Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                                    
June 20, 1994
(Phone:  202/358-1979)

David Drachlis
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
(Phone:  205/544-0034)

RELEASE:  94-98

NASA SELECTS PAYLOAD SPECIALISTS FOR SPACELAB MISSION

 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration today announced 
the selection of Dr. Fred W. Leslie of NASA's Marshall Space 
Flight Center, (MSFC) Huntsville, Ala., and Dr. Albert Sacco, Jr., 
of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Mass., to fly as 
payload specialists on the second United States Microgravity 
Laboratory (USML-2) mission.  USML-2 is a 16-day Spacelab mission 
scheduled for flight aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in Sept. 
1995.

 Dr. Leslie, 43, earned a Ph.D in atmospheric science with a minor 
in fluid dynamics from the University of Oklahoma.  He is chief of 
the MSFC Earth System Processes and Modeling branch.  He resides 
in Huntsville, Ala.

 Dr. Sacco, of Holden, Mass., earned a Ph.D in chemical 
engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He is 
a professor and head of the chemical engineering department at 
Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  The 44-year-old Sacco was an 
alternate payload specialist for the USML-1 mission.  

 NASA has designated Dr. R. Glynn Holt of NASA's Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and Dr. David H. Matthiesen of Case 
Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, to serve as 
alternates to Leslie and Sacco.

 During the mission, Leslie and Sacco will conduct more than 30 
scientific and technological investigations in materials, fluids 
and biological processes in the orbiting laboratory.  They will be 
supported by Holt and Matthiesen, who will serve as key control 
team members in the Spacelab Mission Operations Control facility 
at MSFC.

                              -end-