PREFLIGHT BRIEFINGS FOR STS-95 MISSION SET FOR OCTOBER 15



October 7, 1998



Jennifer McCarter
Headquarters, Washington DC
(Phone: 202/358-1639)



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

<h4>Release: N98-64</h4> <h3>Preflight Briefings For STS-95 Mission 
Set for October 15</h3> 

A series of background briefings on the upcoming STS-95 mission, which 
will feature the return of John Glenn to space and more than 80 
scientific experiments investigating mysteries that range from the 
inner universe of the human body to studies of our own Sun, will be 
held on Thursday, Oct. 15, at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC), 
Houston, TX, beginning at 8 a.m. CDT.



The major objective of the mission is the deployment of the SPARTAN 
science spacecraft for 48 hours of free flight to document solar 
activity affecting Earth's environment. In addition, dozens of 
experiments housed in the Spacehab module in Discovery's cargo bay 
and in the Shuttle's middeck will investigate microgravity's effect 
on materials and the impact of weightlessness on the aging process.



The briefings will begin with an overview of the STS-95 mission at 8 
a.m. CDT, followed by a Mission Science briefing at 9:30 a.m. A 
local-only briefing for reporters in attendance at JSC will be held 
at 10:45 a.m. to discuss the logistics involved in covering the 
STS-95 mission. That briefing will not be seen on NASA Television. 
Following a break for the daily NASA Video File at 11 a.m., a panel 
discussion, "Beyond the Frontier: The Past and Future of U.S. Human 
Space Flight," will begin at 11:30 a.m.



The STS-95 astronauts will hold their preflight press conference 
beginning at 1 p.m. Because of the limited time available for each 
briefing and the large number of media representatives expected to 
attend at JSC, only questions from reporters there and at NASA's 
Kennedy Space Center, FL, and Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, will 
be entertained. All of the briefings, however, with the exception of 
the mission logistics briefing, will be broadcast live on NASA 
Television.



NASA TV is available through the GE-2 satellite, Transponder 9C, 
located at 85 degrees West longitude, vertical polarization, with a 
frequency of 3880 Mhz, and audio at 6.8 MHz.



Media planning to attend the briefings at JSC must notify the JSC 
newsroom by close of business on Oct. 13 to insure proper badging. 
JSC's newsroom can be reached by calling 281/483-5111. The fax number 
is 281/483-2000.



STS-95 PREFLIGHT BRIEFINGS Oct. 15, 1998 (All times shown are CDT)



8 a.m. MISSION OVERVIEW Phil Engelauf, STS-95 Lead Flight Director 
Craig Tooley, SPARTAN Mission Manager, NASA Goddard Space Flight 
Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD Rud Moe, Payload Coordinator, GSFC



9:30 a.m. SCIENCE OVERVIEW Dr. David Williams, Director, Space &amp; 
Life Sciences, JSC Dr. David Liskowsky, STS-95 Life Sciences Program 
Scientist Dr. Richard Fisher, SPARTAN Project Scientist, GSFC Joel 
Kearns, Manager, NASA's Microgravity Research Program, Marshall Space 
Flight Center, Huntsville, AL



10:45 a.m. STS-95 MEDIA LOGISTICS BRIEFING (Local Only for reporters 
at JSC; not broadcast on NASA TV) Brian Welch, Director of Media 
Services, NASA Headquarters Rob Navias, Deputy Director, Public 
Affairs, JSC



11 a.m. NASA TV VIDEO FILE



11:30 a.m. PANEL DISCUSSION: "BEYOND THE FRONTIER: THE PAST AND FUTURE 
OF U.S. HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT" Jim Slade, ABC science correspondent 
Scott Carpenter, Project Mercury astronaut William E. Burrows, 
author, "This New Ocean" Andrew Chaikin, author, "A Man on the Moon"



1 p.m. STS-95 CREW PRESS CONFERENCE Curt Brown, Commander; Steve 
Lindsey, Pilot; Steve Robinson, Mission Specialist 1; Scott 
Parazynski, Mission Specialist 2; Pedro Duque, Mission Specialist 3 
(ESA); Chiaki Mukai, Payload Specialist 1 (NASDA); John Glenn, 
Payload Specialist 2



IMPORTANT NOTE: During the STS-95 mission, there will be two 
opportunities for reporters to ask questions of Discovery's crew 
members while in orbit. Based on an on-time launch on Oct. 29, the 
first opportunity would occur on Sunday, Nov. 1, at 4:15 p.m. CST 
during a 40-minute news conference involving Commander Curt Brown and 
John Glenn only. Reporters must be at JSC to ask questions. The 
second opportunity will occur.

	
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