ENDEAVOUR CREW RETURNS TO ELLINGTON FIELD



December 16, 1998



Eileen Hawley
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(281/483-5111)

<h4>Release: J98-58</h4> <h3>Endeavour Crew Returns to Ellington 
Field</h3> 

The six-member crew of Endeavour will return home to Ellington Field, 
Hangar 276, about 2:30 p.m. Thursday, following their successful 
12-day mission to begin construction of the International Space 
Station.



The public is invited to join JSC employees and their families in 
welcoming the astronauts back to Earth. Commander Bob Cabana, Pilot 
Rick Sturckow, and Mission Specialists Nancy Currie, Jerry Ross, Jim 
Newman and Sergei Krikalev will be greeted by Johnson Space Center 
Director, George W. S. Abbey, as they return home to Houston.



During twelve days in orbit, the six astronauts successfully docked 
the first two elements of the International Space Station and 
conducted three spacewalks, connecting cables to provide power and 
communications capability to the Station. The astronauts spent 
slightly more than 24 hours working in the Unity and Zarya modules of 
the space station preparing it to receive its first resident crew, in 
January 2000.



The crew return and welcome ceremony will be carried live on NASA 
Television. NASA Television is available on GE-2, transponder 9C, 
located at 85 degrees West longitude, with vertical polarization. 
Frequency is 3880.0 megahertz, with audio on 6.8 megahertz.



Media planning to attend the crew return ceremony should notify the 
JSC Newsroom no later than 9 a.m. Thursday to arrange for 
accreditation and badging.

	
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