Debra J. Rahn
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                                     
July 16, 1993
(Phone:  202/358-1639)
 
 
RELEASE:  93-129
 
NASA AND GERMAN SPACE AGENCY SIGN SPACE AGREEMENT

   NASA and the German Space Agency (DARA) signed an agreement 
last night to cooperate on four space missions using the 
retrievable German Shuttle Pallet Satellite (ASTRO-SPAS).

   Daniel S. Goldin, NASA Administrator, and Professor Wolfgang 
Wild, DARA Director General, signed the memorandum of 
understanding in Washington, D.C.

   The ASTRO-SPAS program involves combined U.S. and German 
science payloads to be flown on a newly developed German-designed 
science satelllite.

   The first phase of the ASTRO-SPAS program consists of two 
missions, one involving far and extreme ultraviolet astronomy and 
a second, to take infrared and far infrared radiation measurements 
in the Earth's atmosphere.

   The first planned ASTRO-SPAS mission is the Orbiting and 
Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrograph 
(ORFEUS-SPAS-1).  In this mission, the German ORFEUS instrument 
will be flown with one German and two U.S. spectrographs.  

   ORFEUS-SPAS-1 is currently scheduled for a Space Shuttle launch 
on July 17, 1993.  The objective of ORFEUS-SPAS-01 is to launch a 
deployable/retrievable astronomical platform and obtain 
ultraviolet spectra for both astrophysically interesting sources 
and the intervening interstellar medium.

   The second planned ASTRO-SPAS mission is the first flight of 
the Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the 
Atmosphere (CRISTA-SPAS-1).  It is co-manifested with NASA's 
Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS-3) for 
a planned Space Shuttle launch in September 1994.

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   The objective of CRISTA-SPAS-1 is to explore the variability of 
the atmosphere and to provide measurements to complement the 
ATLAS-3 science objectives.  The CRISTA instruments and the Middle 
Atmosphere High Resolution Spectrograph will provide trace gas 
measurements at locations in time and space not available 
elsewhere, including an enhanced set of correlative measurements 
in support of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite and other 
Earth-orbiting atmosphere experiments.

   In the second phase of the ASTRO-SPAS program, NASA and DARA 
plan to refly ORFEUS-SPAS in 1995 and CRISTA-SPAS in 1996 on the 
Space Shuttle.   

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