours (10:17 p.m.)
 
o Crew departs Operations and Checkout Building for the pad at 10:22 p.m.
o Complete close-out preparations in the white room
o Check cockpit switch configurations
o Flight crew enters orbiter
 
Launch Day (Thursday, March. 2)
 
o Astronauts perform air-to-ground voice checks with Launch Control and 
Mission Control
o Close Endeavour's crew hatch
o Begin Eastern Range final network open loop command checks
o Perform hatch seal and cabin leak checks
o Complete white room close-out
o Close-out crew moves to fallback area
o Primary ascent guidance data is transferred to the backup flight system
 
Enter planned 10-minute hold at T-20 minutes (12:57 a.m.)
 
o NASA Test Director conducts final launch team briefings
 
Resume countdown (1:07 a.m.)
 
o Transition the orbiter's onboard computers to launch configuration
o Start fuel cell thermal conditioning
o Close orbiter cabin vent valves
o Transition backup flight system to launch configuration
 
Enter final 10-minute hold at T-9 minutes (1:18 a.m.)
 
o Launch Director, Mission Management Team and NASA Test Director conduct 
final polls for go/no go to launch
 
Resume countdown at T-9 minutes (1:28 a.m.)
 
o Start automatic ground launch sequencer (T-9:00 minutes)
o Retract orbiter crew access arm (T-7:30)
o Start mission recorders (T-5:30)
o Start Auxiliary Power Units (T-5:00)
o Arm SRB and ET range safety safe and arm devices (T-5:00)
o Start liquid oxygen drainback (T-4:55)
o Start orbiter aerosurface profile test (T-3:55)
o Start MPS gimbal profile test (T-3:30)
o Pressurize liquid oxygen tank (T-2:55)
o Begin retraction of the gaseous oxygen vent arm (T-2:55)
o Fuel cells to internal reactants (T-2:35)
o Pressurize liquid hydrogen tank (T-1:57)
o Deactivate SRB joint heaters (T-1:00)
o Orbiter transfers from ground to internal power (T-0:50 seconds)
o LPS go for start of orbiter automatic sequence (T-0:31 seconds)
o Ignition of Shuttle's three main engines (T-6.6 seconds)
o SRB ignition and liftoff (T-0)
 
 
SUMMARY OF BUILT-IN HOLDS FOR STS-67
 
T-TIME -------LENGTH OF HOLD -------- HOLD BEGINS -------- HOLD ENDS
 
T-27 hours -- 4 hours ----------------6 p.m.Mon.-----------10 p.m. Mon.
T-19 hours ---8 hours ----------------6 a.m.Tues.----------2 p.m. Tues.
T-11 hours ---13 hrs.,17 mins. -------10 p.m. Tues.--------11:17 a.m. Wed.
T-6 hours ----1 hours ----------------4:17 p.m.Wed.--------5:17 p.m. Wed.
T-3 hours ----2 hours --------------- 8:17 p.m.Wed.--------10:17 p.m. Wed.
T-20 minutes -10 minutes -------------12:57 a.m. Thurs.----1:07 a.m. Thurs.
T-9 minutes --10 minutes -------------1:18 a.m.Thurs.------1:28 a.m. Thurs.
 
 
CREW FOR MISSION STS-67
 
Commander (CDR): Stephen Oswald (Red Team)
Pilot (PLT): William Gregory (Red Team)
Payload Commander/Mission Specialist (MS3): Tamara Jernigan (Blue Team)
Mission Specialist (MS1): John Grunsfeld (Red Team)
Mission Specialist (MS2): Wendy Lawrence (Blue Team)
Payload Specialist (PS1): Samuel Durrance (Blue Team)
Payload Specialist (PS2): Ronald Parise (Red Team)
 
 
SUMMARY OF STS-67 LAUNCH DAY CREW ACTIVITIES
 
Wednesday, March 1
 
8:42 p.m. Wake up
9:12 p.m. Dinner/Breakfast and crew photo
9:42 p.m. Weather briefing (CDR, PLT, MS2)
9:42 p.m. Don flight equipment (MS1, MS3, PS1, PS2)
9:52 p.m. Don flight equipment (CDR, PLT, MS2)
10:22 p.m.Depart for launch pad 39A
10:52 p.m.Arrive at white room and begin ingress
 
Thursday, March 2, 1995
 
12:07 a.m.Close crew hatch
1:37 a.m. Launch

Has it launched ??, no nasa select, no news this side of the pond.

	John Travell.

3-2-95 Shuttle Status Report


KENNEDY SPACE CENTER SPACE SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT
THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 1995 (3:13 AM EST)

KSC Public Affairs Contact: Bruce Buckingham - 407-867-2468 (fax 867-2692)
(Internet e-mail: Bruce.Buckingham-1@kmail.ksc.nasa.gov)

MISSION: STS-67 -- ASTRO - 2
LAUNCH DAY/FLIGHT DAY 1

VEHICLE: Endeavour/OV-105
LOCATION: en orbit
LAUNCH DATE and TIME: March 2 at 1:38.13 a.m.
KSC LANDING DATE and TIME: March 17 at 3:10 p.m.
MISSION DURATION: 15 days, 13 hours, 32 minutes
ORBITAL ALTITUDE and INCLINATION: 218 statute miles/28.45 degrees

NOTE: The countdown for launch of Endeavour on mission STS-67 proceeded
smoothly this morning with liftoff occurring at 1:38 a.m. EST, about 1
minute and 13 seconds later than the originally targeted liftoff time. The
slight delay was due to engineers discussing a potential problem with a
heater system on the flash evaporator system. A backup heater was utilized
and the countdown proceeded. 

     Additional information regarding post launch inspections of the pad
and solid rocket booster retrieval operations will be available later
today. 

     Mission STS-67 status reports will be issued daily by the Johnson
Space Center, Houston, Tx. 


CREW FOR MISSION STS-67

Commander (CDR): Stephen Oswald (Red Team)
Pilot (PLT): William Gregory (Red Team)
Payload Commander/Mission Specialist (MS3): Tamara Jernigan (Blue Team)
Mission Specialist (MS1): John Grunsfeld (Red Team)
Mission Specialist (MS2): Wendy Lawrence (Blue Team)
Payload Specialist (PS1): Samuel Durrance (Blue Team)
Payload Specialist (PS2): Ronald Parise (Red Team)

#     #     #     #


NOTE: This Space Shuttle Status Report and other NASA status reports and
press releases are available from a data repository known as an anonymous
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server at ftp.pao.hq.nasa.gov under the
directory /pub/pao/statrpt/ksc. Users should log on with the user name
anonymous , then enter their E-mail address as the password. Within the
/pub/pao directory there will be a readme.txt file explaining the
directory structure. 

    

I have yet to format the press kit (it is available in text form),
but the rest of the information center is open.


   http://www-space.lkg.dec.com/space-archives.html


Please note that NASA is also running a real-time "home page" for
the ASTRO-2 mission.   It's aimed at the general public and students,
but promises to be a great source of information for those who have
good connectivity to the network.

  http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov/    will get you there.


- dave

    re .4...
    
    Yes, I saw on the news this morning that it launched.  They did not
    mention any delays, so I assume it went on time...
    
    Sorry, can't help with elements..
    
    cheers,
    jeff
    

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #1

Thursday, March 2, 2:30 a.m. CST

Endeavour began what is planned to become the longest shuttle flight
in history with a flawless liftoff at 12:38 a.m. central today.

The crew -- Commander Steve Oswald, Pilot Bill Gregory, Payload
Commander Tammy Jernigan, Mission Specialists John Grunsfeld and Wendy
Lawrence, and Payload Specialists Sam Durrance and Ron Parise -- are
now setting up shop in orbit for 15 and a half days of astronomical
observations. The ASTRO-2 package of telescopes in Endeavour's cargo
bay will be operated around the clock during the flight, peforming
ultraviolet observations hoped to add to scientists' understanding of
the universe's history and the origins of stars.

The Blue Team of crew members -- Jernigan, Lawrence and Durrance --
will be on duty for the morning aboard the spacecraft while their
fellow crewmembers, called the Red Team, sleep. The Red crew members
will take over duties at about 10:52 a.m.

Endeavour is in excellent condition with no mechanical problems in an
orbit with a high point of 190 nautical miles and a low point of 188
nautical miles, completing one orbit every 91 minutes.

The Johnson Space Center Public Affairs newsroom will reopen at 8
a.m. central.
 --end--

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #2

Thursday, March 2, 8 a.m. CST

Endeavour's trio of telescopes will begin astronomical observations
later today as the STS-67 science activities get started.

After a flawless liftoff at 12:38 a.m. Central this morning, the
seven-member crew quickly set up shop and began activating the ASTRO-2
science instruments. The activation of the Spacelab Pallet and the
Instrument Pointing System went well. The IPS' tracking systems are
now performing better than expected and are ready to support 16-days
of observations.

Over the next several hours, the ASTRO-2 telescopes will be activated
and checked. The three telescopes -- the Hopkins Ultraviolet
Telescope, the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo- Polarimeter Experiment and
the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope -- will then begin round- the-clock
ultraviolet observations that will add to scientists' understanding of
the universe's history and the origins of stars.

The Blue Team -- Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan, Mission Specialist
Wendy Lawrence and Payload Specialist Sam Durrance -- will wrap up its
first day on orbit shortly before noon Central time. The Red Team --
Commander Steve Oswald, Pilot Bill Gregory, Mission Specialist John
Grunsfield and Payload Specialist Ron Parise -- will then continue
with the science activities.

Endeavour is in excellent condition with no mechanical problems in an
orbit with a high point of 190 nautical miles and a low point of 188
nautical miles, completing one orbit every 91 minutes.

--end--

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #3

Thursday, March 2, 5 p.m. CST

Activation and calibration of the Astro-2 ultraviolet telescopes are
continuing slightly behind schedule following a steering jet leak that
has twice forced closure of the instruments protective doors.

The leak is in a reaction control system thruster designated R4R, a
jet in the right aft orbital maneuvering system pod that is aimed to
the right of the shuttle. Flight controllers worked with the crew to
close the manifold that supplies oxidizer and fuel to that jet, which
effectively stopped the leak.

The doors on the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope, the Wisconsin
Ultraviolet Photo- Polarimeter Experiment and the Ultraviolet Imaging
Telescope were first closed to protect the instruments from any
remaining oxidizer coming out of that jet after the manifold was
closed. Once the thruster's propellant lines had been evacuated, the
telescope doors were reopened. The doors were briefly closed again
while residual propellant downstream of the closed manifold
dissipated, but are now open and all scheduled operations have
resumed.

During the period the doors were closed, flight controllers and the
crew used the time to complete a number of other activation and
calibration activities that did not require the telescopes to acquire
celestial targets.

The failed jet, which is not being used to position the orbiter for
its science operations, is not a safety hazard in any way, and does
not affect the mission duration. The flight control team is looking at
options in dealing with the jet, but has not yet decided whether any
additional actions will be necessary.

The Red Team -- Commander Steve Oswald, Pilot Bill Gregory, Mission
Specialist John Grunsfeld and Payload Specialist Ron Parise -- is now
on duty. The Blue Team -- Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan, Mission
Specialist Wendy Lawrence and Payload Specialist Sam Durrance -- is in
its sleep shift.

Endeavour is in an orbit with a high point of 190 nautical miles and a
low point of 188 nautical miles, completing one orbit every 91
minutes.

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #1
6:00 a.m. CST (0/5:22 MET), March 2, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.


        Astronomers aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour are preparing the 
Astro-2 observatory for a unique exploration of the ultraviolet universe, 
following a dramatic nighttime launch at 12:38 a.m. CST.

        Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan completed initial activation
of the Spacelab pallet systems just before 4 a.m.  She then began
activating the Spacelab Instrument Pointing System, on which the
observatory's three telescopes are mounted.  At 5:47 a.m., she raised
it upright in the Shuttle cargo bay to face the heavens.  Astronomers
will use the pointing system to precisely track the stars and galaxies
they study during the nearly 16-day mission.

        Payload controllers and science teams at NASA's Spacelab
Mission Operations Control center in Huntsville watched closely as
Payload Specialist Sam Durrance supplied power from the Spacelab to
the telescopes shortly after 4 a.m., then started step-by-step
procedures to activate the individual instruments.  Telescope
activation will continue until after the end of his shift at about
10:30 this morning.  Durrance, an astronomer from The Johns Hopkins
University in Baltimore, Md., is a veteran of the first Astro mission
in December 1990, which was the maiden Shuttle flight for all three
Astro telescopes.

        Each of the telescopes provides unique insights into radiation
emitted by stars and galaxies in ultraviolet wavelengths -- a universe
that is strikingly different than that which is revealed in visible
light.

        The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope, from Johns Hopkins
University, conducts spectroscopy in the far ultraviolet portion of
the spectrum to identify elements present and processes taking place
in celestial objects.

        The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope, provided by NASA's Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., takes wide-field photographs of
objects in ultraviolet light, recording the images on film for
processing back on Earth.

        The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment,
developed by the University of Wisconsin at Madison, measures the
intensity of ultraviolet light and its degree of polarization,
revealing clues about the geometry of stars or the composition and
structure of the interstellar medium they illuminate.
        
        Because most ultraviolet radiation is absorbed by Earth's
atmosphere, it cannot be studied from the ground.  The far and extreme
ultraviolet region of the spectrum was largely unexplored before
Astro-1, but knowledge of all wavelengths is essential to obtain an
accurate picture of the universe.  Astro-2 will have almost twice the
duration of its predecessor, and a launch at a different time of year
allows the telescopes to view different portions of the sky.  The
mission promises to fill in large gaps in astronomers' understanding
of the universe and lay the foundations for more discovery in the
future.

        After fine-tuning of the Instrument Pointing System and
instrument activation are completed this afternoon, the crew will
focus and align the three telescopes for simultaneous, or joint,
observations.

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #2
6:00 p.m. CST (0/17:22 MET), March 2, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.


  The STS-67 science crew spent the entire day preparing the Astro-2
observatory for its two-week exploration of the ultraviolet universe.

  "When a new ground-based observatory is put into service, or
commissioned, this careful, step-by-step procedure of aligning the
pointing equipment and focusing the telescopes usually takes from six
months to a year.  Our goal was to have the Astro-2 observatory ready
for action within 24 to 36 hours after launch," said Mission Scientist
Dr. Charles Meegan.  "We expect to meet this schedule, and we're
absolutely thrilled with the performance of our equipment."

   Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan continued checkout of the
Instrument Pointing System, on which the three ultraviolet telescopes
are mounted.  The crew reported success with their first automatic
star identification procedure at about 6:30 a.m. CST, verifying that
the pointing system can center accurately on the celestial objects
Astro-2 science teams will choose to view.

        Payload Specialist Sam Durrance finished activating the
Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope, then completed the more complicated
procedures to put the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope into operation.

        Pilot Bill Gregory, Mission Specialist John Grunsfeld and
Payload Specialist Ron Parise took over operations from the first crew
at 11:30 a.m.  The two crew teams are working 12-hour shifts, so
astronomical observations can continue around the clock.

        Activation and verification of the Wisconsin Ultraviolet
Photo- Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) detector was delayed by
difficulties keeping it aligned with a test target, but the WUPPE
science team and Parise corrected the problem after several attempts.
Alternate Payload Specialist John-David Bartoe reported from the
ground, "Ron, the WUPPE folks are ecstatic down here, and they like
everything they see."

        Astro telescope verification was interrupted briefly at around
1:15 p.m., when ground controllers closed the telescope doors to
prevent contamination by oxidizer leaking from one of Endeavour's
reaction control system thrusters.  The thruster was closed less than
hour later, and Parise reopened the doors.
        
        During the telescope shutdown, Grunsfeld continued checking
out the Instrument Pointing System and the Image Motion Compensation
System, which keeps the WUPPE instrument and the imaging telescope on
target despite subtle disturbances.  Johnson Space Center controllers
declared the Instrument Pointing System operational at 1:53 p.m., and
they transferred control of the equipment to the Marshall Center
payload team for science activities.

        Parise and Grunsfeld then began an extended procedure called
Joint Focus and Alignment, one that is unique for space telescopes to
the Astro-2 payload.  Since all three instruments often make
simultaneous observations of the same objects, science teams must be
certain they are pointing in precisely the same direction and are in
near-perfect focus.

        Computer users from all over the world are participating in
Astro-2 through the mission's Internet "home page."  The page was
publicized on the Internet as "cool site of the day" for March 2, and
it was accessed more than 20,000 times within the first 14 hours after
launch.  Users from locations as diverse as Oregon and Malaysia
described the page as "absolutely amazing," while one from Germany
commented, "That's the future -- working on Earth and connected to
space."  The home page provides visitors with background information
and enables them to follow the mission in progress.  Its Internet
World Wide Web address is "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov".

        Final focusing and calibration of the Hopkins and Wisconsin
instruments will continue through the first half of the upcoming
shift.  Astro-2 observations of the ultraviolet sky will then begin.


 

 

STS-67 (68)

   Endeavour (8) 
   Pad 39-A (53) 
   68th Shuttle Mission 
   8th Flight OV-105 
   10th Night Launch 
   1st Launch new AF Range Control Center 

Crew:

   Stephen S. Oswald (3), Commander 
   William G. Gregory (1), Pilot 
   Tamara E. Jernigan (3) , Payload Commander 
   John M. Grunsfeld (1), Mission Specialist 
   Wendy B. Lawrence (1), Mission Specialist 
   Ronald A. Parise (2), Payload Specialist 
   Samuel T. Durrance (2), Payload Specialist 

   Scott D. Vangen (0), Alternate Payload Specialist 

Milestones:

   OPF -- 
   VAB -- 
   PAD -- 
   02/13/95 - Launch Readiness Review 
   02/14/95 - Start Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test 
   02/15/95 - Flight Readiness Review (10:00am) 
   02/15/95 - Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test T-0 (11:00am) 
   02/20/95 - Close AFT Engine Compartment 
   02/21/95 - Ordanance Installation 
   02/24/95 - Close Payload Bay Doors 
   02/26/95 - Crew Arrives at KSC (10:45pm) 
   02/27/95 - Begin STS-67 Launch Countdown (2:00am) 

Payload:

   ASTRO-2, MACE, GAS(x2),PCG-TES-03,PCG-STES-02,SAREX-II,CMIX-03,MSX 

Mission Objective:

Astro-2 is the second dedicated Spacelab mission to conduct astronomical
observations in the ultraviolet spectral regions. It consists of three unique
instruments - the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT), the Ultraviolet Imaging
Telescope (UIT) and the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment
(WUPPE). These experiments will select targets from a list of over 600 and
observe objects ranging from some inside the solar system to individual stars,
nebulae, supernova remnants, galaxies and active extragalactic objects. This
data will supplement data collected on the Astro-1 mission flown on STS-35 in
December 1990 aboard Columbia. 

Because most ultraviolet radiation is absorbed by Earth's atmosphere, it cannot
be studied from the ground. The far and extreme ultraviolet region of the
spectrum was largely unexplored before Astro-1, but knowledge of all wavelengths
is essential to obtain an accurate picture of the universe. Astro-2 will have
almost twice the duration of its predecessor, and a launch at a different time
of year allows the telescopes to view different portions of the sky. The mission
promises to fill in large gaps in astronomers' understanding of the universe and
lay the foundations for more discovery in the future.  On the Middeck, science
experiments include the Protein Crystal Growth Thermal Enclosure System Vapor
Diffusion Apparatus-03 experiment (PCG-TES-03), the Protein Crystal Growth
Single Thermal Enclosure System-02 (PCG-STES-02), the Shuttle Amateur Radio
Experiment-II ( SAREX-II), the Middeck Active Control Experiment (MACE), the
Commercial Materials Dispersion Apparatus Instrumentation Technology Associates
Experiments-03 (CMIX-03) and the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX). 

The Middeck Active Control Experiment (MACE) is a space engineering research
payload. It consists of a rate gyro, reaction wheels, a precision pointing
payload, and a scanning and pointing payload that produces motion disturbances.
The goal of the experiment is to test a closed loop control system that will
compensate for motion disturbances. On orbit, Commander Stephen S. Oswald and
William G. Gregory will use MACE to test about 200 different motion disturbance
situations over 45 hours of testing during the mission. Information from MACE
will be used to design better control systems that compensate for motion in
future spacecraft. 

Two Get Away Special (GAS) payloads are also on board. They are the G-387 and
G-388 canisters. This experiment is sponsored by the Australian Space Office and
AUSPACE ltd. The objectives are to make ultraviolet observations of deep space
or nearby galaxies. These observations will be made to study the structure of
galactic supernova remnants, the distribution of hot gas in the Magellanic
Clouds, the hot galactic halo emission, and emission associated with galactic
cooling flows and jets. The two GAS canisters are interconnected with a cable.
Canister 1 has a motorized door assembly that exposes a UV telescope to space
when opened. UV reflective filters on the telescopes optics determine its UV
bandpass. Canister 2 contains two video recorders for data storage and batteries
to provide experiment power. 

Launch:

Launch March 2, 1995. 1:38:34 am EST. Launch window was 2 hour 30 min. 

At 9:09pm EST, the only launch constraints were weather related with a 40%
chance for launch. At 9:11pm the astronauts had their breakfast in the astronaut
quarters on the 3rd floor of the Operations and Checkout building . Commander
Stephen S. Oswald and William G. Gregory were given a final weather briefing
while the rest of the crew suited up. At 10:22pm, the STS-67 crew left for Pad
39-A and arrived at 10:42pm. By 11:58pm the crew was all loaded and
communications air-to-ground voice checks were completed. By 12:50am on 3/2/95,
the door to Endeavour's mid-deck was sealed and a go was given to clear the
white room. 

There were 4 minor problems tracked during the count. The first problem occured
early in the count. A test configuration of communications system to enable
using TDRSS during ascent in lew of Bermuda Tracking station caused a timing
glitch that was quickly corrected. This test is an effort to get a 
communications lock in around 7 seconds instead of a normal 40 second and may
eventually reduce the need for the Bermuda Tracking station. The second problem
was a minor lead in the LH2 storage system on Pad 39-A. This leak will be
investigated when crews visit the pad after launch. The third minor problem
occured when Endeavours Fuel Cells showed a degradation in Fuel cell efficency.
This was traced to a Helium contamination during EDO pallet fill. A purge of the
line fixed the problem. 

At 1:26am a poll of the launch team identified all teams but one were go for
launch. The final problem was an indication that the B-supply secondary heater
of the Flash Evaporator System was approaching a redline condition. This system
is normally shutoff just before launch. At 1:29am the primary FES was brought
online and the clock was picked up with a plan to count down to the T-5 min
mark. The FES was verified as good and the count only suffered a 1 min delay
with this problem. APU prestart was complete at 1:32am. APU start completed at
1:34am. Launch occured at 1:38am EST. 

Good SRB Seperations. Negative Return called at 1:42am EST, all 3 SSME's
performed well. At T+6min Endeavour was at 367,000ft altitude and 335nm
downrange. At T+7min Endeavour was at 359,000ft and 354nm downrange, traveling
at 11,200mph. At T+8:30, (1:47am EST) the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME)
cutoff as planned with Endeavour traveling at 16,700mph, 800nm downrange. 
External Tank seperation confirmed at 1:48am EST. 

Earlier during the STS-67 mission flow, on 02/21/95, a failed shuttle Mass
Memory Unit #1 was removed from Endeavour and replaced with one from Discovery .
On 02/23/95, troubleshooting was done on a minor leak in Endeavours Flash
Evaporator System (FES) Freon coolant loop. The system was overpressurized and
it was determined the leak posed no impact to launch. 

Click here for Press Kit

Click here for Status Reports

Click here for Additional Info on STS-67

Orbit:

Altitude: 200 nm  Inclination: 28.45 degrees  Orbits:  Duration: 15 days, 13
hours, minutes, seconds. (Estimated)  Distance: miles 

Hardware:

SRB: BI-071  ET : SN-69  MLP :  SSME-1: SN-2012  SSME-2: SN-2033  SSME-3:
SN-2031 

Landing:

KSC March 18, 1995 at 3:09 p.m. EST (estimated) 

Mission Highlights:

On Friday, March 2, 1995 at 2:18am CST, the payload bay doors were opened and
the crew was given a go for orbit operations. This occured at an MET of 1hr
39min. 

On Thursday, March 2, 1995 at 2:30 a.m. CST, STS-67 MCC Status Report #01
reports: The crew -- Commander Steve Oswald, Pilot Bill Gregory, Payload
Commander Tammy Jernigan, Mission Specialists John Grunsfeld and Wendy Lawrence,
and Payload Specialists Sam Durrance and Ron Parise -- are now setting up shop
in orbit for 15 and a half days of astronomical observations. The  ASTRO-2
package of telescopes in Endeavour's cargo bay will be operated around the clock
during the flight, peforming ultraviolet observations hoped to add to
scientists' understanding of the universe's history and the origins of stars. 

The Blue Team of crew members -- Jernigan, Lawrence and Durrance -- will be on
duty for the morning aboard the spacecraft while their fellow crewmembers,
called the Red Team, sleep. The Red crew members will take over duties at about
10:52 a.m. 

On Thursday, March 2, 1995 at 6 a.m. CST, STS-67 Payload Status Report #01
states: (0/5:22 MET) Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan completed initial
activation of the Spacelab pallet systems just before 4 a.m. She then began
activating the Spacelab Instrument Pointing System, on which the observatory's
three telescopes are mounted. At 5:47 a.m., she raised it upright in the Shuttle
cargo bay to face the heavens. Astronomers will use the pointing system to
precisely track the stars and  galaxies they study during the nearly 16-day
mission. 

Payload controllers and science teams at NASA's Spacelab Mission Operations
Control center in Huntsville watched closely as Payload Specialist Sam Durrance
supplied power from the Spacelab to the telescopes shortly after 4 a.m., then
started step-by-step procedures to activate the individual instruments.
Telescope activation will continue until after the end of his shift at about
10:30 this morning. Durrance, an astronomer from The Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore, Md., is a veteran of the first Astro mission in December 1990, which
was the maiden Shuttle flight for all three Astro telescopes. 

After fine-tuning of the Instrument Pointing System and instrument activation
are completed this afternoon, the crew will focus and align the three telescopes
for simultaneous, or joint, observations. 

On Thursday, March 2, 1995 at 8:00 a.m. CST, STS-67 MCC Status Report #02
reports: The Blue Team -- Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan, Mission Specialist
Wendy Lawrence and Payload Specialist Sam Durrance will wrap up its first day on
orbit shortly before noon Central time. The Red Team -- Commander Steve Oswald,
Pilot Bill Gregory, Mission Specialist John Grunsfield and Payload Specialist
Ron Parise will then continue with the science activities. 

On Thursday, March 2, 1995 at 5:00 p.m. CST, STS-67 MCC Status Report #03
reports: Activation and calibration of the Astro-2 ultraviolet telescopes are
continuing slightly behind schedule following a steering jet leak that has twice
forced closure of the instruments protective doors. 

The leak is in a reaction control system thruster designated R4R, a jet in the
right aft orbital maneuvering system pod that is aimed to the right of the
shuttle. Flight controllers worked with the crew to close the manifold that
supplies oxidizer and fuel to that jet, which effectively stopped the leak. 

The doors on the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope, the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-
Polarimeter Experiment and the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope were first closed
to protect the instruments from any remaining oxidizer coming out of that jet
after the manifold was closed. Once the thruster's  propellant lines had been
evacuated, the telescope doors were reopened. The doors were briefly closed
again while residual propellant downstream of the closed manifold dissipated,
but are now open and all scheduled operations have resumed. 

The failed jet, which is not being used to position the orbiter for its science
operations, is not a safety hazard in any way, and does not affect the mission
duration. The flight control team is looking at options in dealing with the jet,
but has not yet decided whether any additional actions will be necessary. 

On Thursday, March 2, 1995 at 6 p.m. CST, STS-67 Payload Status Report #02
reports: (0/17:22 MET) Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan continued checkout of
the Instrument Pointing System, on which the three ultraviolet telescopes are
mounted. The crew reported success with their first automatic star
identification procedure at about 6:30 a.m. CST, verifying that the pointing
system can center accurately on the celestial objects Astro-2 science teams will
choose to view. 

Payload Specialist Sam Durrance finished activating the Ultraviolet Imaging
Telescope, then completed the more complicated procedures to put the Hopkins
Ultraviolet Telescope into operation. Pilot Bill Gregory, Mission Specialist
John Grunsfeld and Payload Specialist Ron Parise took over operations from the
first crew at 11:30 a.m. The two crew teams are working 12-hour shifts, so
astronomical observations can continue around the clock. 

Activation and verification of the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo- Polarimeter
Experiment (WUPPE) detector was delayed by difficulties keeping it aligned with
a test target, but the WUPPE science team and Parise corrected the problem after
several attempts. Alternate Payload Specialist John-David Bartoe reported from
the ground, "Ron, the WUPPE folks are ecstatic down here, and they like
everything they see." 

Astro telescope verification was interrupted briefly at around 1:15 p.m., when
ground controllers closed the telescope doors to prevent contamination by
oxidizer leaking from one of Endeavour's reaction control system thrusters. The
thruster was closed less than hour later, and Parise reopened the doors.  During
the telescope shutdown, Grunsfeld continued checking out the Instrument Pointing
System and the Image Motion Compensation System, which keeps the WUPPE
instrument and the imaging telescope on target despite subtle disturbances.
Johnson Space Center controllers declared the Instrument Pointing System
operational at 1:53 p.m., and they transferred control of the equipment to the
Marshall Center payload team for science activities. 

Parise and Grunsfeld then began an extended procedure called Joint Focus and
Alignment, one that is unique for space telescopes to the Astro-2 payload. Since
all three instruments often make simultaneous observations of the same objects,
science teams must be certain they are pointing in precisely the same direction
and are in near-perfect focus. Final focusing and calibration of the Hopkins and
Wisconsin instruments will continue through the first half of the upcoming
shift. Astro-2 observations of the ultraviolet sky will then begin. 

Click Here for Older Missions

Return to KSC Home Page Return to Shuttle Missions Page 



Last Updated Thursday March 2 23:33:48 EDT 1995  Jim Dumoulin
(dumoulin@titan.ksc.nasa.gov)

STS-67 TLEs and State Vector (Rev 12)

STS-67
1 23500U 95007A   95062.01605042  .00010108  43363-9  73084-4 0    64
2 23500  28.4665  84.3086 0009570 263.5753  43.2604 15.72197860   122

Mean of 1950 Earth-Centered Inertial State Vector:

Vector format = 1017
Satellite Name:         STS-67
Catalog Number:         23500  95007A
Epoch Date/Time:        95062.01605041667
                        03/03/1995  00:23:06.756 UTC
ECI X:                    16839338.115770 ft
M50 Y:                    11467538.378853 ft
    Z:                    -8483962.843368 ft
    Xdot:                    -10998.45312 ft/s
    Ydot:                     21555.78516 ft/s
    Zdot:                      7276.96094 ft/s
ndot/2 (drag):              0.00010107647 rev/day^2
nddt/6:                       4.33630E-10 rev/day^3
Bstar:                        7.30837E-05 1/Earth Radii
Elset #:                                6
Rev @ Epoch:               12.85236947313

SPACE SHUTTLE ORBITAL DATA:

These 2-line elements have been generated using Ken Ernandes' program
VEC2TLE using real time M50 state vector data supplied by NASA/JSC
courtesy Rockwell/Downey Mission Support Room personnel. Note that the
epoch of the 2-line elements is the same as the state vector time.

Drag and B-Star parameters are internally calculated by VEC2TLE using
a drag factor of 1.0. Rev numbers use NASA orbit numbering convention.

                                   Dave Ransom
                                   RPV Astronomy BBS
                                   (310) 541-7299  [2400-14400 baud]
[RPV file: STS67R06.ELE]

----------
David H. Ransom, Jr.   Email:rans7500@spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #4

Friday, March 3, 8 a.m. CST

Science operations continued overnight as the Astro-2 instruments
collected information on supernovas and white dwarfs from Endeavour's
payload bay.

The Instrument Pointing System continues to perform well. The
preliminary assessments of IPS stability and accuracy show that the
system is operating well. Control loop software, gyro and
accelerometer response have been good, and Optical Sensor Package
performance has been excellent with two of three trackers slightly
exceeding performance expectations. IPS controllers in Houston are
currently tracking no problems or issues, and team members do not
anticipate a change in the IPS's performance.

The payload control team at the Marshall Space Flight Center,
Huntsville, Ala., however, is looking at several reported excursions
in ASTRO-2's pointing abilities that have required the crew to
repeatedly fine tune the instruments after establishing the platform's
reference point for celestial observations. Controllers in Houston and
Huntsville are working on procedures that will reduce the number of
calibrations needed.

Throughout today, crew members will continue their ASTRO-2
observations and will set up the Middeck Active Control Experiment for
the first time. MACE is designed to measures and control the dynamics
of complex systems in the microgravity environment of space.

Endeavour is in excellent condition with no mechanical problems in an
orbit of 190 by 188 nautical miles, completing one orbit every 91
minutes.

--end--

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #5

Friday, March 3, 4 p.m. CST

While the shuttle's cargo bay telescopes continued their studies of
the universe, Endeavour's astronauts set up an experiment inside the
cabin that will provide valuable information to space station
builders.

Commander Steve Oswald and Pilot Bill Gregory set up the Middeck
Active Control Experiment (MACE) hardware. MACE is a five-foot long
flexible beam with mock satellite instruments mounted at either
end. It will float free in the shuttle's lower deck, and the
astronauts will measure how disturbances caused by one instrument
affect the performance of the instrument at the experiment's opposite
end. The information gathered will assist engineers in designing more
stable space structures.

The crew has begun testing out the MACE equipment and its
communications with the ground. Some problems were experienced
initially in sending information from the ground to the experiment
during checkouts, however such an uplink of information is not planned
or needed for the MACE operations for several days. Meanwhile, MACE is
on schedule and ground engineers expect to receive the first results
from its studies at about 10:30 p.m.CST.

Coming up at 5:09 p.m. CST, the commander and Payload Specialist Ron
Parise are scheduled to be interviewed by WKRC-TV in Cincinnati.

Endeavour continues to provide a solid platform for the Astro-2
ultraviolet astronomy observations that are the mainstay of the
mission, with no mechanical problems in an orbit of 190 by 188
nautical miles.

The Red Team -- Oswald, Gregory, Parise and Mission Specialist John
Grunsfeld -- is on duty while the Blue Team -- Payload Commander Tammy
Jernigan, Mission Specialist Wendy Lawrence and Payload Specialst Sam
Durrance -- is in a sleep shift that will end about 9:30 p.m. CST.

--end--

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #6

Saturday, March 4, 1 p.m. CST

Endeavour is still providing a trouble-free platform for the Astro-2
ultraviolet observations as well as the mission's engineering,
materials processing and biotechnology experiments.

The Red Team -- Commander Steve Oswald, Pilot Bill Gregory, Mission
Specialist John Grunsfeld and Ron Parise -- assumed the duty shortly
after noon, and the Blue Team -- Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan,
Mission Specialist Wendy Lawrence and Payload Specialist Sam Durrance
-- is getting ready for bed.

During the past shift, the crew received word from scientists who
designed the Australian ultraviolet experiment that is flying in two
Getaway Special canisters in the cargo bay. The experimenters reported
they have achieved 100 percent of desired observations and expressed a
sincere thanks and appreciation for the support they received during
this mission.

In addition, Jernigan and Lawrence participated in an interview with
National Public Radio as Durrance supported the Astro-2 observations.

Coming up, Oswald will work on the Middeck Active Control Experiment
designed to measure how disturbances caused by one payload affect
nearby payloads attached to the same supporting structure. The crew
has reported some unusual readings on the Ku-Band Interface System
that ships data to the ground and back, and Oswald will try to
pinpoint where the difficulty lies with a midnight in-flight
maintenance procedure.

Flight controllers in Houston have no mechanical problems to deal with
as Endeavour continues to orbit the Earth at an altitude of 191 by 187
nautical miles.

--end--

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #3
6:00 a.m. CST (1/5:22 MET), March 3, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.


        The crew aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour spent most of their
first full day in space preparing three unique ultraviolet telescopes
to study celestial objects as part of the second Astro Observatory
(Astro-2) mission.  For nearly 16 days, these onboard telescopes will
give astronomers a view of the universe impossible to obtain from the
ground.

        Pilot William Gregory maneuvered the orbiter into different
attitudes, or positions throughout the night.  Payload Commander Tammy
Jernigan, Mission Specialists John Grunsfeld and Wendy Lawrence, and
Payload Specialists Ronald Parise and Samuel Durrance coordinated with
science teams at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama,
performing procedures to align and focus the Hopkins Ultraviolet
Telescope (HUT), Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) and Wisconsin
Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) last night.
Approximately 23 hours after launch, the Astro-2 instruments, nestled
in Endeavour's cargo bay, were being calibrated before observations of
the invisible universe began.

        While still in the calibration, or Observatory Commissioning
Phase, two of the three Astro-2 instruments, HUT and UIT science
teams, were locked onto an ancient supernova remnant.  This supernova
remnant is the result of a powerful explosion, which ended the life of
a massive star many thousands of years ago, and was used as a
calibration target for the telescopes.  During this mission, HUT's
spectrographs will help scientists determine temperatures, densities
and chemical compositions of gases in the supernova remnant while the
UIT will image the filaments of excited gas in the supernova remnant.
HUT Guest Investigator Dr. John Raymond of Cambridge, Mass., will
obtain information about the shock waves energizing these nebulae.

        The first science observation for Astro-2, a supernova remnant
known as Cygnus Loop, began just before the Space Shuttle Endeavour
crossed the South Atlantic Anomaly early this morning.  Since this
South Atlantic area is a region of intense particle radiation that can
affect detectors in the telescopes, crew members secured the
instruments until the orbiter had moved away from the anomaly.  The
observation of Cygnus Loop then continued until the supernova remnant
was out of the telescopes' field of view.

        The HUT telescope continues in the calibration phase.  HUT,
developed at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, has
a 36-inch mirror to focus ultraviolet light into a spectrograph in the
middle of the telescope.  This spectrograph "spreads" light into a
spectrum, or band of colors, based upon the wavelength of the light.
Principal Investigator Dr. Arthur Davidsen and his colleagues will
study these spectra to determine the chemical composition,
temperature, densities and motion of the celestial objects being
observed during Astro-2.

        The UIT made its first deep, wide-field photographs in
ultraviolet light overnight.  After Endeavour lands, Principal
Investigator Theodore Stecher and the UIT science team in Greenbelt,
Maryland, will study the images made by this telescope during this
16-day mission, looking for answers to astronomical questions such as
the shapes of nearby galaxies in the ultraviolet, the properties of
massive hot stars in these galaxies, the evolution of low-mass stars
in clusters, and the nature of the dust and gas that fill the space
between stars.

        During the next 12-hour shift, the STS-67 crew will continue
to lock the HUT, UIT and WUPPE telescopes onto celestial objects to
help scientists gain a better understanding of our universe.

        

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #4
6:00 p.m. CST (1/17:22 MET), March 3, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.

        The three Astro-2 telescopes have begun their methodical
exploration of the ultraviolet universe, as scientists aboard the
Shuttle Endeavour and at Spacelab Mission Operations Control fine-tune
the Astro-2 equipment and procedures to optimize pointing stability.

        This afternoon, payload controllers eliminated a drift in that
had been detected in the Instrument Pointing System by adjusting the
target acquisition procedure.

        The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE)
got its first turn as the primary instrument this morning.  Its
observations of a calibration star, Beta Cassiopeiae, showed that the
instrument optics, spectrometer and motion compensation system are
working well.  The team also will use the star as an unpolarized
standard against which other observations can be measured.

        The WUPPE team also made the first of several planned
observations of the supergiant star P Cygni.  These observations will
help scientists determine how this type of star ejects material into
interstellar space, whether uniformly in the shape of a shell, or in
the form of plumes or blobs of material.  Team members say this is an
interesting time to observe P Cygni, because recent ground-and
space-based observations indicate the star, which has been relatively
inactive for the past 100 years, has entered a more active phase of
its life.  Because the star can vary on a day-to-day basis,
observations made later in the mission will give astronomers an
important set of measurements over a relatively short time.

        During its time block, the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT)
observed a celestial "odd couple," two stars with radically different
temperatures in orbit around one another, called a symbiotic star
system.  The system HUT observed today, EG Andromedae, is made up of
an orange-colored giant star co-orbiting with a tiny, exceptionally
hot blue star.  Astronomers had not realized how hot the smaller star
is until an instrument aboard one of the Voyager planetary probes
picked up its strong ultraviolet emissions.

        The HUT team also checked out the sensitivity of their
spectrometer by viewing a white dwarf star, known as HZ 43, which they
had observed during Astro-1.  At a very late stage of its evolution,
the star has burned up nearly all of its fuel.  Astronomers understand
physical conditions in the atmospheres of HZ 43 and similar white
dwarfs well enough that they can calculate very precisely how much
ultraviolet light they emit.  This makes such stars useful for
confirming the HUT instrument's calibrations.

        The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) observations included
images of globular clusters, massive spherical concentrations of stars
that are the oldest class of objects in our Milky Way Galaxy.  "These
clusters appear to be 16 to 19 billion years old, despite recent
Hubble indications that the universe is only about 10 billion years
old," said UIT astronomer Dr. Steve Maran.  "UIT images of globular
clusters from Astro-1 revealed a previously unknown class of stars,
visible only in the ultraviolet, which may have skipped a stage in
stellar evolution as we had understood it.  We're hoping follow-up
observations of globular clusters during Astro-2 will give us a better
understanding of stellar physics."

        Science teams here in Huntsville are planning their
observational sequences on a day-to-day basis, much as astronomers
would in a ground- based observatory.  Each instrument team is
assigned two-orbit, or three-hour, blocks of time to take the lead in
selecting the celestial objects they wish to view from Astro's menu of
potential targets.

        Observations planned for overnight include more calibration
targets for HUT and WUPPE, a spiral galaxy, and an observation of the
planet Jupiter.

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #5
6:00 a.m. CST (2/5:22 MET), March 4, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.

        Exploration of the ultraviolet universe proceeded throughout
the second night of the Astro-2 mission as the three on-board
telescopes continued to operate well.

        The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) led the observations
of several celestial objects, starting with AX Persei, a double star
system consisting of a red star paired off with a blue star in what is
known as a symbiotic binary.  This means that the two stars differ
greatly in their temperature ranges.  They are believed to be a pair
in which gas from a large, cool star falls onto a smaller, but more
massive companion.  Not much is known about how these stars interact,
and data from these observations will help improve current
measurements of the hot star component's temperature and gas
emissions.

        The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE)
also obtained "great observations" of the AX Persei star system,
according to WUPPE guest investigator Dr. Regina Schulte-Ladbeck.  In
a live interview with TV station WPXI in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
Dr. Schulte-Ladbeck described the instrument's view of the stellar
pair as "picture perfect from an operational point of view."

        Dr. Schulte-Ladbeck also used HUT and WUPPE to obtain spectral
measurements of a Wolf-Rayet star known as EZ Canis Majoris.
Wolf-Rayet stars are thought to represent one of the final phases of
evolution in massive stars that are between 100,000 and 1,000,000
times as bright as the Sun.  Wolf-Rayet stars have powerful stellar
winds, or emissions of ionized gas, that quicken the stars' aging
process.  The composition of these stellar winds is also important
because the elements they contain play a significant role in forming
the basic chemistry of life.  According to Dr. Schulte-Ladbeck, last
night's measurements alone, of the strength and composition of this
stellar wind, have already yielded "more information about EZ Canis
Majoris than we ever got on Astro-1."

        The Astro-2 scientists also turned their attention to one of
their prime targets of investigation, the brightest known Seyfert
galaxy, NGC 4151.  Seyfert galaxies are known for their extremely
bright and compact centers and radiate energy most strongly in the
ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths.

        Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) observations included
images of a globular cluster, NGC6752, and a spiral galaxy, M101.
Globular clusters are collections of relatively old stars, and they
are particularly suitable for observations by UIT due to the presence
of hot stars which emit most of their radiation in the ultraviolet
range.  This enables UIT astronomers to locate hot white dwarf stars,
hot binary systems and objects associated with sources of X-rays.

        Spiral galaxies, like our Milky Way, are flattened discs with
central bulges or nuclei from which the galaxies' arms extend.  M101
is a big spiral galaxy with spiral arms that are not tightly wound.
UIT's ultraviolet imaging offers a powerful new tool for the study of
this spiral structure, since it emphasizes hot stars, hydrogen and
dust.

        Early this morning, the Astro-2 instruments made observations
of the Cygnus Loop, a middle-aged supernova remnant.  A supernova is
one of the most powerful explosions in the universe, and it occurs at
the end of a very massive star's life after the star's fusion reaction
stops.  The Cygnus Loop is of particular interest because it reveals
details about the structure and speed of shock waves from the
explosion as they travel through the interstellar medium.

        Jupiter had became a focus of investigation earlier in the
evening, especially for the HUT science team who obtained very good
spectral data on the planet's equator.  The planet is believed to have
a reservoir of heat energy left over from its creation, since Jupiter
radiates twice as much energy as it receives from the Sun.  HUT
scientists are particularly interested in the planet's immense
magnetosphere, a region of charged particles controlled by Jupiter's
magnetic field.

        During the next twelve hours, Astro-2 scientists will again
turn their attention toward Jupiter, this time to take a look at
volcanic activity on Jupiter's moon Io.

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #7
6:00 a.m. CST (3/5:22 MET), March 5, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.

        Observations of the distant regions of the universe continued
throughout the third night of the Astro-2 mission, as scientists
focused their attention on some of the least understood objects in
space.

        Commander Steve Oswald maneuvered the Space Shuttle Endeavour
to enable the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) to lead an
observation of a mysterious star in the constellation Cassiopeia.
This star, known to astronomers as KPD0005, belongs to a class of
planetary nebulae, or clouds of gas with bright centers, that includes
some of the hottest stars known.  So hot are these stars' surfaces, in
fact, that their elements are completely ionized, making their
chemical composition difficult to analyze.  Only ultraviolet
astronomy, such as the Astro-2 instruments employ, can yield answers
to questions about the chemistry and evolution of this type of star.

        Following this, the HUT science team then turned their
attention back to the search for signs of interstellar helium, using
light from a distant quasar, known as 1700+64.  Since it is believed
that helium was formed in the Big Bang at the beginning of the
universe, the actual detection of intergalactic helium would probably
be the most significant scientific result that the HUT observations
might produce.  Because of the enormous distances of these objects,
the targets are necessarily faint, and such observations are the most
difficult that HUT scientists will attempt.  They are also the most
sensitive measurements ever made for interstellar helium.

        Another priority for the HUT scientists involves the study of
Type II Seyfert galaxies.  These galaxies, such as NGC1068 which was
observed last night, have bright centers that emit energy over a broad
range of frequencies.  It is believed that the core of NGC #1068 is
ionized by shock waves of gas moving at hundreds of miles per second,
and the ultraviolet observations by the Astro-2 instruments are
testing this hypothesis.

        The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE)
team has also taken great interest in NGC 1068 and made some very
difficult indirect observations of the galaxy's core using the
electron cloud above the galaxy as a polarization mirror.  "By
observing the diffuse light reflected from the electron cloud, we are
able to take measurements of the otherwise obscure nucleus of the
galaxy," said WUPPE co-investigator Karen Bjorkman.  On Astro-1,
observations by WUPPE helped confirm that a thick torus, or
doughnut-shaped cloud, exists around the nucleus of NGC #1068, while
HUT observations showed unexpectedly high temperatures near the torus.

        Early this morning, WUPPE scientists also took the opportunity
to view a couple of interactive binary star systems, V356 Sagittarii
and Vela X-1.  A binary star system consists of a pair of stars that
orbit each other.  In the case of an interactive binary, the stars
stay so close to each other that they actually exchange gases.

        Astronomers believe that in an X-ray binary such as Vela X-1,
a neutron star (or pulsar) gravitationally strips material off of its
companion star.  A lot of the stripped material settles into orbit to
form an oval disc shape.  Polarization measurements by WUPPE allow
scientists to measure the size and shape of this disc, and it also
provides information about the stars involved.  As WUPPE Principal
Investigator Arthur Code observed, "the unique feature of interactive
binary stars' polarization is that we can use that information to
calculate the mass exchanged between the stars."  Last night's
observations were enhanced by the fact that the Astro-2 instruments
could view both members of each binary side by side as they interact.

        The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) made observations of
an open cluster called NGC #3532.  This is a diffuse cluster of stars
and is believed to be less than ten million years old.  Because UIT's
field of view is well matched to the sizes of most clusters in our
Milky Way Galaxy, UIT scientists are able to perform ultraviolet
observations of many stars at the same time.  UIT observers are
searching for ultraviolet counterparts to X-ray sources as well as for
white dwarfs and other faint, hot stars.  These ultraviolet-bright
objects are of great interest for several reasons: they can be used as
probes of the interstellar medium; they can be used to provide highly
accurate distance measurements to the clusters; and they will enhance
understanding of the chemical evolution of the Milky Way Galaxy.

        UIT also imaged several ancient globular clusters in our Milky
Way galaxy as well as other nearby spiral galaxies.  The latter
observations will be used to further our understanding of
star-formation in the spiral arms of these galaxies.

        During the next twelve hours, the Astro-2 instruments will
begin with further observations of active galactic nuclei and quasars.


To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on the Internet World Wide Web: 
URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #7

Sunday, March 5, 1 p.m. CST

Endeavour is still providing a trouble-free platform for the Astro-2
ultraviolet observations as well as the mission's engineering,
materials processing and biotechnology experiments.

There have been some indications that the crew's stationary bicycle
exercise is imparting some vibration to the shuttle that is
interfering with the Instrument Pointing System's ability to precisely
direct the Astro-2 telescopes at their targets. The crew is being
asked to schedule exercise a little earlier so that the vibration has
stopped by the time Endeavour moves into darkness and celestial
observations must resume.

The Red Team -- Commander Steve Oswald, Pilot Bill Gregory, Mission
Specialist John Grunsfeld and Ron Parise -- assumed the duty shift
shortly after noon, and the Blue Team -- Payload Commander Tammy
Jernigan, Mission Specialist Wendy Lawrence and Payload Specialist Sam
Durrance -- is getting ready for bed.

Oswald is scheduled to work with the Middeck Active Control Experiment
as time allows on this shift, repositioning cameras to give ground
controllers better insight into MACE's performance. MACE is designed
to measure how disturbances caused by one payload affect nearby
payloads attached to the same supporting structure. Overnight, they
successfully accomplished some maintenance on the Ku-Band Interface
System, and that system is now able to ship data to and from the
ground as planned.

   Gregory will conduct another run on the PILOT flight trainer, a
combination of a laptop computer and control stick that he and the
commander use to practice shuttle landings.

  Flight controllers in Houston have no mechanical problems to deal
with as Endeavour continues to orbit the Earth at an altitude of 191
by 187 nautical miles.

                                                --end--



The JSC Newsroom is open from 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. weekdays, and from
9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. weekends, throughout the mission.

NASA's MSFC Newsroom is open from 6:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. weekdays, and
from 6:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. weekends.  MSFC's code-a-phone is updated
twice daily and can be reached by calling 205-544-6397.

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #8

Monday, March 6, 1995; 8:30 a.m. CST

   Science operations continued throughout the night as the compliment of
Astro-2 instruments mounted in Endeavour's cargo bay gathered
information on the birth, evolution and death of stars and galaxies.

    Crew members also talked with students on the ground during several
successful Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) contacts with
schools in Australia, South Africa and India. In addition to
supporting the Astro-2 observations, crew members worked with the
Commercial Materials Dispersion Apparatus Instruments Technology
Associates Experiments (CMIX) biotechnology experiments on board.
These experiments use the unique microgravity environment found on the
shuttle to aid in the development of drugs and drug delivery systems
on the Earth.

     The Blue Team of astronauts -- Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan,
Mission Specialist Wendy Lawrence and Payload Specialist Sam Durrance
-- took over orbiter and payload operations shortly after midnight.
Their Red Team counterparts ended a busy Flight Day 5 on orbit shortly
after 3 a.m. central time.

     Flight controllers had a troublefree night as Endeavour continued to
perform flawlessly in support of Astro-2 objectives.  Endeavour is in
an orbit of approximately 191 by 186 nautical miles.

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #9

Monday, March 6, 1995; 5 p.m. CST

  Flight controllers on the ground and the seven astronauts on board
Endeavour continued to work together today as the trio of Astro-2
instruments in the cargo bay gathered information on the "hidden"
universe through observations of the ultraviolet spectrum.

  The STS-67 astronauts also worked with several microgravity
experiments and talked with students on the ground around the world
through the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment.

  The Blue Team -- Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan, Mission Specialist
Wendy Lawrence and Payload Specialist Sam Durrance -- worked with the
Commercial Materials Dispersion Apparatus Instruments Technology
Associates Experiments (CMIX) and checked on the health of the Protein
Crystal Growth biotechnology experiments.

   Lawrence also sent special greetings to the 19 men and women who
reported to the Johnson Space Center today representing the Astronaut
Class of 1995.

   The Red Team -- Commander Steve Oswald, Pilot Bill Gregory, Mission
Specialist John Grunsfeld and Payload Specialist Ron Parise -- went on
duty about noon CST. As Grunsfeld and Parise supported Astro-2
observations, Oswald coordinating a successful data transfer that will
help Middeck Active Control Experiment scientists and engineers design
large spacecraft. Gregory practiced for the end of the 15 1/2 day
mission on the PILOT landing simulator.

   Flight controllers had a trouble-free day as Endeavour continued to
perform with zero defects in support of Astro-2. Endeavour is in an
orbit of approximately 191 by 186 nautical miles.

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #6
6:00 p.m. CST (2/17:22 MET), March 4, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.

    During their third day in orbit, the Astro-2 telescopes viewed
celestial objects from our own Solar System to the very edge of the
universe.

     The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) team took the first
step toward achieving one of their primary goals for the mission --
detecting the tenuous gas believed to pervade the space between
galaxies.  The team successfully worked out procedures for observing a
quasar, billions of light years from Earth, which they will use in
later observations as a source of illumination to view the gas in
front of it.

     "This is the most difficult, but the most exciting, science
program of the mission to me," said HUT Principal Investigator
Dr. Arthur Davidsen.  Existence of the gas is the logical consequence
of the "Big Bang," the primordial fireball which marked the beginning
of the universe, but it has never been thoroughly observed. "The
hydrogen and helium created in the first minutes after the Big Bang
ultimately condensed into stars and galaxies, but we want to see the
original material before it condensed," Davidsen said.  Viewing light
from the quasar, one of oldest and most distant objects in the
universe, will allow astronomers to effectively look back in time.

     HUT team member Dr. Paul Feldman was equally excited about an
observation much closer to home, when all three Astro telescopes
observed Jupiter's moon Io during a volcanic eruption.  Ground-based
astronomers at NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii sent out a
notice Thursday that they had detected a major eruption in progress.
"I was excited when I first saw the news, and even more excited with
the high-quality spectral data we got today," said Feldman.

     In addition to being volcanically active, Io is one of the few
moons in the Solar System with an atmosphere.  Feldman will compare
today's observations with those made later in the mission to see
whether the moon's atmosphere is maintained by continuous volcanic
activity or by evaporation of ices on its surface.  He and Astro-2
Payload Specialist Sam Durrance share the Jovian system as their
primary subject of astronomical study.

     The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) obtained pictures of
spiral galaxy M83, which will be used in an atlas of face-on spiral
galaxies being assembled by Guest Investigator Dr. Wendy Freedman of
the Carnegie Institution in Washington.  The completed atlas, to
include images made by UIT Principal Investigator Ted Stecher on both
Astro flights, will be available to astronomers at no cost through a
NASA on-line database.

     Freedman will use the ultraviolet images of nearby galaxies to
help classify the shapes of distant galaxies photographed in visible
light by the Hubble Space Telescope.  The light actually left the
distant galaxies as ultraviolet, but it was stretched into visible
wavelengths by the expansion of the universe.  Freedman is science
lead for the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project on the Extragalactic
Distance Scale, whose work was featured last week in "Time" magazine.

     UIT also took images of a closely knit assembly of stars
called a globular cluster.  Located 14,000 light years away, halfway
across our Milky Way Galaxy, the apparent size of the cluster is more
than two-thirds that of Earth's full moon.  By imaging globular
clusters in ultraviolet wavelengths, astronomers can pick out hot
objects, which are burning helium, from the clutter of cool stars in
the cluster, which are mostly burning hydrogen.

    The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE)
obtained the first observation of the illuminating star in reflection
nebula NCG 7023, to study how stars are created from nebulous clouds
of gas and dust.  A young star at the nebula's core was formed from
material in the cloud, representing the later stage of the "galactic
recycling" process.  Astronomers know the nebula is highly polarized
in visible light.  By finding out whether the polarization continues
in the ultraviolet, they may be able to determine the size and
composition of the dust particles that make up the nebula.  Changes in
polarization also may help astronomers determine where in the nebula
the dust grains were formed.

     The WUPPE telescope also obtained a spectrum from a recently-
discovered nova known as Nova Aquilae.  An outburst, or sudden
increase in brightness, was first observed in this system of two stars
orbiting one another about three weeks ago by amateur astronomers in
Japan.  This was the first ultraviolet observation of this particular
nova, according to WUPPE team member Joni Johnson, and it showed an
obvious spectral signature of the gas ejected by the nova explosion.
        
    Payload Specialist Sam Durrance noted that the crew is
"beginning to get in the groove," as they gain efficiency setting up
observations.  As originally planned, experiment teams are instructing
crew members to use either manual or automatic acquisition procedures,
depending on characteristics of the target.

     "Manual pointing worked so well on Astro-1 that we developed
an improved version to use as one of the standard acquisition
procedures on Astro 2," said Assistant Mission Manager Stuart Clifton.
The Astro 2 team chooses the method they think will work best for each
observation, since manual pointing works better for some targets than
an automatic target acquisition.

    "The Instrument Pointing System is working well, and the HUT and
WUPPE teams report good stability for their observations," Clifton
continued.  "We're continuing to work with the Image Motion
Compensation System to improve pointing stability for UIT imaging."

   To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on the
Internet World Wide Web: URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #8 
6:00 p.m. CST (3/17:22 MET), March 5, 1995      
Spacelab Mission Operations Control     
Marshall Space Flight Center    
Huntsville, Ala.

     The Astro-2 telescopes continued their exploration of the
unknown today, getting unique ultraviolet observations of a number of
celestial objects.

     This morning, Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan and Payload
Specialist Sam Durrance worked together to train the Astro instruments
on objects selected by the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) team.

     Both the Hopkins telescope and the Wisconsin Ultraviolet
Photo- Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) examined two Seyfert galaxies,
Markarian 279 and Fairall 9, in a study that could provide insights
into some of the most powerful events in the universe.  Named for
Vanderbilt University astronomer Carl Seyfert, who identified this
type of galaxy in 1943, Seyferts have extremely bright, compact cores
containing clouds of gas moving at thousands of miles per second.
Astronomers theorize that supermassive black holes would be the only
source capable of generating the immense power given off by these
objects.

     The HUT team also practiced acquiring quasar Q 1542+54 to
refine procedures for locating it efficiently in future observations.
Their success gives them an additional illumination source to use in
their search for intergalactic helium.  Yesterday, they successfully
locked onto the quasar 1700+64, which will likely remain their primary
target for the study.

     Several observations today examined the dust and gas from which
stars form. HUT selected a reflection nebula and the star which
illuminates it.  The star, AE-Aurigae, is a very hot, massive blue
star with surface temperatures from 50,000 to 70,000 degrees
Fahrenheit (28,000 to 40,000 Kelvin).  Light from the star illuminates
a cloud of dust surrounding it, creating a bright, colorful nebula.
Observation by the Astro telescopes may help determine the composition
of the dust and the sizes and shapes of the grains.

     The first observation today with WUPPE as the lead instrument was
HD 50138, viewed after Mission Specialist John Grunsfeld and Payload
Specialist Ron Parise took over science crew duties.  This
pre-main-sequence star is thought to be a young object, several times
more massive than our sun, that has just formed out of the
interstellar gas and dust.  Polarization measurements should help show
the shape of the nebula which surrounds the star and indicate where it
is coming from.  The study should help astronomers learn more about
the ways in which young stars form and how their birth clouds
eventually disperse.

     The WUPPE team also observed the star HD 197770, an interstellar
polarization probe.  The star serves much like a flashlight,
illuminating the vast and normally invisible clouds of dust and gas in
the space between stars.  The materials in these swirling clouds are,
in essence, the stuff of past and future stars.  Over eons, as stars
grow old, they kick out vast amounts of very hot material -- mostly
gas and dust -- into space.  These materials form into clouds, and
over many thousands of years the clouds collapse and form new stars.
By determining how much the ultraviolet light passing through the
clouds is polarized, or vibrating in a preferred direction rather than
randomly, WUPPE can provide further clues as to the nature of this
interstellar dust.

     Phi Persei, a hot, rapidly spinning star, was another subject of
study for WUPPE.  The star exhibits an unusual ultraviolet spectrum
that may be caused by a shell of gas around the star, possibly the
remains of a layer that has been spun off the star by its rapid
rotation.  This shell is thought to be in the form of a disk around
the equator of the star, and the scattering of starlight by the disk
polarizes the light.

     Celestial objects chosen for observation by the Ultraviolet
Imaging Telescope (UIT) included M31, the famous Andromeda galaxy in
our "local group," the cluster of galaxies which includes our own
Milky Way.  UIT researchers are conducting ultraviolet studies of the
structure of local group galaxies.  They will also examine the
photographs to study the physics of star formation contained in these
galaxies.

     The UIT team also selected various kinds of open and globular
star clusters, groups of stars formed from the same basic material at
the same time.  By comparing clusters of different ages and by looking
at different types of stars of the same age, astronomers can learn a
great deal about how each type of star changes in its lifetime.

     Tonight, the Astro instruments will view spiral, radio,
elliptical and rapid- star-formation galaxies, as well as two types of
binary star systems and some individual stars.  The Hopkins telescope
also will continue its search for intergalactic helium.

     To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on
the Internet World Wide Web: URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report 9  
6:00 a.m. CST (4/5:22 MET), March 6, 1995       
Spacelab Mission Operations Control     
Marshall Space Flight Center    
Huntsville, Ala.

     The Astro-2 instruments spent the fourth night of the mission
viewing spiral, radio and other types of galaxies as well as two types
of binary star systems and some individual stars.  Also, the search
for intergalactic helium continued as these telescopes observed some
of the most distant objects in the known universe.  All the Astro-2
instruments, Spacelab, and the Instrument Pointing System continue to
perform well

     "I think we've just set a world record for acquisition,"
commented Mission Specialist John Grunsfeld upon the swift targeting
of GD394, a white dwarf star in the Cygnus constellation, for the
Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT).  Earlier in the evening, an
edited StarView software package was uplinked to Space Shuttle
Endeavour.  This upgrade made what Alternate Payload Specialist Scott
D. Vangen called, "a world of difference" in improving acquisition
times for the Astro-2 instruments.

     White dwarf stars, such as GD394, have magnetic fields stronger
than any that can be formed in laboratories on the earth.  They are
interesting for astronomers because they provide a laboratory for
studying the effects of strong magnetic fields on radiation.  One such
effect is that the light coming from these objects is highly
polarized, or is vibrating in a single direction.

     HUT scientists made further ultraviolet observations of the
bright quasar 1700+64 in the hope of discovering intergalactic helium.
Astronomers have been searching for evidence of intergalactic matter
left over from the formation of the universe for 30 years, and HUT was
originally designed with this goal in mind.  If ionized helium is
present in the space in front of a quasar, it should block out the
helium signature in HUT's far ultraviolet spectrum of the quasar--
thus establishing the existence of the ionized helium in the
intergalactic medium.

     Binary star systems, or pairs of mutually orbiting stars, again
became prime objects for observations selected by the HUT science
team.  Earlier in the evening, the HUTand Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo
Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) instruments looked at the symbiotic
binary Z Andromedae, located in the constellation Andromeda, as part
of the joint HUT/WUPPE investigator program.  Symbiotic stars are
binary systems in which the component stars have radically different
temperature ranges.  Guest Investigator Dr. Brian R.  Espey used HUT
and WUPPE to study the ultraviolet spectrum of Z Andromedae, in order
to improve measurements of the hotter star's temperature.

     The first ever ultraviolet observations of a very spectacular
binary star system, Nova Aquilae, were made early this morning by
members of the WUPPE science team.  This system, consisting of a white
dwarf and a more normal star, became a bright nova, or a new explosive
object, just about a week ago.  This binary's explosions occurred due
to the interactions between the two stars.  Specifically, hot gas from
the normal star was pulled by gravity toward the white dwarf star's
surface.  As this material collected on the white dwarf's surface,
thermonuclear fusion took place, resulting in sudden and extremely
bright explosions.  As WUPPE co-investigator Chris Anderson described
this process, "a week ago it was a faint, unobtrusive star....then it
suddenly became thousands of times brighter."

     Another target observation for WUPPE scientists last night
included one of the most beautiful and colorful types of objects
known.  Reflection nebula NGC7023 is the brightest of its kind, in
which starlight is scattered by dust grains, producing brilliant
illumination in its cloud.  The WUPPE team is using its observations
of this nebula to further study the nature of dust grains in
interstellar space.

     Celestial objects chosen for observation by the Ultraviolet
Imaging Telescope (UIT) last night included the spiral galaxy NGC1097
and the radio galaxy Centaurus A.  Centaurus A is the nearest active
galaxy to our own and is one of the most prominent radio sources in
the Southern Hemisphere.  UIT scientists are examining it to study
star formation processes and stellar evolution there.  Radio galaxies
like Centaurus A emit radiation a million times stronger than galaxies
like ours.  Many questions surround radio galaxies, including those
concerning the possible relationships between these galaxies, quasars
and other energetic sources.

     UIT scientists also selected a cluster in the Small Magellanic
Cloud, an irregular galaxy, as a target.  Eighteen targets within the
local group of galaxies are candidates for observation on Astro-2, and
UIT is conducting ultraviolet studies on their structures.  These
scientists are also studying the physics of star formation in
supernova remnants contained in these galaxies.  While UIT used its
large field of view to image regions of the Small Magellanic Cloud,
HUT observed the supernova remnants within it.  HUT's large
spectrograph apertures permit observations of the remnants'
temperature, density and chemical composition.

     The next twelve hour shift will begin with a variety of
observation targets, including an elliptical galaxy, a white dwarf
star, and a variable star as the Astro-2 mission enters its fifth day
of ultraviolet explorations.

     To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on
the Internet World Wide Web: URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #10
6:00 p.m. CST (4/17:22 MET), March 6, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.

   During another day of very smooth operations, the Astro-2 crew
and science teams at Spacelab Mission Operations Control kept up a
steady pace of ultraviolet astronomical observations.  The Hopkins
Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) and Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT)
teams selected the celestial objects viewed today, but all three Astro
telescopes participated in the majority of the observations.

   Two cataclysmic variables were on today's menu of HUT targets.
These are systems of two stars, orbiting extremely close together,
where a white dwarf in the final stage of its life cycle is paired
with a more "normal" star somewhat similar to our sun.  Occasionally
their interactions create an outburst, or sudden increase in energy
emissions.  This interchange of matter between stars, called
accretion, is of great interest to the HUT and Wisconsin Ultraviolet
Photo-Polarimeter Experiment teams because it is essential to many
astrophysical situations such as the generation of energy by quasars.

   This morning, the Astro telescopes observed VW Hydri, a cataclysmic
variable which undergoes outbursts of energy roughly every 20 days.
Though it was in a relatively low state of activity today, VW Hydri
will be monitored at intervals throughout the mission in hopes of
getting measurements in both an outburst and a non-outburst stage.
This afternoon, the teams viewed another variable, YZ Cancri, which is
located in the constellation Cancer.
        
   The telescopes made two observations of elliptical galaxy M 105 in
the constellation of Leo the Lion.  HUT studied the nature of stars
that put out an unexpected amount of ultraviolet light in this type of
galaxy.  HUT observations from Astro-1 indicate it comes from older,
low mass stars in a previously unknown stage of their evolution.

   Individual stars chosen for viewing by HUT ranged from massive
stars to compact white dwarfs.  Observations of the hot, massive
O-type star HD 94963, in the Southern Hemisphere constellation Carina,
will be added to an "atlas" of hot stars which may assist in stellar
population studies in galaxies.  The white sub-dwarf star,
Schweizer-Middleditch, was too close to the sun to be observed on
Astro-1, so Astro-2 astronomers were particularly pleased to observe
it today.  It lies behind the supernova remnant SN1006, which is the
debris of a star that exploded in 1006 A.D.  HUT scientists are
studying the star's spectrum for signs that its light is being
absorbed by iron in the supernova remnant.  Theories predict that a
large quantity of iron was ejected by the exploding star.

   Other observations in the HUT time block included observations in
two parts of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant, the leftover gas from
a stellar explosion some 20,000 year ago.  Seyfert galaxy Markarian 3
also was studied.  Such active galaxies have unusually bright centers
that resemble the more distant and more luminous quasars, and they are
believed to harbor massive black holes.

   The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) took images for an
ultraviolet census of "Selected Area 57," a portion of the sky that
has been intensively mapped at many other wavelengths.  "This is one
of two parts of the sky that astronomers all over the world have
agreed to study as closely as possible with every new technology that
comes along," said UIT Team Member Dr. Steve Maran.  UIT's wide-field
images should provide new information on faint objects that have not
yet been catalogued.  The UIT team will count galaxies down to faint
ultraviolet magnitudes and search for quasars, for galaxies that are
receding very quickly as the universe expands, and for distant
clusters of star-forming galaxies.  "If we see something we don't
understand, we can go back and look at images made in other
wavelengths to help define it," said UIT Principal Investigator Ted
Stecher.  "It's something like using the Rosetta stone to decipher
something that was previously unknown .

   UIT made images for two other science programs that could shed
light on the life cycles of stars.  The instrument photographed a
globular cluster known as NGC 6752.  Ultraviolet images will pick out
hot stars, at an unusual stage of their evolution, from the tightly
grouped assembly of old stars in the cluster.  UIT also viewed the
spiral galaxy NGC 3351.  The arms of spiral galaxies, which look
something like cosmic pinwheels, are made up of interstellar matter
and bright young stars.  The images should be useful to ultraviolet
astronomers in assessing the amount of star formation in progress
within the galaxies.

   The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) team
reported that one of last night's observations seems to confirm a
surprise finding from Astro-1.  According to WUPPE Co-Investigator
Dr. Geoff Clayton, the team again saw evidence of two types of
polarized "dust" in an interstellar cloud.  An Astro-1 observation had
indicated that some parts of the dust were like grains of sand, while
others were more like soot.  Ultraviolet radiation reflected from both
types of grains was polarized, or vibrating in a preferred direction,
indicating that both were lined up to the magnetic field.  But until
last night, no other observation had detected polarization in the
"soot."  "Last night, we saw a 'bump' in our polarization measurements
just where it was on Astro 1," said Clayton.  "We hope to see more
bumps on later observations.  If we find out this is real, we'll have
to go back to the drawing board and find out why these grains are
aligned as they are."

   Observations scheduled for tonight include more supernova remnants,
another globular cluster, and a variety of galaxies.

   To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on the
Internet World Wide Web: URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #10

Tuesday, March 7, 1995, 9 a.m. CST

Earlier this morning, Blue Team members, Payload Commander Tammy
Jernigan, Mission Specialist Wendy Lawrence and Payload Specialist Sam
Durrance, continued with planned maneuvers of the orbiter in support
of Astro-2 telescope observations of stars, galaxies and the
interstellar medium. Investigations also continue for several middeck
experiments.

Earlier this morning, flight controllers did some troubleshooting
after a circuit breaker tripped, cutting power to a portion of the
Commercial Materials Dispersion Apparatus Instrumentation Technology
Associates Experiment (CMIX). When Lawrence reset the circuit breaker
on the middeck experiment and repowered the heater controller, ground
controllers noticed a short. Lawrence subsequently was directed to
turn off the heater, which maintained a slightly higher temperature
(20 degrees Centigrade vs. 4 degrees Centigrade) for a portion of the
Commercial Refrigerator Incubator Module (CRIM).  three of the four
experiment trays already had been chemically fixed, and scientists
won't know until after landing what affect the heater loss will have
on the samples. The CMIX/CRIM experiments which require no heat,
referred to as the "cold" experiments, were unaffected by this event.

Other activities performed by the Blue Team include a successful
alignment of the inertial measurement units which was performed by
Lawrence, and a 12-hour water dump using the flash evaporator system
was initiated this morning.

Jernigan officially had the morning off in the the first round of
off-duty shifts designed to give the crew a break from their busy
schedule. Durrance was scheduled for some time off on the second half
of the Blue Team day. Red Team Mission Specialist John Grunsfeld will
have the first portion of his day off this morning and Payload
Specialist Ron Parise will have the afternoon off.

The Red Team -- Commander Steve Oswald, Pilot Bill Gregory, Grunsfeld
and Parise -- went to sleep at about 2 a.m. CST and will be awakened
at about 10 a.m. CST.

Endeavour continues to circle the Earth every 91 minutes at an
altitude of approximately 190 nautical miles.

The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m
weekends, throughout the mission.  NASA's MSFC Newsroom is open from 6 a.m. - 
6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m. -2 p.m. weekends.  MSFC's code-a-phone is
updated twice daily and can be reached by calling 205-544-6397.

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #11

Tuesday, March 7, 1995; 4 p.m. CST

The Space Shuttle Endeavour continues to sail smoothly around the
Earth every 91 minutes, giving astrophysicists every opportunity to
study stars, galaxies and the interstellar medium with a trio of
ultraviolet telescopes.

The Red Team -- Commander Steve Oswald, Pilot Bill Gregory, Mission
Specialist John Grunsfeld and Payload Specialist Ron Parise -- is
about halfway through its duty shift and has reported no orbiter
problems.

Oswald transferred data from the ground to the orbiting Middeck Active
Control Experiment via a high-speed air-to-ground link as Gregory took
care of orienting the shuttle for its Astro-2 observations and
performed housekeeping duties.Grunsfeld and Parise each were scheduled
for some off-duty time.

The Blue Team -- Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan, Mission Specialist
Wendy Lawrence and Payload Specialist Sam Durrance -- went to sleep at
about 2 p.m. CST and will be awakened about midnight.

Endeavour remains in orbit at an altitude of approximately 190
nautical miles.


The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m. - 1 p.m.  weekends, throughout the mission.  NASA's MSFC Newsroom
is open from 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m. - 2
p.m. weekends.  MSFC's code-a-phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #12
6:00 p.m. CST (5/17:22 MET), March 7, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.

   Ultraviolet astronomy continued like clockwork on this sixth day of
the Astro-2 Spacelab mission.  Mission Specialist John Grunsfeld and
Payload Specialist Ron Parise took turns getting well-earned breaks
this afternoon, with the crew member on duty acquiring targets and
science teams at Spacelab Mission Operations Control handling
observation procedures from the ground.

   The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) and
Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) viewed Wolf-Rayet star HD 191765
twice this morning, completing a set of observations begun last night.
"This is a fairly faint star, so we are observing it four times to get
all the information we need," explained Guest Investigator Dr. Regina
Schulte-Ladbeck of the University of Pittsburgh.  "We know this star's
polarization varies over time, so we put all the observations within a
12-hour period in order to make them as nearly the same as possible."
Schulte-Ladbeck noted that the first observation showed very high
ultraviolet polarization, and she feels confident that all four data
sets will yield the same result.

   Wolf-Rayet stars are thought to be a final life stage of very hot,
massive and luminous stars.  Powerful stellar winds cause matter to be
lost from them, making them less and less massive over time.
Schulte-Ladbeck is studying the mechanism of mass loss from the stars,
as mass is returned to the interstellar medium and new stars are
formed.  "Wolf-Rayets are depositing chemically processed matter
containing elements like carbon, nitrogen and oxygen for the next
generation of stars, so the new stars will be different," she
explained.

   This afternoon, WUPPE and HUT viewed EZ Canis Majoris, a much
brighter Wolf-Rayet which was observed for a briefer time during
Astro-1.  Ultraviolet polarization studies can help astronomers
determine the shape of the material being thrown out from the star, so
they can formulate a three- dimensional "map" of its structure.

   The WUPPE instrument also focused on the bright ultraviolet star HD
25090 to illuminate the interstellar medium for their polarization
study of the dust between stars.  Determining characteristics of
interstellar dust will help astronomers make allowances for the
existence of this obstructing matter when studying other objects and
to study its function as the source of new stars.

   All three telescope teams joined today's observations of two active
galaxies, thought to have supermassive black holes at their centers.
NGC 4151 is a Seyfert-1 type galaxy, which emits very bright
ultraviolet radiation.  NGC 1068 is a Seyfert-2, with ultraviolet
emissions that are not as strong.  "Astro-1 and Hubble Space Telescope
observations suggest there are opaque disks of cold gas around the
cores of these galaxies," said HUT team member Dr. Gerard Kriss.  "It
could be that there is no difference in the two Seyfert types, except
that we're viewing Seyfert-2's from the side with the gas disk
obscuring the hot core, and we see Seyfert-1's from the top with our
view of the hot gas unobstructed.  It's something like not being able
to see the hole in a donut when you look at the donut from the side."
Actually, Kriss said, NGC 4151 is in the "twilight zone" of Seyferts,
exhibiting unusual characteristics that suggest it might be tilted at
an intermediate angle to Earth.

   "NGC 4151 was five times as bright today as it was during Astro-1
observations in 1990, and there was a 10 percent increase in
brightness today over what we saw when we first observed it two days
ago," said Kriss.  The galaxy is known to be extremely variable, so
Astro-2 scientists hope to view it several more times to capture it at
various levels.  The multiple pointings should help Hopkins
astronomers learn more about the location, composition, density and
temperature of the gas.  Astro-1 observations of NGC 1068 revealed
unanticipated evidence that gas clouds were heated by shock waves
speeding from the galaxy's core.  Speaking on air-to-ground
communication loops from Spacelab Control, Kriss guided Payload
Specialist Sam Durrance in placing the telescope's view just outside
the core of NGC 1068, to look for the location of the shock-heated
gas.

   Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) team members will search
today's photographs of irregular galaxy NGC 4449 for young stars.
Active star formation is on-going in these arms, but not in the
symmetrical distribution more common in spiral galaxies.  The Hopkins
telescope focused on a supernova remnant near the galaxy's nucleus,
which has a rich store of atomic oxygen buried in a region of ionized
hydrogen.  While the images should reveal details of star formation
regions, spectral measurements of the supernova remnant should show
the composition and temperature of the ionized gas.

   UIT also photographed an open cluster of hot stars, called N4.
These diffuse clusters of stars are thought to be young systems, less
than 10 million years old.  UIT's wide field of view allows the camera
to make ultraviolet images of many stars at a time, so the images will
be used to identify hot binary stars pulling matter from one another,
planetary nebulae, X-ray sources, white dwarfs and other faint, hot
stars.

   Other observations today included two white dwarf stars, RE 0512
and GD153; the rapid-star formation galaxy NGC 2903; and another
portion of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant .

   Galaxy observations for tonight include several spirals, an
elliptical and a starburst galaxy.  A number of individual stars will
be studied, including repeated observations of another Wolf-Rayet
star.  HUT will take continue their search for intergalactic helium,
and WUPPE will make more interstellar polarization studies.

   To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on the
Internet World Wide Web: URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

re .17
    
    <parochial>
    
>During the past shift, the crew received word from scientists who
>designed the Australian ultraviolet experiment that is flying in two
>Getaway Special canisters in the cargo bay. The experimenters reported
>they have achieved 100 percent of desired observations and expressed a
>sincere thanks and appreciation for the support they received during
>this mission.
    
    I wonder if this is a reflight of the UV Telescope that we flew in Feb
    '92 (?) and which was rendered useless because the lid wouldn't come
    off the GAScan! (Sort of like leaving the lens cap on. )-:) If so, at
    least things went better this time.
    
    </parochial>

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #12

Wednesday, March 8, 1995; 8 a.m. CST

Flight controllers had a quiet overnight shift as all systems aboard
the Space Shuttle Endeavour continue to support the Astro-2
observations, including ultraviolet views of spiral galaxies, the
interstellar medium and a very luminous and hot Wolf Rayet star.

A successful alignment of the inertial measurement units was performed
earlier this morning.  Excess water will be dumped through the flash
evaporator system today.  All consumables are at the appropriate
levels at this time in the record-setting mission.

The Blue Team -- Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan, Mission Specialist
Wendy Lawrence and Payload Specialist Sam Durrance -- will begin its
pre-sleep activities about 12:30 p.m. CST.  Pre-sleep activities
include eating and winding down from a busy day of Astro-2
observations.

The Red Team -- Commander Steve Oswald, Pilot Bill Gregory, Mission
Specialist John Grunsfeld and Payload Specialist Ron Parise -- will
awaken shortly after 10 a.m. CST today.

Endeavour remains in orbit at an altitude of approximately 190
nautical miles.

The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m. - 1 p.m.  weekends, throughout the mission.  NASA's MSFC Newsroom
is open from 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m. - 2
p.m. weekends.  MSFC's code-a-phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #13

Wednesday, March 8, 1995; 4 p.m. CST

Mission Specialist Wendy Lawrence beamed down a video postcard,
narrating a tour of the Space Shuttle Endeavour and showing what life
aboard is like. The tour included views of the aft flight deck, where
astronomical observations are being conducted; the forward flight
deck, where shuttle maneuvers are orchestrated; and the middeck, where
experiments are studying biotechnology and flexible space structures
and the day-to-day activities such as food preparation and personal
hygiene are taken care of.

Lawrence is a member of the Blue Team, which is now in its sleep
shift. She and Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan and Payload Specialist
Sam Durrance will awaken about 10 p.m. CST.

The Red Team -- Commander Steve Oswald, Pilot Bill Gregory, Mission
Specialist John Grunsfeld and Payload Specialist Ron Parise -- is
about halfway through its duty shift and has reported no orbiter
problems.

Oswald worked again with the Middeck Active Control Experiment as
Gregory took care of orienting the shuttle for its Astro-2
observations and performed housekeeping duties.  Grunsfeld and Parise
directed the trio of Astro-2 telescopes toward its targets.

Gregory and Grunsfeld also conducted an interview with KFWB Radio in
Los Angeles.

Endeavour remains in orbit at an altitude of approximately 190
nautical miles.


The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m. - 1 p.m.  weekends, throughout the mission.  NASA's MSFC Newsroom
is open from 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m. - 2
p.m. weekends.  MSFC's code-a-phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #14
6:00 p.m. CST (6/17:22 MET), March 8, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.

   The three Astro-2 telescopes continued to probe the ultraviolet
universe today, taking complementary measurements on celestial objects
chosen in turn by each instrument team.

   The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) team led the observation of
U Geminorum and SS Cygni, two dwarf novas which were also observed
during Astro-1.  A a dwarf nova, a particular type of cataclysmic
variable star, is actually made up of two stars -- a "normal" star
like our sun in extremely close orbit with a dense white dwarf.
Interaction of the two creates periodic outbursts.

   This morning, U Geminorum was at a different phase than it was
during Astro-1, when it had just gone through an outburst.  "After the
outburst, the white dwarf was very hot.  Today, the white dwarf was
much cooler, since it has been a long time since U Geminorum's last
outburst," said HUT Principal Investigator Dr. Arthur Davidsen.

   Though SS Cygni was also at quiet stage today, it looked totally
different from more typical dwarf novas like U Geminorum.  "We could
tell SS Cygni is unusual based on our limited Astro-1 observation, but
today's much better data reinforces that," said Davidsen.  "Normally,
the white dwarf is obvious at the center of a cataclysmic variable,
but the spectrum from SS Cygni doesn't look like a white dwarf.
Instead of seeing light distributed across the spectrum the way we
would with a dense star, we see pronounced emission lines that suggest
something like a thin, transparent gas disk may surround the dwarf."
Davidsen said a disk of gas is created during a hot outburst, but it
generally dissipates when a variable is quiet.  HUT team members will
analyze today's data to help determine what makes SS Cygni apparently
unique.

   Members of the American Association of Variable Star Observers and
amateur astronomers all over the world are monitoring variable stars
in both hemispheres 24 hours a day.  They furnish regular reports via
electronic mail to the Astro-2 experiment teams, so exploding stars
can be added to the mission's observation schedule.

   HUT also observed V 1329 Cygni, a closely orbiting set of stars
with widely different temperatures called a symbiotic star system.
Dr. Brian Espey will use far-ultraviolet spectra obtained by the
Hopkins instrument to help determine the temperature of the hot star
component.
 
   The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) team chose two galaxies for
wide-field ultraviolet photography.  The first was M 49, the largest
elliptical galaxy in the Virgo cluster of galaxies.  At twice the size
of our Milky Way and ten times more mass, M 49 is one of the biggest
galaxies in the nearby universe.  "We are interested in trying to
trace the source in these galaxies of strong ultraviolet emissions,
which were first detected by Dr. Art Code [WUPPE principal
investigator] about 20 years ago," said UIT Co-Investigator Dr. Robert
O'Connell.  "We still don't understand where they are coming from."
Astro-1 observations of elliptical galaxies called into question some
previously popular theories about the source of the ultraviolet
radiation.

   UIT also obtained images of M 104, a spiral galaxy viewed edge-on
from Earth.  M 104 is sometimes called the Sombrero Galaxy because it
resembles the shape of a wide-brimmed hat.  "The regions where star
formation occurs are in the 'brim' of the hat, while the large bulge
-- the hat's 'crown' -- is made up of old stars, maybe even a black
hole," said UIT Guest Investigator Dr. Barry Madore, who operates what
may be the world's largest computerized electronic database of
galaxies for NASA at Caltech.  "Very old blue stars put out radiation
in a glowing halo that surrounds the hat shape," Madore added.  These
halos had not been imaged in the ultraviolet before Astro-1.

   Studies of 47 Tucanae, a globular cluster chosen by UIT for study,
could shed new light on stellar aging, since some stars within such
closely grouped associations seem to age differently than those found
elsewhere in our galaxy.

   The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) team
concentrated on very hot individual stars for their observation
choices today.  The instrument made spectral and polarimetric
measurements of Zeta Tauri and 28 Tauri, two Oe/Be stars in the
constellation Taurus which show bright hydrogen emission lines.  The
WUPPE team also selected supergiant stars P Cygni and AG Carinae.
Massive stars like these process helium and hydrogen into heavier
elements, and recycle material into the interstellar medium through
supernova explosions and stellar winds.
  
   Light from both types of stars is scattered by various processes in
their atmospheres, creating pronounced polarization.  However, WUPPE
observations of both star types during Astro-1 showed ultraviolet
polarization that was different from theoretical predictions.  Astro 2
observations will provide data against which to test refined theories.

   The WUPPE team also completed a series of observations of
Wolf-Rayet star HD 96548, in another study of how stars deposit matter
containing processed elements like oxygen, nitrogen and carbon into
the interstellar medium.

   An observation of the planet Jupiter and its moon Io is next on the
experiment schedule.  The steady pace of astronomical observations
will continue throughout the night, with subjects of study running the
gamut from compact white dwarfs to huge starburst galaxies to the vast
reaches of intergalactic space.

To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on the
Internet World Wide Web: URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #14

Thursday, March 9, 1995; 8 a.m. CST

Thousands of questions have been pouring into the Astro-2 world-wide
web page which was created to give details about the mission. As time
permits, the STS-67 crew will respond to several questions each
day. At about 5 a.m. CST, Tammy Jernigan responded to a question from
9 year-old Tom Maier, Jr., from Decatur, Ga., and Wendy Lawrence
answered a question from Matt Haligman in San Anselmo, Calif.

Looking out of the Shuttle's window, Wendy Lawrence recorded
volcanic activity on an island south of Burma and replayed the brief
video at about 5:45 a.m. CST.

An alignment of the inertial measurement units and a water dump
through the flash evaporator system were successfully performed this
morning.

Earlier this morning Commander Stephen Oswald downlinked video of
the Middeck Active Control Experiment showing the effects of
vibrations on spacecraft.  Through this experiment, researchers want
to learn how to actively control flexible structures in space.

Lawrence continued maneuvering the orbiter while Jernigan and Sam
Durrance continued the Astro-2 observations of the ultraviolet
universe.

Blue Team crew members are scheduled to go to sleep at about 12:30 p.m. CST.

The Red Team -- Oswald, Bill Gregory, John Grunsfeld and Ron Parise --
will be waking up at about 10 a.m. CST.

Endeavour's astronauts will pass the half-way mark at mid-evening
tonight.

Endeavour remains at an altitude averaging 190 nautical miles.

The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m. - 1 p.m.  weekends, throughout the mission.  NASA's MSFC Newsroom
is open from 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m. - 2
p.m. weekends.  MSFC's code-a-phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #15

Thursday, March 9, 1995; 5 p.m. CST

Endeavour and its seven-astronaut crew will pass the halfway mark of
this marathon flight this evening, and flight controllers report
consumables are adequate the support the full 15 1/2 days planned.

The Blue Team -- Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan, Mission Specialist
Wendy Lawrence and Payload Specialist Sam Durrance will sleep through
the milestone, awakening about 10 p.m. CST.

The Red Team -- Commander Steve Oswald, Pilot Bill Gregory, Mission
Specialist John Grunsfeld and Payload Specialist Ron Parise -- is
continuing to support the observations of the Astro-2 triad of
ultraviolet telescopes and work with several middeck experiments.

Oswald again worked with the Middeck Active Control Experiment as
Gregory pointed the shuttle so that the payload bay telescopes could
acquire their targets. Gregory also flew another simulation on the
PILOT landing trainer.  Grunsfeld and Parise directed the trio of
Astro-2 telescopes toward its targets.

Oswald, Grunsfeld and Gregory were interviewed by Glen Farley of
KING-TV in Seattle at 4:30 p.m.

All of the shuttle's systems continue to work well as it orbits the
Earth every 91 minutes at an altitude averaging 190 nautical miles.

The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m. - 1 p.m.  weekends, throughout the mission.  NASA's MSFC Newsroom
is open from 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m. - 2
p.m. weekends.  MSFC's code-a-phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #16

Friday, March 10, 1995; 8 a.m. CST

Endeavour sailed into the second half of its mission with no problems
hampering science gathering in support of the second astronomy
mission.

Three of the seven astronauts -- Tammy Jernigan, Wendy Lawrence and
Sam Durrance -- are on duty aboard the orbiter managing data gathering
with the cluster of telescopes mounted in the payload bay.  

The remaining four astronauts -- Steve Oswald, Bill Gregory, John
Grunsfeld and Ron Parise -- will relieve their co-workers at midday.

Lawrence and Durrance spoke with WOR Radio in New York about the
mission and its objectives in an early-morning interview.  Jernigan
later answered a couple of Internet questions forwarded to the crew
for response.

Endeavour's present altitude is 190 nautical miles meaning the Shuttle
is circling the Earth every 91 minutes.

The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m. - 1 p.m.  weekends, throughout the mission.  NASA's MSFC Newsroom
is open from 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m. - 2
p.m. weekends.  MSFC's code-a-phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.

                                MISSION CONTROL CENTER  
                              STS-67 Status Report # 17

Friday, March 10, 5 PM CST

Endeavour's astronauts sailed smoothly on in pursuit of astronomical
research today in their ninth day in orbit.

With all of the Shuttle's systems operating in excellent shape, the
Red team assumed duties aboard Endeavour at mid-morning, aiming the
trio of ASTRO-2 telescopes at various stellar objects as the Blue team
turned in for an eight-hour sleep period. The Blue team astronauts
will awaken tonight at 10 PM CST to begin another night of work in
orbit.

Commander Steve Oswald conducted more work with the Middeck Active
Control Experiment, the MACE device, which is collecting engineering
data about the effect of vibrations on free-floating structures.

Pilot Bill Gregory spent some time answering questions sent by
computer users on the Internet regarding Endeavour's astronomy
mission. Hundreds of thousands of questions have been placed on the
Internet since the start of the mission, prompting the astronauts to
respond when time permits.

The Red team will be on duty until late tonight when the Blue team
will resume command of astronomical and orbiter operations.

Endeavour is functioning in a nearly flawless state, orbiting every 91
minutes at an average altitude of 190 nautical miles.

The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m. - 1 p.m.  weekends, throughout the mission.  NASA's MSFC Newsroom
is open from 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m. - 2
p.m. weekends.  MSFC's code-a-phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #18

Saturday, March 11, 9:30 a.m. CST

Business as usual aboard Endeavour means continued data collection in
support of the second Shuttle mission dedicated to the study of
celestial objects in the universe.

Three of the seven astronauts spent the night and early morning hours
assisting with observations using the cluster of three telescopes
mounted in the rear of Endeavour's payload bay.

While Tammy Jernigan and Sam Durrance monitored the science instrument
work, Wendy Lawrence fine tuned the Shuttle's position and maintained
the orbiter's systems.

The other four astronauts on the mission are scheduled to wake up
about 10 this morning and relieve their co-workers at about noon.

Jernigan and Durrance answered a couple of questions about the mission
sent via the Internet through Mission Control.  One was about women
becoming astronauts and the other about the brightness of stars.

Endeavour's systems are in excellent shape as the vehicle circles the
Earth every 90 minutes at an average altitude of 190 nautical miles.

The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m. - 1 p.m.  weekends, throughout the mission.  NASA's MSFC Newsroom
is open from 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m. - 2
p.m. weekends.  MSFC's code-a-phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #19

Saturday, March 11, 5 PM CST

Endeavour's astronauts continued smooth sailing Saturday as their
marathon astronomy research mission proceeded in flawless fashion in
their tenth day in orbit.

Red Team astronauts Steve Oswald, the commander, Pilot Bill Gregory,
Mission Specialist John Grunsfeld and Payload Specialist Ron Parise
conducted more observations of distant celestial objects through the
use of the three ASTRO-2 telescopes housed in the cargo bay with no
systems problems reported by the crew.

Gregory continued work with the Portable In-Flight Landing Operations
Trainer, PILOT, a laptop computer and hand controller designed to
simulate Shuttle landings. The device helps Shuttle Commanders and
Pilots to stay sharp during long duration flights.

The Blue team astronauts ---Mission Specialist Wendy Lawrence, Payload
Commander Tammy Jernigan and Payload Specialist Sam Durrance completed
their shift of galactic studies late this morning and began an
eight-hour sleep period at 2:08 PM CST. They'll be awakened late
tonight to start another night's work on orbit.

The astronauts responded to questions throughout the day from people
around the world who have inquired on the Internet about various
aspects of the mission and spaceflight in general.

Endeavour is orbiting the Earth every 91 minutes at an altitude of
about 190 nautical miles with no systems problems to report. The
STS-67 mission, which is planned to be the longest in Shuttle history,
is scheduled to end Friday with a landing at mid-afternoon at the
Kennedy Space Center.

The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m. - 1 p.m.  weekends, throughout the mission.  NASA's MSFC Newsroom
is open from 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m. - 2
p.m. weekends.  MSFC's code-a-phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #20

Sunday, March 12, 9:30 am CST

Three of Endeavour's astronauts continued scientific observations with
the cluster of telescopes in the payload bay throughout the night and
early morning.

Tammy Jernigan, Sam Durrance and Wendy Lawrence assisted ground
controllers in Alabama with fine-pointing of the three telescopes.
For the first time, an observation was made of the Moon as the Shuttle
passed south of Hawaii on the 161st orbit of the mission in an effort
to gather ultraviolet data to help determine the Moon's origin.
Several additional observations of moons and asteroids will be made
throughout the mission.

The remaining crew members -- Steve Oswald, Bill Gregory, John
Grunsfeld and Ron Parise -- will wake up about 10 this morning and
take over for their three co-workers at noon.

The astronauts responded to questions throughout the day from people
around the world who have inquired on the Internet about various
aspects of the mission and spaceflight in general.

Endeavour is circling the Earth every 91 minutes in a slightly
elliptical orbit of 196 by 182 nautical miles with no systems problems
to report. The STS-67 mission, which is planned to be the longest in
Shuttle history, is scheduled to end Friday with a landing at mid-
afternoon at the Kennedy Space Center.

The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m. - 1 p.m.  weekends, throughout the mission.  NASA's MSFC Newsroom
is open from 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m. - 2
p.m. weekends.  MSFC's code-a-phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #16
6:00 p.m. CST (7/17:22 MET), March 9, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.

  The Astro-2 observatory teamed up with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope
today for a close examination of the planet Jupiter's "northern
lights."  Though Jupiter is always in daylight from Earth's
perspective, ultraviolet photographs reveal a glowing circle of
charged particles in its upper atmosphere, comparable to the beautiful
aurora borealis visible in our far northern latitudes.  Payload
Specialist Sam Durrance, whose astronomical specialty is Jupiter,
carefully centered the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope's (HUT) view on
the northern region of the planet.  The Astro telescopes made
high-quality spectral and polarimetric measurements, as well as
wide-field, far- ultraviolet images.  At the same time, Hubble's Wide
Field/Planetary Camera 2 obtained high resolution, far-ultraviolet
images of the auroral region.  Dr. Paul Feldman, professor of physics
at The Johns Hopkins University, is the lead scientist for both the
HUT and Hubble observations.

   "We're very interested in whether the recent volcanic eruption on
Jupiter's moon Io produced more ions in the planet's magnetosphere and
led to a brighter aurora.  There is some debate as to whether
atmospheric ionization in the Jovian system is created primarily by
sunlight, as it is in Earth's atmosphere, or by volcanic activity on
Io," said Feldman.  "We obtained a very nice spectrum of molecular
hydrogen, the dominant component of Jupiter's upper atmosphere, which
we will analyze in correlation with the Hubble images.  By combining
the two, we will get a scientific product that is greater than the sum
of the two individual observations."

   Several of today's observations were for scientific programs
designed by Astro-2 guest investigators.  As mission planning began,
NASA invited astronomers to suggest experiments and observations that
could be conducted using one or more of the ultraviolet telescopes.  A
committee of astronomers reviewed the proposals and selected ten to be
included in the observation schedule.

    Dr. John Raymond, of the Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical
Observatory, used the Hopkins telescope to view two supernova
remnants, the Cygnus Loop and Vela F.  Both are relatively nearby,
with little foreground matter to block a clear view.  Raymond is
studying the products of supernova explosions -- outwardly moving
shock waves containing more energy than most galaxies radiate in a
year.  As the shock wave and debris from the explosion moves outward,
it heats the interstellar medium in its path and may trigger the
formation of new stars rich with the elements ejected in the
explosion.  Scattered long ago by these immense blasts, some of the
iron and other heavy elements helped form the world in which we live.

   Dr. Claus Leitherer, from the Space Telescope Science Institute,
took spectral measurements of the starburst galaxy 1050+40, one where
rapid star formation is taking place.  Leitherer's colleague,
Dr. Nolan Walborn, viewed O-type star SK-61837 in the Large Magellanic
Cloud, the nearest galaxy to our own Milky Way.  Walborn is studying O
stars, the hottest and most massive of the "normal" stars, in a
far-ultraviolet portion of the spectrum where they had not been
studies previously.  Both Leitherer and Walborn used the Hopkins
telescope for their investigations.

   Guest Investigator Dr. Gregory Bothun, of the University of Oregon,
used the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) to observe galaxy VCC
530, one of a recently recognized class of astronomical objects.
"They are called "low- surface-brightness" galaxies because they are
fainter than the dark night sky.  It has only been in recent years,
with improvements in telescopes, that we have been able to detect
them," said Dr. Barry Madore, another UIT guest investigator.  "The
most fascinating thing about this class of galaxies is that
ground-based observations show some of them are blue.  This could be
due to an absence of dust, or because they are made up of very
metal-poor stars, or maybe they are a new type we're not been aware of
before.  By viewing them in ultraviolet light, we can get a better
understanding of where they came from and what their properties are."

   UIT Principal Investigator Ted Stecher, of the Goddard Space Flight
Center, chose a cluster of galaxies known as Abell 1367 for
observation.  The galaxies in this cluster are primarily spirals, like
our own Milky Way.  Examining photographs of spiral-rich clusters
gives astronomers a better understanding of the spatial structure and
development of spiral galaxies.  UIT made images of Abell 1367 during
Astro 1 as well.  Stecher also selected NGC 6946, a rapid-
star-formation galaxy.  Ultraviolet radiation emphasizes the hot stars
and dust features associated with spiral arms and suppresses the cool
star background of the galactic bulge and underlying disc.

  Other observations today spanned the life cycle of stars, from
studies of the elderly Schweizer-Middleditch white dwarf star to
another search for intergalactic helium left over from the birth of
the universe.  The Astro telescopes are currently in the midst of a
nearly four-hour-long observation series to study the magnetic
cataclysmic variable binary star, AM Herculis.

  Tonight's observation schedule gathers more information for studies
already in progress: white dwarf stars, hot main sequence stars,
cataclysmic variables, globular and open star clusters, Seyfert
galaxies, the search for intergalactic helium, and another observation
of Jupiter.

To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on the
Internet World Wide Web: URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #17        
6:00 a.m. CST (8/5:22 MET), March 10, 1995      
Spacelab Mission Operations Control     
Marshall Space Flight Center    
Huntsville, Ala.        

   The crew of STS-67 continued to gather science for the second Astro
Observatory (Astro-2) mission throughout their eighth night aboard the
Space Shuttle Endeavour.

   Payload Specialist Ronald Parise pointed the Hopkins Ultraviolet
Telescope (HUT) at a binary star system called AM Herculis.  This star
system has a white dwarf and a normal low-mass companion star, locked
in a tight orbit around each other. As these two stars move around
each other, material from the low-mass star is transferred to the
white dwarf.  During this transfer, matter from the companion star is
heated as it spirals down onto the white dwarf, generating a great
deal of ultraviolet emission.  Because of these outbursts (which may
occur every couple of weeks to months or years), binary star systems
such as these are called cataclysmic variables.

   Several Astro-2 observations have been made of the AM Herculis
binary star system because of its unique characteristics.  In this
star system, the white dwarf star has a strong magnetic field.  As
material from the companion star is being transferred, the magnetic
field of the white dwarf causes the matter to assemble around its
magnetic poles.  HUT astronomers are using observations of cataclysmic
variables during this mission to learn more about how the magnetic
transfer of matter differs from the normal transfer of matter between
binary stars.  In another study of cataclysmic variables, HUT observed
EM Cygni, a dwarf nova which has no magnetic field.

   During the night portion of two separate orbits, Pilot William
Gregory maneuvered Endeavour into the proper orbital position for
Parise to align HUT for observations of quasar 1700+64.  HUT
scientists are using this quasar, located in the constellation Draco,
to search the vast region of space between distant galaxies for
evidence of helium left over from the primordial fireball that many
scientists believe marked the birth of the universe.  HUT Principal
Investigator Dr. Arthur Davidsen is using the light from this
extremely distant quasar as back lighting to shine through the
intergalactic medium.  Astronomers will use data from these Astro-2
observations to verify recent findings from the Hubble Space Telescope
as well as measure the density and ionization state of the
intergalactic helium.

  Parise also aligned HUT with two white dwarf stars for a study by
HUT Guest Investigator Dr. David Finley.  White dwarfs are one of the
extremely dense remnants of normal stars like the sun.  Those being
studied with HUT are young and extremely hot stars.  Finley is using
these HUT observations to get very accurate measurements of the
temperatures and surface gravity of white dwarf stars and determine
the properties of hydrogen under conditions of extreme temperature and
pressure.
        
   Another HUT investigation looked at a portion of a supernova
remnant called the Cygnus Loop.  Guest Investigator Dr. John Raymond
observed this "middle-aged" supernova remnant to study the physics of
collisionless shocks, the destruction of grains in shocked gas,
instabilities behind radiative shocks, and shock wave parameters.

   Parise aimed HUT at Jupiter's moon Io again last night.  A recent
volcanic eruption on Io ejected material into Io's atmosphere and onto
its surface.  HUT scientists are observing Io to detect changes in the
number of sulfur and oxygen ions in its atmosphere as a result of the
volcanic eruption.

   The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) imaged two globular
clusters last night a metal-poor cluster and a metal-rich
cluster.  The metal-poor globular cluster, known as NGC 2808, is made
up of relatively old stars.  The low metal content of these stars
indicates they were formed early in the life of the Milky Way galaxy.
Astronomers theorize that the metal-rich globular cluster, called 47
Tucanae, once belonged to a small metal-rich galaxy that was swallowed
up by the Milky Way in the remote past.  The UIT science team will use
images from these two types of globular clusters to search for hot
binaries that are transferring matter from the massive star to its
low-mass companion (accretion), hot white dwarfs, planetary nebulae,
and objects associated with X-ray sources in globular clusters.

   Payload Specialist Sam Durrance pointed the Wisconsin Ultraviolet
Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) telescope at a young stellar
object, still forming out of interstellar dust.  WUPPE astronomers
will analyze data about the polarization of the ultraviolet light in
this object to learn more about the star- formation processes taking
place there.

   WUPPE scientists also gathered data about hot stars with bright
emission lines last night.  Principal Investigator Dr. Arthur Code
will use information about the orientation of light waves traveling
through the circumstellar disk of this star, called 48 Persei, to
understand more about the material around it.  Although this type of
star was first noted because of bright emission lines, over 100 years
of study have shown stars like these to be unusual in many other
respects.  Each spectral region studied provides astronomers with
information about a different part of the material around the star.

  During the next 12 hours, the Astro-2 crew will be aligning the HUT,
UIT and WUPPE telescopes to observe cataclysmic variable stars, young
star populations in galaxies, metal-poor star clusters and a supernova
remnant.




To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on the Internet World Wide Web: 
URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #18
6:00 p.m. CST (8/17:22 MET), March 10, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.

    The Astro-2 science team in orbit and at Spacelab Control continue
to stack up observations of the ultraviolet universe, with spiral
galaxies taking center stage for much of the day.  The arms of spiral
galaxies are sites of new star formation, so the observations should
add insight into how stars evolve.

   The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) team selected the spiral
galaxy M 31, better known as the Andromeda galaxy, for observation.
The team is mapping groups of hot, bright young stars, called OB
associations, to learn more about star formation within the galaxy.
Today's observation concentrated on the northern portion of Andromeda,
where its brightest OB associations are located.  "We mapped the OB
associations in the southern portion of M 31 during Astro 1, and our
goal on Astro 2 is to complete the picture," said UIT observing team
member Barbara Pfarr.  At twice the apparent size of our full moon,
Andromeda is too big to be photographed in one frame even with UIT's
wide field of view.  M 31 is roughly the same size as the Milky Way,
and it is the nearest galaxy of comparable size to our own.

   Astro scientists also observed NGC 4631, a large spiral galaxy
viewed edge-on.  The galaxy is forming stars out of material it is
pulling from the disk of a nearby, less massive elliptical galaxy, NGC
4656.  The bridge of material it is pulling from its smaller neighbor
forms a "tail" on NGC 4631.  NGC 4631 is of special interest to UIT
and Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope team members because huge loops and
filaments of gas have been thrown above and below the galaxy's central
region.  Astronomers believe this may be a bubble of gas produced by
supernova explosions, with very strong stellar winds blowing material
out of the galaxy.  HUT will use its far-ultraviolet spectrometer to
see if there is hotter gas present -- about 200,000 degrees Fahrenheit
(100,000 degrees Celsius) or more -- than has been detected in
observations by other telescopes.

   UIT's ultraviolet images of NGC 4631 will be used to determine how
stellar populations are distributed in the galaxy.  In addition, they
will compare photographs made in different wavelengths with various
camera filters to help determine the location of the hot gas, its
temperature profile, and its distance from the galactic disk.  "We
will try to deduce processes by which the gas is heated and cooled,
then drops back into the disk," said UIT team member Dr. Andrew
M. Smith, "It is theorized that there is a circulation pattern in the
gas which is quite large and quite turbulent."

   The Hercules Cluster of galaxies, also viewed by the Astro
telescopes today, furnishes another laboratory for the study of star
formation.  Galaxy clusters are the largest gravitationally bound
groupings in the universe.  Such clusters generally contain both
elliptical galaxies, which contain few new stars, and spiral galaxies,
which contain many young, ultraviolet-bright stars.  The Hercules
cluster has a greater than average number of spirals, which makes it a
good "hunting ground" for new star formation.

   UIT also led observations of two objects near the end of the
stellar life cycle, globular clusters NGC 6752 and M 13.  Stars within
these tightly bound clusters appear to be about five billion years
older than recent evidence suggests the universe itself may be --
something like the children being older than the parents.  Ultraviolet
studies of old stars within the clusters, near the very end of their
lives, could provide better tests for the ages and life cycles of
stars.

   This morning's study of dwarf nova WX Hydri is the second
observation of this system, whose decline from outburst is being
studied.  Though these periodic increases in brightness in WX Hydri
are not as bright as they are in some cataclysmic variable systems,
they occur fairly frequently -- about once every ten days.  WX Hydri
sometimes becomes over eight times brighter during an outburst,
increasing from a magnitude of about 14.8 during quiet periods to
around 11 at its brightest.  Information about this dwarf nova and
about 10 others is being provided to Astro scientists by amateur
astronomers around the world.

   The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) team
finished up one period as prime instrument early this morning, then
began another after this afternoon's orbiter water dump.  This
morning, WUPPE looked at reflection nebula NGC 7023.  The first prime
observation for WUPPE this afternoon was HD 207198, an interstellar
polarization probe.  Both were studies clouds of gas and material from
which astronomers can learn about the interstellar medium -- the
material from which stars and other objects are created.

   Other celestial objects viewed by the Astro telescopes today
included the brightest known Seyfert galaxy, NGC 4151; the Carina
dwarf galaxy; spiral galaxy NGC 4258; and NGC 752, an open star
cluster in the constellation Andromeda.

   The crew snatched a few free moments to answer questions left by
computer users of all ages on the Astro-2 "home page."  Several
thousand questions have been received on the Internet World Wide Web
page since launch.  In addition to the questions they forward to the
crew, members of the Astro-2 control team in Huntsville are answering
selected questions on-line.  Thus far in the mission, the Astro page
has been accessed from more than 90,000 different computers in 56
countries.

   Tonight's menu of celestial observations includes two cataclysmic
variables, a white dwarf star, a supernova remnant, a variety of
galaxies and a so-called "BL Lacertae Object," the quasar-like nucleus
of an elliptical galaxy.

  To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on the
Internet World Wide Web: URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #19        
6:00 a.m. CST (9/5:22 MET), March 11, 1995      
Spacelab Mission Operations Control     
Marshall Space Flight Center    
Huntsville, Ala.        

   STS-67 crew members spent their ninth night aboard the Space
Shuttle Endeavour, pointing the three unique ultraviolet telescopes of
the second Astro Observatory (Astro-2) mission at celestial objects.
 
   Pilot William Gregory maneuvered the Endeavour into a position
where Mission Specialist John Grunsfeld and Payload Specialist Ronald
Parise could align the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter
Experiment (WUPPE) with Nova Centauri 1995.  "The WUPPE instrument has
given us some spectacular spectral 'signatures' of the elements (such
as carbon, nitrogen or oxygen) that may be present in the atmosphere
following this very recent explosion," said Guest Investigator
Dr. Joni Johnson of the University of Wisconsin in Madison.  "We'll be
analyzing these data for quite some time, looking for clues about the
atmospheric composition, as well as the structure, of this new nova."

    Nova Centauri 1995, which occurred just two weeks before the
launch of Astro-2, is the result of a Red Giant, transferring material
to a compact white dwarf companion star.  After a period of time
(perhaps 1,000 years or more) the material which accreted onto this
white dwarf reached extremely high temperatures and pressure, causing
a thermonuclear explosion.  WUPPE scientists were excited to be able
to observe this rare new nova so soon after its beginning.

    Parise also pointed the WUPPE telescope to a massive star that is
known to have bright emission lines.  Scientists are studying this
type of star to learn more about the composition of material
surrounding the star and how it is effected by stellar winds.

   WUPPE scientists also got another look at a rare Wolf-Rayet star
overnight.  Wolf-Rayet stars are thought to represent one of the final
phases in the evolution of massive stars.  This type of massive star
has powerful, eroding stellar winds carrying material outward.  The
interaction between the star's light and this material causes the
radiation to be polarized (oriented in one particular direction)
rather than in all different directions.  The polarization of light
coming from this Wolf-Rayet star can tell astronomers something about
the properties of the stellar winds around it.

   Mission Specialist Wendy Lawrence maneuvered the orbiter to
different positions last night, allowing the WUPPE science team to
observe two galaxies in the Local Group.  Payload Commander Tammy
Jernigan operated the Instrument Pointing System, while Payload
Specialist Sam Durrance aimed the Astro-2 telescopes at the galaxies.
These two galaxies served as background lights for the study of
interstellar polarization, the direction that light travels between
stars.

    The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) imaged Holmberg 2 (a dwarf
galaxy) and a portion of the Andromeda spiral galaxy, M31, to help UIT
astronomers learn more about young stellar formations in galaxies.
One of the major science goals of the UIT is to map out our "twin
sister" galaxy, Andromeda (M31).  UIT also imaged a galaxy known as
NGC 3310, allowing investigators to study the design of spiral
galaxies and related structures, the nature of stellar populations,
and learn more about the material between stars associated with bars,
irregular, and anemic (poor in structure) galaxies.

   The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) observed two Seyfert 1
galaxies, Markarian 279 and NGC 3516.  These targets are active
galaxies with bright, compact nuclei, radiating in wavelength ranges
from infrared to X- ray.  HUT Project Scientist Dr. Gerard Kriss
arranged simultaneous X-ray observations of NGC 3516 using the
Japanese X-ray satellite ASCA (the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology
and Astrophysics).  Astro-2 and ASCA will revisit NGC 3516 for another
observation in two days.  UIT scientists observed these galaxies to
better understand how energy is transferred between the nuclei and
surrounding regions.

   Parise pointed HUT at a dwarf nova called Z Camelopardalis (Z CAM).
This stellar system has two stars locked in a tight orbit around each
other, with an orbital period of seven hours.  The companion star to Z
CAM is a low mass star which transfers matter onto Z CAM, causing
outbursts of ultraviolet emissions.

    Parise aligned HUT with a portion of the supernova remnant Cygnus
Loop D.  HUT scientists are studying a very bright, radiative filament
on the western edge of the Cygnus Loop, to learn more about the shock
waves generated during the death of a star.  Astronomers will analyze
these HUT data to determine temperatures, densities, and chemical
compositions of the gaseous filaments in the interstellar medium.

   During the next 12 hours, HUT, UIT and WUPPE will be aimed at the
heavens to let Astro-2 astronomers observe interstellar shock waves in
supernova remnants, young stellar populations in galaxies, the
luminous cores of active galaxies, dust and gas between stars, and
electron scattering of single stars.

To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on the
Internet World Wide Web: URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #20        
6:00 p.m. CST ( 9/17:22 MET), March 11, 1995    
Spacelab Mission Operations Control     
Marshall Space Flight Center    
Huntsville, Ala.        

    On the tenth day of the STS-67 mission, Astro-2 scientists took
their first look in the extreme ultraviolet at what may be the most
massive star in the known universe.  They also focused their
observations on spiral galaxies, elliptical galaxies, and star
clusters.

   HD 269810, a faint O-class star located in the Large Magellanic
Cloud, is about 190 times as massive as Earth's sun and qualifies as a
candidate for the most massive star ever observed.  Hopkins
Ultraviolet Telescope Guest Investigator Dr. Nolan R. Walborn, of the
Space Telescope Science Institute, used the HUT instrument to study
the star's unusually powerful stellar wind, or expanding outer layer,
like it has never been seen before.  Although this star probably
possesses the most mass a star can have, its stellar wind is depleting
this mass at an accelerated rate.  These observations provide crucial
information regarding the ultimate fate of the most massive stars.

   Dr. Walborn uses the HUT to study a sample of very hot O class
stars that are currently being observed in ultraviolet wavelengths of
1200 angstroms and above by the Hubble Space Telescope.  However, only
HUT is able to take its unprecedented measurements of these stars in
the 900-1200 angstrom wavelength range.  Commenting on what he called
the "beautiful" real-time data acquired from this observation,
Dr. Walborn said, "Now we have new information about a current
candidate for the most massive star known.  This was the star I wanted
to see, and now we have it."

   Earlier this morning, Payload Specialist Sam Durrance successfully
pointed the Astro telescopes at a somewhat challenging target, the
elliptical galaxy M60, to enable the science teams to obtain an
overall average spectrum of stars in its core.  A roughly
sphere-shaped galaxy with no clearly discernible internal structure,
M60 contains older, evolved stars and therefore represents a stable
stage of development.  Due to the faintness of this galaxy and the
absence of suitable guide stars for automatic targeting, manual
acquisition of this target was necessary.

   The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) also
observed the center of the M60 giant elliptical for polarized
radiation, or radiation preferentially oriented in one direction.  M60
is part of rich cluster of galaxies in the Virgo constellation,
containing about 2500 galaxies, and has a notable ultraviolet excess.

   The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) viewed NGC 6791, an unusual
open cluster located 14,000 light years away in the Lyra
constellation.  Open clusters are diffuse collections of 100 to 1,000
stars and are usually thought to be young systems, less than 10
million years old.  As one of the oldest known open clusters, NGC 6791
is three billion years older than our solar system.  Because UIT's
field of view is well matched to the sizes of these clusters, UIT
scientists are able to perform ultraviolet observations of many stars
at the same time.

   Another target for UIT, M101 in the Ursa Major constellation, was a
big spiral galaxy with arms that are wide and not very tightly wound.
A perfect example, or prototype, of spiral structure, it is the
highest priority spiral galaxy for UIT.  This galaxy contains bright
regions, such as Searle 2 (named for Dr.  Leonard Searle, the
astronomer who first discovered that region), of glowing hydrogen
ionized by hot blue stars.  UIT's ultraviolet imaging offers a
powerful new tool for the study of these regions, especially since it
emphasizes these hot stars.  Ultraviolet imaging also suppresses the
cool star background of the galaxy, allowing the young hot stars to
become more evident to astronomers studying the evolution of stars.

   Early tomorrow morning, UIT will attempt its most difficult
observation when the Astro-2 telescopes will be pointing at the moon
to provide the first detailed far ultraviolet photographs of our
nearest neighbor in space.

To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on the
Internet World Wide Web: URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #21        
6:00 a.m. CST (10/5:22 MET), March 12, 1995     
Spacelab Mission Operations Control     
Marshall Space Flight Center    
Huntsville, Ala.        

   Researchers in orbit and on the ground worked together to make the
first ever detailed observation of the moon in the far ultraviolet
wavelengths last night, as the STS-67 Astro mission continues.

   Mission Specialist Wendy Lawrence maneuvered the orbiter into the
required position, while Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan aligned the
Instrument Pointing System (IPS) at the most difficult-to-acquire
Astro-2 target, our moon.  Payload Specialist Sam Durrance coordinated
with science teams at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
Ala., to accurately point the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) at
the moon.  "The entire moon has never been imaged in the ultraviolet
wavelengths, and we're looking forward to seeing these data," said UIT
Guest Investigator Dr. Chan Na of Southwest Research Institute.  No
similar data have been obtained from either previous Shuttle missions,
the Apollo program or Clementine, and there are no operating or
planned spacecraft capable of imaging the whole moon at far
ultraviolet wavelengths.

   UIT Guest Investigator Dr. Randy Gladstone, also of Southwest
Research Institute, is using UIT to make far ultraviolet maps in order
to learn more about the surface properties of the moon.  "This lunar
observation yielded 12 good, wide-field exposures of the moon," said
Gladstone.  The 70mm UIT film will developed and analyzed when
Endeavour returns to Earth.  UIT data gathered during Astro-2 will be
used to test the hypothesis that the far ultraviolet surface
brightness of an object without an atmosphere is a good indicator of
the length of time that the surface has been exposed to space.  These
data will also help scientists understand future ultraviolet images of
asteroids and other planetary satellites.

   The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE)
telescope observed the moon along with UIT last night to determine how
well the WUPPE instrument could detect such features as dark seas or
bright craters on the moon.  Video from the WUPPE guide camera showed
the instrument could clearly distinguish these lunar surface features.
WUPPE scientists will now decide what observational goals they will
set for the next lunar observation, later in the mission.

   Durrance also pointed the WUPPE telescope to a cool, giant star
known as Alpha Orionis.  This star, which pulsates about every five
years, is approximately 14,000 times as radiant as our sun.  WUPPE
Principal Investigator Dr. Arthur Code will analyze the data from this
Astro-2 observation to learn more about what effect these pulsations
have on the envelope of gas and dust surrounding Alpha Orionis.

   Pilot William Gregory moved Endeavour into position, Mission
Specialist John Grunsfeld aligned the IPS and Payload Specialist
Ronald Parise again pointed the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) at
the quasar known as 1700+64.  This quasar is the most distant object
the HUT team is observing during Astro-2.  HUT Principal Investigator
Dr. Arthur Davidsen, of Johns Hopkins University, is using the quasar
to provide background lighting in a search for helium in the
intergalactic medium (the gas between galaxies).  Helium is thought to
be left over from the "Big Bang," a primordial fireball that many
astronomers believe marked the birth of the universe about 10 to 20
billion years ago.

   The HUT telescope also observed a portion of the Cygnus Loop, a
"middle-aged" supernova remnant, over night.  Supernova remnants are
visible evidence of the final cycle of stellar evolution and important
sources of information for astronomers.  The Cygnus Loop is of
particular interest because it reveals details about the structure and
velocity of shock waves from the explosion of a dying star) as they
travel through the interstellar medium.  HUT's spectrographic data
will help scientists determine temperatures, densities and chemical
compositions of the gases located in the Cygnus Loop.

   HUT team members say their recent observations of the Vela
supernova remnant will allow scientists, for the first time, to
measure the same supernova remnant shockwave from two angles.  The
Vela observations seem to show the same filament of expanding gas from
the stellar explosion both edge on and face on.  "If we can compare
this filament in two positions, and verify that the models work for
this object, we can generalize that and compare it to other data we've
taken on the Cygnus Loop, the Vela supernova remnant and with other
telescopes," said HUT Co-investigator Dr. Bill Blair.  If successful,
the comparison should give researchers a much better understanding of
supernova remnants.

   Parise pointed WUPPE and HUT at a hot, massive star called 48
Librae, located in the constellation Libra.  This star spins rapidly
and has an outer layer that shows evidence of being peeled off by
stellar winds.  Previous observations of this star have suggested that
its stellar winds are strongest near the star's equator because of its
rapid rotation.  WUPPE scientists are examining the polarization of
this star's light to learn more about the scattering by electrons in
the disk surrounding it.  HUT scientists are trying to determine an
accurate temperature for this star, search for stellar winds, and
study absorption in the gas and dust between this star and nearby
stellar objects.
        
   Jernigan and Durrance aligned WUPPE and HUT to look at a supergiant
star, P Cygni.  This star, which increases in brightness like a nova,
has remained just visible to the naked eye for more than 100 years.
Scientists believe it is not a true nova, rather a variable star
surrounded by an expanding gaseous shell.  WUPPE scientists are
interested in P Cygni because it is ejecting mass at a colossal rate.
As P Cygni scatters light, it produces a pronounced polarization which
differs from theoretical models.  Data from these Astro-2 observations
will test refined theories and offer greater insight into the
mysterious variability of P Cygni.

   Throughout the next 12 hours, HUT, WUPPE and UIT will be used
to observe the planet Mars, look at young stellar populations in
galaxies, examine supernova remnants and study a reflection nebula in
a dark cloud.

   To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on the
Internet World Wide Web: URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report # 21

Sunday, March 12, 5 PM CST


Endeavour's astronauts blended astronomical observations with a little
relaxation today as their research flight proceeded in fine fashion in
the 11th day of the ASTRO-2 mission.

The Red team, Commander Steve Oswald, Pilot Bill Gregory, Mission
Specialist John Grunsfeld and Payload Specialist Ron Parise acquired
more celestial targets with the trio of ASTRO-2 telescopes and gather
additional engineering data from the Middeck Active Control Experiment
as Endeavour sailed flawlessly toward the homestretch of what is
expected to be a Shuttle-record 15 and a half day research flight.

Both Grunsfeld and Parise enjoyed a few hours off to relax before
heading into the final days of the mission, trading places on the aft
flight deck to operate the Instrument Pointing System and the
telescopes while the other took a break from research duties.

Gregory used Endeavour's ham radio gear to talk to students at the
J.J. Fray Elementary School in Rustburg, Virginia and the crew
continued to respond to questions about their mission and spaceflight
in general placed on the Internet and faxed up to the Shuttle by
flight controllers.

Endeavour is circling the Earth every 91 minutes at an altitude of
about 195 nautical miles with all of its systems in excellent shape.

The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m.-1 p.m.weekends, throughout the mission. NASA's MSFC Newsroom is
open from 6 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m.-2
p.m. weekends. MSFC's Code-a-Phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report # 22

Monday, March 13, 8 a.m. CST

Astronomical observations continued through the night using
Endeavour's trio of telescopes in the payload bay.

Blue Team members Tammy Jernigan, Wendy Lawrence and Sam Durrance
assisted ground controllers and scientists in the data collection
designed to help answer questions about the age of the universe and
our own solar system.

The remaining astronauts on board -- Steve Oswald, Bill Gregory, John
Grunsfeld and Ron Parise -- are scheduled to wake up about 10 this
morning and relieve their colleagues at noon.

Jernigan and Durrance were interviewed by C-SPAN earlier this morning
and discussed various aspects of the mission and space flight in
general with viewers.

Endeavour is circling the Earth every 91 minutes at an altitude of
about 195 nautical miles with all of its systems in excellent shape.

The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m.-1 p.m.weekends, throughout the mission. NASA's MSFC Newsroom is
open from 6 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m.-2
p.m. weekends. MSFC's Code-a-Phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.

                                  MISSION CONTROL CENTER
                                  STS-67 STATUS REPORT # 23


Monday, March 13, 5 PM CST


Endeavour's astronauts gathered more ultraviolet data from their suite
of telescopes in the cargo bay today as their mission headed into the
homestretch.

The Red team took over scientific research duties from the Blue team
at mid-morning and spent the day aiming the ASTRO-2 payload at a
variety of distant celestial objects for researchers at the Payload
Operations Control Center at the Marshall Space Flight Center.  The
Blue team turned in at 2 PM CST to begin an eight-hour sleep period.

Commander Steve Oswald spent most of the day working in the middeck
with the MACE experiment, the Middeck Active Control Experiment, a
device rigged with sensors to measure the degree of vibration on
free-floating structures. Engineering data from the experiment will be
used by technicians in the design of spacecraft of the future.

Oswald and Mission Specialist Wendy Lawrence, both graduates of the
Naval Academy, joined Payload Specialist Ron Parise to discuss various
aspects of the flight with Midshipmen gathered at Annapolis. Lawrence
is the first female graduate of the Naval Academy. The in-flight
interview also featured greetings to the crew from former astronaut
Charles Bolden, who currently serves as the Deputy Commandant at
Annapolis.

The crew also continued to answer questions from interested observers
around the world who have inquired about various aspects of the flight
on the Internet.

Headed for a Shuttle-record 15 and a half days in space, Endeavour
continues to circle the Earth every 91 minutes in excellent shape,
orbiting at an average altitude of about 185 nautical miles.

The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m.-1 p.m.  weekends throughout the mission. NASA's MSFC Newsroom is
open from 6 a.m.- 6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m.-2
p.m. weekends. MSFC's Code-A-Phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report # 24

Tuesday, March 14, 8 a.m. CST

For the first time in human spaceflight history, eight Americans are
in space following the launch shortly after midnight of astronaut Norm
Thagard aboard a Soyuz rocket. The seven astronauts aboard Endeavour
have been in space for 11 days gathering data in support of the second
astronomy mission called Astro-2.

Thagard and his cosmonaut crewmates -- Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennadiy
Strekalov -- began the Mir-18 mission at 12:11 a.m. central time, from
the Baikonur launch site 1,300 miles from Moscow, and are scheduled to
rendezvous with the Russian Space Station Mir on Thursday.  Their
three-month stay will conclude with the first Shuttle/Mir docking
mission scheduled for June which will carry a cosmonaut replacement
crew and bring those three home.

Endeavour's crew was notified of the Mir-18 launch shortly after the
Soyuz capsule reached orbit.  STS-67 Commander Steve Oswald responded,
"Okay, great news, thank you very much....Bet you Normie's glad to be
there."  Oswald and Thagard flew together on Discovery's STS-42
mission in January 1992.

Science data collection continues around the clock as the spaceborne
astronomical observatory performs as flawlessly as its Space Shuttle
platform.  The crew will work around the clock on two shifts for the
remainder of the flight viewing celestial objects using the three
telescopes in the payload bay.

Mission managers may decide today whether or not to extend the
mission, which is already scheduled to become the longest Shuttle
mission to date lasting 15 and a half days.  Presently, the mission is
scheduled to end with a landing Friday afternoon at the Kennedy Space
Center in Florida.

Endeavour's systems are in excellent condition as it circles the Earth
every 91 minutes at an average altitude of about 185 nautical miles.

The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m.-1 p.m.  weekends throughout the mission.  NASA's MSFC Newsroom is
open from 6 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m.-2 p.m. weekends.
MSFC's Code-A-Phone is updated twice daily and can be reached by
calling 205-544-6397.

                                        MISSION CONTROL CENTER
                                        STS-67 STATUS REPORT # 25


Tuesday, March 14, 1995, 5 p.m. CST

Endeavour's astronauts continued to study the stars and fielded
questions from reporters as their astronomical research flight neared
its conclusion.

Red team astronauts John Grunsfeld and Ron Parise gathered more
ultraviolet data from celestial targets as Pilot Bill Gregory aimed
the Shuttle toward deep space to allow the trio of ASTRO-2 telescopes
to collect their galactic information.

All the while, Commander Steve Oswald completed final data takes with
the Middeck Active Control Experiment --- MACE ---- which has been
operating in the middeck to collect information about the effect of
vibrations on free-floating structures in microgravity for spacecraft
engineers.

Before turning in for an eight-hour sleep period, the Blue team
astronauts, Wendy Lawrence, Tammy Jernigan and Sam Durrance, joined
their colleagues in the traditional in-flight Crew News Conference,
answering questions from correspondents on everything from
astronomical research to the symbolism of the launching of
U.S. astronaut Norm Thagard on a Russian rocket this morning to begin
an historic three-month stay on the Mir Space Station.

Earlier today, NASA's Mission Management Team decided NOT to extend
Endeavour's flight beyond Friday's planned landing at the Kennedy
Space Center. Citing the wealth of scientific data already acquired by
the Shuttle's telescopes and the conservative approach being taken in
slowly building up the length of time for orbiting crews, Mission
Operations Representative Jeff Bantle said the decision to end
Endeavour's journey on time was made after weighing numerous factors
regarding a mission extension, both pro and con.

Endeavour, meanwhile, continues to orbit the Earth in nearly flawless
fashion, circling the planet every 91 minutes at an altitude of 185
nautical miles.


The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m.-1 p.m.  weekends throughout the mission. NASA's MSFC Newsroom is
open from 6 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m.-2
p.m. weekends. MSFC's Code-A-Phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #22
6:00 p.m. CST (10/17:22 MET), March 12, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center 
Huntsville, Ala. 

   With the Astro-2 mission in its eleventh day, astronomers continue
to stack up new clues about what makes the universe "tick" -- how it
got started, how it evolved and where it is going.
 
   The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) team
selected Nova Circinus 1995 for observation this morning.  This is the
third "new" nova -- a binary star system whose first outburst was
observed very recently -- to be studied by the Astro-2 telescopes.
"Though all three novae went into outburst since the first of the
year, each is at a different stage in its history," said WUPPE
Principal Investigator Dr. Arthur Code.  "By comparing their
polarization, we hope to determine whether gas from novae outbursts is
expelled in a spherical shape and then becomes more asymmetrical, and
if so, how quickly the asymmetry develops."  Light is polarized when
it encounters an asymmetrically shaped object, such as a flattened gas
disk, which causes the light to vibrate in preferred directions.

   "Every day brings new surprises," said HUT Co-investigator Dr. Bill
Blair, describing the success today of two supernova remnant
observations he admits were long-shots.  HUT led a study of the
supernova remnant Puppis A, the third supernova remnant Astro-2 has
observed in our Milky Way galaxy.  HUT and WUPPE examined a filament
of gas in the remnant's eastern region, apparently an interaction
between an interstellar cloud and the blast wave speeding from the
supernova explosion. "The International Ultraviolet Explorer barely
detected this remnant, so we didn't know what to expect," said Blair.
"We thought dust in the interstellar medium might block its
ultraviolet radiation, but we got a very nice spectrum which showed
strong nitrogen emissions."  Blair said it is possible the nitrogen
could have been thrown out by the massive star thousands of years
before it exploded as a supernova, and now the shock wave from the
blast is catching up with nitrogen expelled from the star.

   Supernova 1006, whose explosion in A.D. 1006 makes it a relatively
recent supernova, provided another first.  "The shock wave from this
supernova is moving very fast, plowing through interstellar space at
about 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) per second, as opposed to 150 to
200 kilometers per second in remnants like Puppis A," said Blair.  "We
thought its emissions might be too faint for us to observe, but we
felt it was important enough to attempt.  This gives us a new range of
velocity that has never been observed before in the ultraviolet."
Blair said the HUT spectrum may show the primary passage of the
supernova blast wave as it first encounters interstellar gas.
Comparison with optical observations could help astronomers understand
the basic physics of supernova shock fronts.

   The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope team led eight highly successful
observations in a row.  UIT captured the mission's first images of the
Whirlpool Galaxy (M 51) for Dr. Wendy Freedman's atlas of spiral
galaxies.  The Whirlpool Galaxy is the larger of two interacting
galaxies close enough together to disturb each other through
gravitational force.  M 51 is a large spiral galaxy with a mass 100
billion times that of our sun.  It is interacting with NGC 5195, a
much less massive galaxy.  Astronomers will study UIT photographs to
learn more about the formation of stars in that system, especially in
the bridge of matter that joins the two interacting galaxies.

   UIT also imaged CB_4, a cold cloud of interstellar gas and dust
which is sufficiently dense to obscure starlight from objects behind
it, while it reflects light from objects in front of it.  Though this
so-called dark cloud is relatively faint, Astro scientists were able
to obtain measurements to test models of dust in the interstellar
medium during a daylight observation.

   The imaging telescope also photographed a cluster of galaxies known
as the Coma Cluster.  UIT is examining the dense cluster, made up
primarily of elliptical galaxies, to obtain simultaneous information
on large samples of galaxies.  Astronomers will study the integrated
ultraviolet properties of these large samples to determine constraints
on the physics of cooling flows, as hot gas may condense into stars as
it rains down on a galaxy from the intra-cluster medium.  Scientists
also will look for the presence of dark matter, which does not emit
appreciable radiation.

   HUT and WUPPE observed NGC 4874, the central elliptical galaxy in
the Coma Cluster, to determine the ages of its stars.  Though
elliptical galaxies have comparatively few young stars, they emit more
ultraviolet radiation than would be expected from a population of old
stars.  Astro-1 observations of ellipticals suggest this radiation may
come from aging stars in a previously unknown stage of evolution.
Astro-2 is following up on the mystery.

   UIT photographed the open star cluster NGC 7789, and investigations
into new star formation included observations of elliptical galaxy NGC
185, irregular galaxy NGC 1313 and rapid star formation galaxy NGC
4631.  WUPPE led the mission's first observation of the Planet Mars,
and it observed interstellar polarization probe HD 217490 to add to
its ongoing study of the dust scattered throughout our Milky Way.
Dr. Brian Espey got excellent HUT and WUPPE data on the symbiotic star
system RR Telescopii for his study of closely orbiting stars with
radically different temperatures.
        
   In addition to observing a variety of stars and galaxies tonight,
the Astro-2 telescopes will view the Planet Venus and study
interstellar polarization and extinction in the Large Magellanic
Cloud.

To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on the
Internet World Wide Web: URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

 

CORRECTED
Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #23
6:00 a.m. CST ( 11/5:22 MET), March 13, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.

   Scientists with the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter
Experiment (WUPPE) received surprising data from their telescope last
night as the second Astro Observatory (Astro-2) mission continued
aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

   Astronomers for WUPPE were surprised to learn that the orientation
(polarization) of ultraviolet radiation coming from Mars is due to the
planet's soil composition, rather than elements in the Martian
atmosphere.  "As we looked at the data we received from our equipment
onboard the Shuttle, we saw similarities between the polarization of
ultraviolet light emitted by Mars and the polarization of ultraviolet
light recorded during an earlier lunar observation," explained WUPPE
scientist Dr. Geoff Fox.  "We'll continue to examine our data to learn
more about the composition of Martian soil."

   The WUPPE telescope also made observations to study the
polarization of ultraviolet light between stars in the Large
Magellanic Cloud for Guest Investigator Dr. Geoffrey Clayton.
Supergiant stars were used as background lighting, allowing WUPPE and
the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) to observe dust particles
between stars in this galaxy.  WUPPE and HUT science teams expect to
see differences in interstellar polarization between the Large
Magellanic Cloud and our own Milky Way galaxy because the chemical
elements found in the interstellar dust of these galaxies are so
different.  UIT will collect images of large fields in the Magellanic
Clouds during this mission to study stellar mass and age distributions
in the galaxy.

   HUT observed two Seyfert 1 galaxies in the constellation Ursa
Major, the Big Dipper, last night NGC 3516 and NGC 4151.  These
galaxies, named for astrophysicist Carl Seyfert, are believed to be
powered by supermassive black holes at their cores.  Spectra of these
galaxies show broad emission lines, indicating clouds of gas moving at
thousands of miles per second, with the energy emitted covering a
broad range of frequencies.  HUT scientists are studying variations in
the amount of ultraviolet light in these galaxies to learn more about
the processes that affect their spectra.  The Ultraviolet Imaging
Telescope (UIT) also observed these galaxies to help astronomers
understand more about the transfer of energy between the nuclei and
surrounding regions.

   Mission Specialist John Grunsfeld pointed HUT at Venus, the planet
that most resembles Earth in size, density and composition.  Planetary
probes have shown Venus to have an atmosphere largely composed of
carbon dioxide, extremely high surface temperatures, constant high
surface winds, and atmospheric pressure 90 times that of the Earth's.
HUT scientists are searching the atmosphere of Venus for traces of
argon, neon and helium.  The presence of these gases in Venus'
atmosphere are important indicators concerning the formation of the
solar system.  WUPPE observed Venus to learn more about the
polarization properties of the atmosphere surrounding the planet and
will use these data to understand more about the polarization of light
from Jupiter during an upcoming Astro-2 observation.

   Grunsfeld also aligned HUT to observe two pulsating white dwarf
stars last night.  These two stars, one located in the constellation
Hercules and another in Ursa Minor, are believed to be in a transitory
stage in the evolution of extremely hot white dwarfs.  Astronomers
will use information from Astro-2 observations such as this one to
learn more about the evolution of stars.

   Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan moved the Instrument Pointing
System into position for Payload Specialist Sam Durrance to point UIT
at celestial objects.  The first object, galaxy NGC 4214, was imaged
by UIT to be included in an atlas of spiral galaxies being created by
Guest Investigator Dr.  Wendy Freedman.  When completed, this atlas
will be available at no cost to the astronomy community through the
on-line electronic facilities of the NASA/Infrared Processing and
Analysis Center Extragalactic Database.

   A deep survey field, known as UGC 5675, was also imaged by UIT last
night.  UIT Principal Investigator Theodore Stecher will also use
these images to learn more about the population of distant non-thermal
sources, search for high redshift blue galaxies, determine galactic
luminosities for faint magnitudes, identify distant clusters of
star-forming galaxies, and obtain counts of galaxies down to faint
ultraviolet magnitudes to complement similar data in visual and other
spectral regions.  UIT Guest Investigator Dr. Gregory Bothun will use
images of this dark area of the sky to determine if UIT can detect
very faint galaxies against a dark background and search for a bright
near-ultraviolet component that may be responsible for extremely blue
optical colors that have been observed in other galaxies with very low
star-formation rates.

   During the next 12-hours, the STS-67 crew will point the HUT, UIT
and WUPPE ultraviolet telescopes to the heavens to help scientists
study molecular hydrogen in interstellar medium, observe the planet
Venus, investigate interstellar shocks associated with supernova
remnants, observe starburst clusters and a variable star.

 To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on the
Internet World Wide Web: URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #24
6:00 p.m. CST (11/17:22 MET), March 13, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.

   Astro-2 observations today ranged from exotic star formations with
odd- sounding names to our familiar celestial neighbor, the Planet
Venus.  Astronomers collected additional information for a variety of
investigations which have been in progress throughout the mission.

   The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) team began their block of
observations with HH 2H, an object that could be a young star just
emerging from the "cocoon" of dust around it.  Called Herbig-Haro
objects, after the astronomers who discovered them in 1946, these
small bright concentrations of dust and gas are believed to be gas
jets thrown off during the final evolutionary stages of a protostar,
an object that has not collapsed sufficiently to begin the nuclear
reactions of a mature star.

   The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) led
an observation of another infant star, AB Aurigae.  Called a pre-main
sequence star, AB Aurigae is part of a class of young stars that are
still surrounded by the dust and gas clouds from which they are
formed.  These envelopes of matter around the objects are highly
active, as evidenced by variations of polarization seen in the optical
and infrared wavelengths.  WUPPE's ultraviolet observations should
help astronomers understand how dust is processed during star
formation and how material around young stars is distributed.

   All three telescopes viewed HUT's choice of Markarian 421, a
quasar- like active galaxy nucleus known as a BL Lacertae object.
When the first object of this type was identified, in the
constellation Lacerta, it was erroneously thought to be a variable
star.  In the 1960s, astronomers discovered that BL Lac objects are
not stars in our Milky Way, but the incredibly more powerful active
cores of distant galaxies.  Massive black holes are expected to be the
power sources for objects in this class.  While BL Lac objects produce
strong radiation in all observation wavelengths, their radiation is
primarily non-thermal -- created not by heat but by the glow of
electrons moving at almost the speed of light as they pass through a
magnetic field.  NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer satellite
discovered strong ultraviolet emission lines in Markarian 421,
suggesting it is an excellent subject for HUT's far-ultraviolet
studies.  Ground-based observations show a high level of polarization
in visible light, so WUPPE ultraviolet polarization measurements
should provide revealing insights into phenomena in the centers of
such galaxies.

   The observation of Venus this morning followed up on last night's
look at Earth's "twin" planet.  HUT studied the planet's forbidding
atmosphere -- 100 times denser than Earth's and as hot as 900 degrees
Fahrenheit (480 degrees Celsius) -- looking at upper atmosphere gases
that are excited by ultraviolet solar radiation.  Scientists will
compare Astro-2 observations of Venus and Mars to see how the two
planetary atmospheres, both primarily carbon dioxide but with
radically different densities, respond to ultraviolet radiation from
the sun.

   Two HUT observations today, NGC 6090 and 0833+652, were for Guest
Investigator Dr. Claus Leitherer's study of starburst galaxies.
Leitherer hopes to determine whether ionized hydrogen is being
released from the galaxies, which put out a great deal of ultraviolet
energy due to the rapid star formation taking place within them.
"This is another attempt to view the interstellar medium," explained
HUT Principal Investigator Dr. Arthur Davidsen.  "We feel certain
there must be material left over from the formation of the universe,
just like there would be flour left on a cutting board after a loaf of
bread is kneaded.  But we have never been very successful in observing
this material."  Davidsen said the material might be highly ionized,
possibly by quasars or by starburst galaxies, making it difficult to
observe.  "If we can find out how much ionized hydrogen starburst
galaxies are putting out, we can get a good idea how much they emit
into interstellar space," Davidsen said.  "We may find that these
galaxies are an important source of ionized interstellar hydrogen, or
it may not be there at all.  Either way, we've helped answer an
intriguing question."

   HUT also led the Astro telescopes in an examination of the
planetary nebula nucleus K1-16.  Astronomers hope to better understand
the chemistry of the nebula and the evolutionary state of its central
star.  The nebula is unstable, going through periodic pulsations in
magnitude and color.  While the star's evolutionary status is not
clear, astronomers believe it could be on its way to becoming a white
dwarf.

   The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) team made more images of
star groupings to study the life cycles of stars.  They photographed
Abell 1795 and the Hercules Cluster, both clusters of galaxies where
star formation is taking place.  The Hercules Cluster is made up
primarily of spiral galaxies, whose pinwheel arms are stellar
nurseries.  Abell 1795 is a galaxy cluster which emits large
quantities of X-rays.  Gas in the cluster is cooling rapidly and could
be producing stars at the rate of 300 solar masses per year.  UIT's
observation of globular star cluster NGC 6752 focused on the opposite
end of stellar evolution.  The cluster is tight grouping of relatively
old stars whose low metal content indicates formation early in the
life of the Milky Way galaxy.  UIT also imaged elliptical galaxy M32.

   Late this afternoon, the WUPPE team devoted two observations to
planned calibrations of their instrument's sensitivity, with HD 161056
serving as a polarized standard and Beta Ursa Majoris as an
unpolarized standard.  Tonight's Astro observations again will span
the universe, from another distant quasar to the mission's second
observation of Earth's moon.  Other scheduled observations include
individual stars, galaxies, a planetary nebula and a galaxy cluster.

To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on the
Internet World Wide Web: URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #26
6:00 p.m. CST (12/17:22 MET), March 14, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.

   The majority of today's Astro-2 observations were of objects in the
Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.  These irregular galaxies, in the
southern hemisphere sky, are satellites of our Milky Way galaxy.  They
are gravitationally bound with some 20 others that make up our "local
group" of galaxies.

   The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope made the mission's first
photographs of Supernova 1987A.  The February 1987 stellar explosion,
in the Large Magellanic Cloud, was the first supernova explosion
visible to the naked eye since 1604 A.D., six years before the first
telescope was used to view the heavens.  The supernova reached its
brightest visible radiation level in May 1987, but scientists believe
an intense flash of ultraviolet light occurred almost at the moment of
the explosion, when the outer layers of the supernova lifted away.
UIT is attempting to photograph the light "echo," or reflection of
this maximum ultraviolet output, as it bounces off sheets of dust in
space.  UIT's Astro 1 photographs of Supernova 1987A indicate the echo
is extremely faint, so UIT is making a number of long exposures to
capture it.  "If we see the same phenomenon in several exposures, we
can not only add them together to improve the quality of our
observations; the repeated evidence assures us that what we are seeing
is real," said UIT team member Dr. Steve Maran.

   An observation of N 79 looked at young star formation in a Large
Magellanic Cloud star grouping called an "OB Association."  Unlike
other types of star clusters, there is insufficient gravitational
attraction to hold these groups of very young, hot O and B stars
together.  Though formed at the same time, the stars are rapidly
drifting apart.

   Other targets in UIT's eight-observation time block included two
Large Magellanic Cloud open star clusters which are surrounded by
emission rings.  N 51, in the southern constellation Dorado, is an
unusual nebula which appears to be a bubble blown in the interstellar
gas by wind from a very massive hot star.  The imaging telescope made
limited observations of the area during Astro-1, and the science team
hopes to collect more extensive data on this flight.  N 70, in the
southern constellation Hydra, is a region of space where the gas has
been ionized.  The UIT team will compare images made at two different
wavelengths to help determine what caused the ionization.

   UIT also photographed the bar structure of the Large Magellanic
Cloud, an elongated linear accumulation of stars in the galaxy, as
part of its study of young star populations.  Dr. John Raymond, of the
Smithsonian Institution's Astrophysical Observatory, added to his
study of interstellar shock waves with an observation of LMC 519, an
old supernova remnant also in the Large Magellanic Cloud.  Dr. Nolan
R. Walborn got another observation of a hot O star in the open star
cluster NGC 346, for his study of the strong stellar winds produced by
these stars in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.

   This evening, Dr. Geoffrey Clayton began another block of
observations for his study of interstellar dust in the Large
Magellanic Cloud.  Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment
(WUPPE) Principal Investigator Dr.  Arthur Code is researching the
sizes and chemical compositions of dust grains in the Milky Way's
interstellar medium.  Clayton is extending the sample to the nearby
Large Magellanic Cloud, where interstellar chemical abundances are
known to be quite different from those in our own galaxy.

   All three telescopes participated in the third Astro-2 observation
of 47 Tucanae, a metal-rich globular cluster in the southern Milky
Way.  The Astro telescopes also viewed Centaurus A, the nearest active
galaxy to our own and one of the most prominent radio sources in the
southern hemisphere.

   Earlier today, the WUPPE science team selected NGC 3132, a young
planetary nebula in the constellation Vela, for observation.  A
planetary nebula is a bright cloud ejected by the star at its center,
believed to be a phase in the life of certain lower mass stars when
they expel large amounts of material in to space.  Sometimes called
the "Eight-Burst" Nebula because its elliptical disk looks like
several oval rings superimposed and tilted at different angles, NGC
3132 is one the few planetary nebulae known to have a binary star
system at its center.  WUPPE scientists will examine the light
scattered by dust in the cloud to study the nature of the dust, which
will eventually return to the interstellar medium.  Ultraviolet
Imaging Telescope images will test ionization and temperature levels
within the nebula.  The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) took
spectra of the cloud itself and of its binary star.

   The WUPPE team led the Astro telescopes back to the Nova Aquilae
1995.  This was the mission's third look at the nova whose outburst,
or sudden increase in brightness, was first observed some three weeks
before the STS-67 launch.  Successive polarization measurements during
Astro-2 will allow WUPPE scientists to look for changes in the shape
of the gas disk and for possible clumps ejected during the outburst.

   The HUT team chose the quasar 1211+143 as one of their targets
today.  Team members will study the shape of the quasar's ultraviolet
spectrum to learn more about the intrinsic qualities of the quasar
itself.  First discovered in the 1960s, quasars are the most luminous
and energetic, as well as the most distant, objects in the universe.
They are believed to be powered by supermassive black holes at their
centers.  HUT observations will test the current understanding of
accretion disks, or disks of matter being whirlpooled and sucked into
the black hole.

   WUPPE's Large Magellanic Cloud dust study will continue into this
evening.  UIT has chosen two galaxies and an open star cluster for
imaging tonight.  The HUT team will lead observations of two quasars,
several individual stars, a planetary nebula, an elliptical galaxy,
and another supernova remnant.

   To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on the
Internet World Wide Web: URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

I'm not sure enough about this to state positively, but isn't 
SN1006 that they keep refering to in reality more commonly
known as the Crab Nebula?  or M1?  Maybe they're trying to 
focus on the central star remenants?

PeterT

RE: <<< Note 923.63 by 19472::petert "rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty" >>>

I would have said that the star which created the Crab Nebula went nova in 1053
or there-abouts.
						-- Tom

I seem to remember that this SN happened during the Battle of Hastings (and was
taken as a bad omen William the Conquerer's forces, which may have contributed
to their defeat).  That would place it in 1066.

But whatever...

Burns

RE<<< Note 923.65 by skylab.zko.dec.com::FISHER "Indecision is the key to flexibility!" >>>

>I seem to remember that this SN happened during the Battle of Hastings (and was
>taken as a bad omen William the Conquerer's forces, which may have contributed
>to their defeat).  That would place it in 1066.

  William the Conquerer won the battle of Hastings.

  George

Ah, tell you what.  I'll go look it up in Burnham's tonight and that should
ease my mind.

PeterT

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 STATUS REPORT #26

Wednesday, March 15, 1995, 8 a.m. CST

Endeavour's astronomical observatory continues its around-the-clock
operations as the orbiter nears the end of its eighth voyage in space.

Mission Specialist Tammy Jernigan, a native of Chattanooga, talked
with a Tennessee radio station along with crew mate Wendy Lawrence.
The discussion centered around the astronomical observations being
conducted throughout the mission as well as homeowner- type questions
posed to Jernigan, making her third flight aboard the Shuttle.

Along with Sam Durrance, the three astronauts have been choreographing
orbiter maneuvers with instrument pointing to precisely aim the ASTRO
observator at the desired celestial targets throughout the universe.

The remaining four crew members -- Steve Oswald, Bill Gregory, John
Grunsfeld and Ron Parise -- will wake up just after 10 a.m. central
time today and will take over control of Endeavour and its payloads
about noon.

Before Lawrence turns in, she will join Oswald and Gregory in the
routine, pre-entry checkout of Endeavour's flight control system,
which includes verifying the health of the moveable surfaces on the
wings and tail used during the atmospheric reentry portion of landing.
One of the Endeavour's three hydraulic systems is required during
portions of the checkout scheduled to begin about 12:30 this
afternoon.

Endeavour's mission continues to progress trouble-free as the vehicle
circles the earth every 91 minutes at an average altitude of 185
nautical miles.

The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
weekends throughout the mission.  NASA's MSFC Newsroom is open from
6 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m.-2 p.m. weekends.  MSFC's Code-A-Phone 
is updated twice daily and can be reached by calling 205-544-6397.

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #27

Wednesday, March 15, 1995, 4:30 p.m. CST

Endeavour's astronauts successfully tested their ship's flight control
systems today in preparation for Friday's scheduled landing at the
Kennedy Space Center.

Commander Steve Oswald, Pilot Bill Gregory and Mission Specialist
Wendy Lawrence fired up one of Endeavour's auxiliary power units to
test the Shuttle's aerosurfaces as part of the routine prelanding
tests to insure that Endeavour is ship-shape for its high-speed return
to Earth.

After a short break in data-gathering to accommodate the flight
control system test, Mission Specialist John Grunsfeld and Payload
Specialist Ron Parise resumed ultraviolet studies of distant celestial
objects with the trio of ASTRO-2 telescopes housed in the Shuttle's
cargo bay.

Oswald, Gregory, Grunsfeld and Parise also answered questions from the
Cable News Network as their marathon mission nears its end. The
astronauts will begin to deactivate and stow equipment Thursday in
preparation for their planned homecoming Friday.


NASA managers will meet Thursday morning to discuss entry and landing
issues and to review predicted weather conditions in Florida and
California for landing day.  Endeavour presently is scheduled to touch
down at 1:54 PM CST Friday wrapping up a Shuttle record 15 and
one-half day astronomy mission.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, shuttle veteran Norm Thagard,
along with crewmates Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennadiy Strekalov, will
dock with Russia's orbiting Mir space station. Their Soyuz capsule is
scheduled to arrive at Mir about 1:45 a.m.  central time Thursday,
with hatch opening between the two spacecraft set for 3:14 a.m.
Thagard and his cosmonaut crewmates, designated the Mir 18 crew, will
then begin their three-month stay on the space station. The three
cosmonauts currently on board Mir will remain on the space station for
about one week before returning to Earth.

The regular JSC Newsroom operating hours are 8 a.m. -5 p.m. weekdays,
but the newsroom will reopen at midnight to support Thursday morning's
scheduled Mir docking and hatch opening activities. The newsroom will
be open from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. weekends throughout the mission.  NASA's
MSFC Newsroom is open from 6 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m.-2
p.m. weekends. MSFC's Code-A-Phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #28
6:00 p.m. CST (13/17:22 MET), March 15, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.

   With about a day and a half remaining for Astro-2 observations,
lead scientists for each of the telescope teams vied for superlatives
to describe the mission in a midday air-to-ground conversation with
the STS-67 crew.

   Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) Principal Investigator
Dr. Arthur Davidsen said, "For all of us, the Astro-2 mission has been
like a dream come true.  We've observed more than 100 different HUT
targets and had more than 300 pointings with two days to go, and we're
absolutely thrilled."

   "We're really pleased down here," Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope
(UIT) Principal Investigator Ted Stecher told the crew, quipping, "We
never thought we'd run out of film, but now we're a little worried
about it."  He said all the team's top priorities have been achieved,
with just a few secondary programs left to complete, and they have
photographed essentially all the objects they had originally planned
to view.

   Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE)
Principal Investigator Dr. Arthur Code agreed.  "We're delighted with
mission results, too.  Reality has exceeded our fondest dreams, and
we've obtained about three times as much data as we did on Astro-1 --
a whole treasure chest of goodies."

   Observations continued to stack up at a steady pace throughout the
day, interrupted only by a planned hour of orbiter flight control
system tests in preparation for Friday's landing.

   All three telescopes took ultraviolet data during a UIT-led
observation of M 87, a spectacular elliptical galaxy in the
constellation Virgo.  "We can get information for several of our
favorite scientific programs by viewing M 87," said UIT team member
Dr. Susan Neff.  The galaxy is thought to have grown to its large size
by swallowing up smaller neighbors in the Virgo galaxy cluster.  A
1994 Hubble Space Telescope observation of M 87 revealed a
spiral-shaped disk of gas swirling at an immense speed in the galaxy's
center, providing the first almost irrefutable evidence that
supermassive black holes do exist in the universe.  A fantastic jet of
material, moving at a large fraction of the speed of light, emanates
from the area of the black hole.  UIT's wide field of view allows it
to photograph some 12 to 14 Virgo cluster galaxies in the same frame.
UIT team members are studying the stellar populations in M 87 and also
the jet.  HUT concentrated on the gas around the black hole to find
out how it is stimulated by radiation from heated matter falling
toward hole.  WUPPE made ultraviolet polarization measurements to
determine the structure of the swirling gas.

   The Astro-2 telescopes made the mission's first observation of
Omega Centauri , a giant globular star cluster which is easily visible
in the southern hemisphere to the naked eye. Its brightness is due
both to its relative closeness to Earth (17,000 light years) and its
immense size (150 light years across and containing more than one
million stars).  UIT's single five-minute exposure of this star
cluster during Astro-1 was the first ever made in ultraviolet
wavelengths.  Even that brief snapshot showed an unusual number of
stars that did not conform to the theoretical pattern of stellar
evolution.  Also, since all stars in a globular cluster are formed at
the same time, it should follow that they would have the same chemical
composition, but this is not the case in Omega Centauri.  The longer
Astro-2 observation of this globular cluster, along with those of
other clusters throughout the mission, should give scientists more
clues for solving this stellar mystery.

   The telescopes also observed M 92, a much smaller globular cluster,
and UIT made photographs of the galaxies NGC 1512 and NGC 1365 for Dr.
Wendy Freedman's spiral galaxy atlas.

   The majority of WUPPE-led observations today centered on the team's
study of interstellar dust in our Milky Way and in its neighboring
galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud.  A lower abundance of heavy
elements in the Large Magellanic Cloud causes both the stars and dust
to be different from those in our galaxy, and that dissimilarity is
most apparent in the ultraviolet.  Comparison of the two galaxies
could help astronomers define the extent of differences and perhaps
determine the reasons for them.

   The WUPPE team also viewed the star 51 Ophiuchi, for their study of
luminous spinning "Be" stars, whose outer layers show evidence of
being pulled off by their stellar winds.  Dr. Regina Schulte-Ladbeck
used WUPPE to observe HD 51285, a star between the Earth and one of
the Wolf-Rayet stars she has been studying.  She will use results to
subtract polarization in the interstellar medium from her Wolf-Rayet
measurements.

   The HUT team revisited their prime calibration target, the white
dwarf star HZ 43, for end-of-mission instrument verification.  They
also viewed another portion of the Vela supernova remnant and made the
mission's first observation of LSV 46-21, a white dwarf at the center
of a planetary nebula.  The active galaxy NGC 4151 was observed for
the sixth time during this flight.

   Another study of Jupiter, along with its moons Io and Callisto,
begins this evening's observations.  Tonight's viewing choices are
fairly evenly divided among the three ultraviolet telescope teams,
with targets again ranging from tiny white dwarf stars to surveys of
large sky areas.

To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on the
Internet World Wide Web: URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #29
6:00 a.m. CST (14/5:22 MET), March 16, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.


   All three ultraviolet telescopes were pointed at Jupiter and one of
its 16 moons, Io, as the second Astro Observatory (Astro-2) mission
continued aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour last night.

   The science team for the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT)
recorded spectrographic data about ultraviolet emissions around Io.
HUT scientists are especially interested in how Jupiter's
magnetosphere and torus, a donut-shaped field of ionized particles
that follows Io's path around Jupiter, are affected by the reddish
particles erupting from Io's volcanoes.

   Astronomers with the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter
Experiment (WUPPE) team observed Jupiter to learn more about the
polarization properties of its atmosphere.  The Ultraviolet Imaging
Telescope (UIT) scientists used one of their two wide-field cameras to
produce ultraviolet images of Jupiter to determine the planet's
reflectiveness and cloud structure and provide ultraviolet images of
the entire Jovian system.

   HUT continued the search for helium in the intergalactic regions of
space last night, using a quasar (Q 1542+54) as background lighting.
HUT scientists are looking for evidence of helium left over from the
primordial fireball that many believe marked the birth of the
universe.  Helium reveals itself as a telltale absorption line at a
certain extreme ultraviolet wavelength.  Principal Investigator Arthur
Davidsen will use HUT's spectrograph to search for the characteristic
signature created when helium atoms absorb light from this quasar.

   HUT was also used to observe Markarian 66, a starburst galaxy, for
Guest Investigator Dr. Claus Leitherer of the Space Telescope Science
Institute in Baltimore, Md.  Leitherer is using HUT's capacity to
detect short ultraviolet wavelengths to study the ionized radiation
that escapes from bright, relatively nearby starburst galaxies.  HUT
observations of the far ultraviolet radiation from these galaxies will
be used to determine whether they could play an important role in
ionizing the intergalactic medium.

   UIT imaged NGC 6318, a relatively old cluster of stars.  This
cluster of stars has a low metal content, indicating it was formed
early in the life of the Milky Way galaxy.  Since most hot stars emit
radiation in the ultraviolet and cooler stars emit in the lower
ultraviolet range, the UIT instrument is especially suited for making
images of these types of stars.  Astronomers will analyze these
Astro-2 images, looking for hot accreting binaries, hot white dwarfs,
planetary nebula, and objects associated with X-ray sources.

   As UIT made images of a faint dwarf galaxy known as IC 2574, HUT
made spectrographic recordings and WUPPE observed the orientation of
the ultraviolet energy being emitted from the galaxy.  Because this
type of galaxy emits such a faint trace of ultraviolet radiation, very
little is known about the formation of young stars there.  Astro-2
scientists are using their sensitive telescopes to explore this
little-known region of the universe.

   UIT was also pointed at the Baades Window, an unusually clear line
of sight towards the center of our Milky Way galaxy.  Because of the
relative lack of obscuring dust in this field of view, the UIT can
image stars and star clusters in the central bulge of the galaxy,
where stars are thought to be both ancient and rich in metals.

   WUPPE and HUT observed a reflection nebula near the star Eta
Carinae.  Reflection nebulae are colorful objects.  Starlight is
scattered by dust grains, producing brilliant illumination in the
cloud.  WUPPE scientists will analyze their data to learn more about
the chemical composition, size, distribution and shape of the dust
grains.  HUT astronomers observed the nucleus and surrounding region
of this nebula, searching for effects of the shock wave that was
created when the nova exploded.

   WUPPE and HUT also jointly observed AO Cassiopeia, a close binary
star system (two stars so close that they not only orbit each other
but actually influence each other's evolution).  Astronomers have
observed that the more evolved a star is (in a close binary system),
the less massive the star becomes because it donates material to the
younger star.  WUPPE scientists are studying the effects of the
dust-scattering processes in the distorted atmospheres of close
binaries.  These data will provide new information about the evolution
of these stars and help astronomers learn more about the mass transfer
of material between close binaries.

   The WUPPE telescope also gathered data about the orientation of
dust grains between the stars last night.  To help scientists study
this polarization of interstellar medium, WUPPE was pointed at three
stars, which served as background lights to illuminate the
interstellar dust.  As astronomers learn more about the polarization
of interstellar medium, they can make allowances for this intervening
matter when studying other celestial objects.

   During the next 12 hours, the Astro-2 ultraviolet telescopes will
be pointed at the moon, two Seyfert galaxies, and single and multiple
star systems to study electron scattering.  These astronomical
instruments will also observe interstellar medium and young star
populations in a galaxy.


To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on the
Internet World Wide Web: URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #28

Thursday, March 16, 1995, 8 a..m. CST

With one space mission nearing completion, another is just beginning
as Endeavour prepares to come home and the Mir Space Station welcomes
a fresh crew.

A day and a half remains in the STS-67 mission with final celestial
observations underway and the Space Shuttle being readied for a return
home to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday afternoon.
Three landing opportunities are available: 1:53, 3:30 and 5:07 p.m.
The deorbit burn for each landing attempt would occur about one hour
prior to landing.  Flight controllers will assess the weather forecast
for Friday throughout the day in preparation for the entry team's
arrival in Mission Control early tomorrow morning.

Astronomical observations using the ASTRO-2 payload will continue
throughout Friday morning aboard Endeavour prior to the transition
from payload operations to the landing timeline, four hours before the
deorbit ignition of the Shuttle's orbital maneuvering system engines.

At 1:45 Central time this morning, a small Soyuz spacecraft docked
with the Russian Mir Space Station and two three-person crews became
one as the Mir crew welcomed their replacements. An hour and a half
later at about 3:30 a.m. central time Cosmonaut- researcher Norman
Thagard and his two Mir-18 crewmates -- Commander Vladimir Dezhurov
and Flight Engineer Gennadiy Strekalov -- were welcomed aboard Mir
with the traditional Russian gift of salt and bread. For the next
several days, the Mir 18 crew will be briefed on the space station
systems by the Mir 17 crew -- Alexander Viktorenko, Elena Kondakova
and Valery Polyakov. The Mir 17 crew will return to Earth on March 22,
as Thagard, Dezhurov and Strekalov begin a three month stay on board
Mir, returning to Earth aboard Atlantis at the conclusion of the next
Shuttle mission in June.

A planned Shuttle-to-Mir conversation between STS-67 Commander Steve
Oswald and Thagard is planned for 11 a.m. central time today.  The two
flew as crewmates on a Shuttle flight in 1992.

The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m.-1 p.m. weekends throughout the mission. NASA's MSFC Newsroom is
open from 6 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m.-2
p.m. weekends. MSFC's Code-A-Phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report # 29

Thursday, March 16,  5:00 PM CST

Endeavour's astronauts wrapped up final astronomical observations
today, setting their sights on home as their record-setting research
mission nears its conclusion.

With the trio of ASTRO-2 telescopes in their ship's cargo bay having
obtained a wealth of ultraviolet celestial data, Endeavour's
astronauts prepared to deactivate the stargazing instruments.

Commander Steve Oswald spoke with U.S. Astronaut Norm Thagard aboard
the Mir Space Station in a radio hookup between the two
spacecraft. Former shuttle crewmates, Oswald and Thagard exchanged
congratulations on their respective flights and discussed the symbolic
importance of Thagard's venture as the first American to visit the
Russian space outpost. Thagard and his Russian crewmates arrived at
Mir early this morning to begin three months of scientific and medical
research.

The Red team astronauts -- Oswald, Pilot Bill Gregory, Mission
Specialist John Grunsfeld and Payload Specialist Ron Parise --
conducted final data takes with the ASTRO telescopes and reviewed
entry messages prepared by the flight controllers who will guide
Endeavour to its scheduled landing tomorrow afternoon at the Kennedy
Space Center.    Three landing opportunities to Kennedy Space Center
are available on Friday. The first landing opportunity would bring
Endeavour home at 1:53 PM CST, followed by backup opportunities at
3:30 PM and 5:07 PM.

The current weather forecast for KSC calls for broken and scattered
clouds and a chance for rain and thundershowers within 30 miles of the
landing site. NASA managers have elected not to call up landing
support at the backup landing site at Edwards Air Force Base in
California for Friday and would keep the astronauts aloft for an extra
day in the event weather prevents a landing in Florida.

Before beginning their deorbit preparations tomorrow, the astronauts
will test-fire Endeavour's reaction control system jets to ensure that
the Shuttle is in good shape for its return to Earth.

Tonight, at 6:33 PM CST, Endeavour will eclipse the existing endurance
record for a Shuttle, breaking the mark of 14 days, 17 hours and 55
minutes in orbit. That record was set by Columbia last year, on the
STS-65 mission.

Endeavour continues to perform flawlessly, orbiting the Earth every 91
minutes at an altitude of 185 nautical miles.

The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m. - 1 p.m.  weekends, throughout the mission.  NASA's MSFC Newsroom
is open from 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m. - 2
p.m. weekends.  MSFC's code-a-phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.

MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report # 30

Friday, March 17,  8:00 a.m. CST

Endeavour and its seven-member crew is scheduled to return home this
afternoon on one of three landing opportunities available at Florida's
Kennedy Space Center.  Poor weather conditions forecast for landing,
however, may prevent today's scheduled landing.

The landing opportunities are 1:53 p.m. on orbit 246; 3:30 p.m. on
orbit 247 and 5:07 p.m. on orbit 248.  All times are central. In each
case, the deorbit ignition of the Shuttle's orbital maneuvering system
engines would occur about an hour prior to landing.

In anticipation of the return home, crew members overnight deactivated
payloads and stowed cabin equipment used throughout the mission.  With
no technical issues being worked, the entry team arrived on console in
the Mission Control Center about 7 a.m. to oversee the final hours of
Endeavour's already record-setting mission.

The weather forecast calls for scattered to broken clouds at various
levels in the area of the landing site with a chance of rain and
thunderstorms associated with a storm front that has moved into the
Florida peninsula.

Earlier this morning aboard the Russian Space Station Mir, five
cosmonauts and an astronaut talked to Russian Prime Minister Victor
Chernomyrdin and discussed activities aboard the orbiting laboratory.

Astronaut Norman Thagard, a member of the Mir-18 crew which arrived at
the space station yesterday, compared the Soyuz launch with that of a
Shuttle liftoff and commented on the spaciousness of his home for the
next three months.  The six crew members will participate in a news
conference at 9 a.m. central time Monday, March 20.

The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m. - 1 p.m.  weekends, throughout the mission.  NASA's MSFC Newsroom
is open from 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m. - 2
p.m. weekends.  MSFC's code-a-phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.

Astro-2 Public Affairs Status Report #31
11:00 p.m. CST (14/22:22 MET), March 16, 1995
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.

   "This has been an outstanding mission," said Astro-2 Mission
Scientist Dr.  Charles Meegan as the 16-day astronomy mission drew to
a close.  "We had planned to explore 23 different science programs and
we 'nailed' them all."  Science activities for the second Astro
observatory (Astro-2) ended shortly after 11 p.m. CST, with all three
telescopes taking ultraviolet observations of the full moon.

   "From my point of view, this mission has been nothing short of
absolutely spectacular," said Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT)
Principal Investigator Dr. Arthur Davidsen.  "It's been 17 years since
we began thinking about doing far ultraviolet spectroscopy with HUT as
a complement to what we can do with the Hubble Space Telescope and
this is a dream come true.  "  The telescope, developed at The Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., conducted spectroscopy in far
ultraviolet wavelengths to reveal what elements are present in an
object, as well as identify physical processes taking place there.

   More than 200 separate successful observations were made of over
100 celestial objects selected by HUT investigators.  All of these
observations made up 21 separate investigations, 14 carried out by
permanent members of the HUT team and 7 by guest investigators who
joined the HUT team for Astro-2.

   One of Davidsen's primary objectives for HUT during Astro-2 was to
use two high redshift quasars as background lighting to search for
helium in the space between galaxies.  Detecting helium in
intergalactic space and determining how much of it is there could
provide answers to the questions about the "Big Bang" that is believed
to have marked the beginning of our universe.  "I can tell you that we
succeeded in getting data needed to answer these questions.  It's too
early to say what the answer might be, but it will be very exciting to
see these data," explained Davidsen.

   In other Astro-2 observations, HUT made simultaneous ultraviolet
measurements with the Hubble Space Telescope of Jupiter's aurora, or
northern lights, and its effect on the planet.  HUT scientists also
studied the atmosphere of Jupiter's moon Io and the torus
(donut-shaped cloud) of ionized gas it produces around Jupiter.  HUT
astronomers say observations such as this will lead to a greater
understanding of the processes taking place on that planet.

   Ultraviolet emissions from the atmospheres of Venus and Mars were
also targets of observations for HUT during this mission.  Detailed
analysis may reveal the presence of several interesting elements,
including argon, neon and helium.

   HUT also observed less distant quasars and Seyfert galaxies to
study details of their ultraviolet radiation.  The studies could help
confirm the theory that these objects contain supermassive black
holes, which swallow matter from their surroundings.  The observations
could shed light on the dynamics of the gas clouds in the nuclei, or
cores, of such active galaxies.

   HUT observed other celestial objects during the course of this
mission.  The telescope was used to study extragalactic objects,
numerous cataclysmic variable stars, symbiotic star systems, hot white
dwarf stars and several starburst galaxies to help astronomers learn
more about the life of stars, from "birth" to the violent explosion
marking the "death" of a star.

   Another of Astro-2's instruments, the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope
(UIT), which was developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, Md., took wide-field, electronically intensified images of
objects in ultraviolet light on film.  UIT astronomer Dr. Steve Maran
explained, "Our data say we got good exposures on all the science
programs and high-priority targets.  Now, we'll just have to wait
until we get our film developed."  Maran was referring to the many
images UIT made, including about 2 dozen large spiral galaxies to be
used in an ultraviolet atlas of such objects.  The atlas will be a
fundamental resource for astronomers for many years to come.

   UIT made for the first time ultraviolet images of the entire moon.
These images will be studied to investigate the ultraviolet
reflectivity of the moon, and to correlate changes in reflectivity
with known changes in lunar surface features.  This information can
then be used to compare with the reflectivity of other planetary
satellites in our solar system to understand more about their surfaces
and the physical processes that have been responsible for their
evolution.

   Scientists for UIT will spend the next several years analyzing
their data from Astro-2.  Some of these data include a census of rare,
hot stars (with temperatures over 15,000 degrees Kelvin) in about a
dozen star clusters.  These hot stars, very much more evolved than the
sun, have shed their outer layers so that scientists can see almost
down to their nuclear-burning cores.

   UIT imaged more than 20 elliptical galaxies during this mission.
The photographs will allow astronomers to map the still-mysterious
"ultraviolet excess" - an excessive amount of ultraviolet radiation
coming from galaxies containing large quantities of old stars, which
normally have low ultraviolet emissions.  This astronomical oddity was
first noticed by WUPPE Principal Investigator Dr. Arthur Code over 25
years ago.  In order to better understand this excess emission, UIT
scientists will combine their images of clusters and galaxies with
spectra from HUT and data from the Hubble Space Telescope.

   Observations of some of the faintest galaxies in the universe were
photographed by UIT during Astro-2.  Astronomers took advantage of the
very dark sky background, using UIT to photograph very low surface
brightness galaxies.  "This could be the UIT observation with most
potential for surprises," said UIT team member Dr. Steve Maran.
"Ground-based observations show an unexpected blue glow.  Our
ultraviolet images may tell us where it's coming from."

   UIT also made images during over 140 co-observations of objects
selected by HUT and WUPPE.  In one series of co-observations, UIT got
about 13,000 seconds of ultraviolet imaging of the quasar field
1700+64.  UIT scientists will examine these images, searching for
unusual ultraviolet-emitting objects over a vast range of distances in
the universe.

   "We obtained a treasure chest of data for all our major programs,
"said Dr.  Arthur Code, principal investigator for WUPPE.
Polarization measurements reveal the orientation of light as it is
influenced by astronomical media.  "Until this mission, the only set
of ultraviolet spectropolarimetry in existence was that obtained
during Astro-1 and a few objects obtained by the Hubble Space
Telescope.  Astro-2 observations greatly expand the data base and
present a number of tantalizing results," Code said.  He summarized
the theme of WUPPE observations as "making stars" - how material is
put back into the interstellar medium and builds new stars.

   WUPPE sampled some 20 different views for its study of the
interstellar medium, using hot stars located behind interstellar dust
clouds to measure the properties of the grains.  In addition to
examining the dust clouds in the Milky Way, WUPPE studied the
interstellar medium in a nearby galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud.

   The instrument also got excellent observations of four Wolf- Rayet
stars, an evolutionary stage of massive stars in which strong stellar
winds eject shells of material into the interstellar medium.

   WUPPE's study of rapidly rotating "Be" stars, which yield matter
back into space in the form of an equatorial disk and polar wind,
covered a large range of spectral temperatures and rotation rates
within the Be class.  Results will be used to test the validity of new
theories about the nature of these stars, developed after surprising
results from Astro-1.

   The Wisconsin instrument gathered more information on interstellar
dust with their observation of a reflection nebula, binaries, massive
supergiant stars, and active galaxies.  The WUPPE team benefited from
"unexpected serendipity," Code said, when observations of three
recently exploding novae gave the team a unique opportunity to follow
the early history of these stellar explosions.  "The results imply
that the shell of gas ejected from the nova is asymmetrical from very
near the beginning of the outburst," Code reported.

   A major factor in the mission's success was the smooth operation of
the Instrument Pointing System (IPS), which pointed the three
telescopes at their targets, and the Image Motion Compensation System
(IMCS), which sensed small disturbances and compensated for them in
two of the telescopes.  "The IPS and IMCS for the first time achieved
operational capacity," Astro-2 Mission Manager Robert Jayroe said.
"In my estimation, the IMCS and IPS teams have done everything but
make the hardware stand up and do a tap dance."

   Users of more than 200,000 computers from 59 countries logged on to
the Astro-2 "home page," tracking the mission's progress and leaving
messages for the STS-67 crew members.  Astro-2 was the first Space
Shuttle mission to have it's own home page on the Internet World Wide
Web.  More than 2.4 million requests for information were recorded
over the last 15 days, to the delight of the home page administrators
at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

To follow the mission in progress, visit Astro-2's home page on the
Internet World Wide Web: URL "http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov"

> I would have said that the star which created the Crab Nebula went nova in 1053
> or there-abouts.

Give that man a prize... well almost.  Accounts from Chinese writings pin the
date of the Crab Nebula SuperNova being first noted on July 5th, 1054.  Actual
time of nova, of course, some centuries before that.  I believe the account 
then went on to say that no European data recorded the SN, but it's possible
that those accounts may have been destroyed over the years, or lost.
They contrast this to "SN 1006" which was recorded by monks (and the Chinese
as well).  Glad to clear that one up!

PeterT

  The 'bad omen' which occurred before the battle of Hastings in 1066 was
the appearance of a comet, as documented by the Bayeux tapestry. Think it
was Halley's comet.

Ken

re .78:  Aha.  Close...

And yes, Bill won.  It was the Saxons who got scared out of their collective
armor suits or whatever.  Sorry about that.

Burns

    Did anyone else watch NASA Select on Thursday night when they
    were taking their last data from the telescope when it was targeted
    on the moon. Apparently when they got finished with the data
    collection, the astronauts changed the icon that was in the monitor
    view sent back down to Astro-center. They put up this icon of a
    small "flying saucer" super-imposed on the luner surface. At the time 
    the NASA correspondent at the Astro data center was talking. When the 
    icon of the flying saucer appeared on the monitors there was this 
    outburst of laughter from some of the investigators, and the loop then 
    crackled with dialog relating to...."we have something on our screen, 
    do you see it on the ground?" "Yes we have it in view too, and it's 
    an excellent view."
    Shortly after this er... observation of a "UFO" on the moon, the telescope
    was shut down and rotated back into the shuttle bay.
    
    Bob

[Downloaded from ftp.pao.hq.nasa.gov
 
			     PAYLOAD STATUS REPORT
				 April 6, 1995
 
George H. Diller
Kennedy Space Center
407/867-2468
 
 
STS-67/ASTRO-2
 
     The Astro-2 payload was removed from the payload bay of Endeavour last
night and is being transported to the Operations and Checkout Building today
to begin telescope deintegration.  The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope will be
returned to the Goddard Space Flight Center for troubleshooting.