Don Savage
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                            
December 11, 1991
(Phone:  202/453-8400)


RELEASE:  91-202  REVISED

NASA ASTRONAUTS RECEIVE INTERNATIONAL AERONAUTICS AWARD


     Members of three Space Shuttle crews were honored today with 
the "Vladimir M. Komarov Diploma" by the National Aeronautic 
Association for their "outstanding achievements in the field of 
exploration of outer space."  The award, from the Council of the 
Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), was presented during 
a ceremony at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

     Representing the members of the Shuttle crews at the ceremony 
were the January 1990 STS-32 Shuttle mission Commander Daniel C. 
Brandenstein and Mission Specialist Bonnie J. Dunbar; members of 
the STS-35 mission crew in December 1990, Commander Vance D. 
Brand, Mission specialists Jeffrey A. Hoffman, John M. Lounge and 
Robert A. Parker and payload specialist Ronald A. Parise; and 
members of the crew of the October 1990 STS-41 shuttle mission 
commander Richard N. Richards and mission specialists Bruce E. 
Melnick and Thomas D. Akers.

     During the STS-32 mission, the crew retrieved the Long 
Duration Exposure Facility, which was deployed in 1984 and 
designed to hold many experiments testing long-duration exposure 
to the environment of space.  The STS-35 mission carried the 
ASTRO-1 astrophysics observatory in the payload bay, which 
gathered data on a variety of celestial objects during the 9-day 
mission.  The joint NASA/European Space Agency's Ulysses 
spacecraft was deployed by the STS-41 crew on its mission to study 
the sun from above and below the solar poles.

     The Komarov Diploma was established in 1970 by the FAI in 
honor of Soviet Cosmonaut Vladimir M. Komarov who lost his life 
while serving on the flight of Soyuz 1 in 1967.  It is given for 
outstanding achievements in the field of exploration of outer 
space.

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