Don Savage
Headquarters, Washington, DC            March 21, 1995
(Phone:  202/358-1727)

Jim Sahli
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
(Phone:  301/286-8955)

RELEASE:  95-33

NASA'S RESTRUCTURED FUSE PROGRAM COSTS LESS, FLIES 
EARLIER

       NASA has accepted a proposal from Johns Hopkins 
University, Baltimore, for restructuring the agency's Far 
Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) mission from $254 
million to $100 million in addition to launching the 
spacecraft two years earlier than originally planned.

       The change is part of an overall restructuring of the 
Explorer program directed by Dr. Wesley T. Huntress, Jr., 
NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Science, 
Washington, DC.  The FUSE mission changes from a Delta-class 
into a smaller class mission with launch scheduled for 
November 1998.

       "The FUSE principal investigator Dr. Moos and his 
team are to be congratulated for their accomplishment," said 
Huntress.  "This very difficult effort, which the team 
succeeded in doing in a very short period of time, involved 
bringing down the size, complexity and cost of the mission 
while preserving its essential ultraviolet science.  

       "Although the process was full of difficult and 
painful choices and increased the level of risk to the 
mission, the space physics and astrophysics communities 
ultimately will benefit because we will be able to start the 
new Medium Explorer (MIDEX) program and give them more 
frequent flight opportunities," Huntress said.

       The goal of the Explorer program restructuring was to 
enable funding for more frequent MIDEX missions to be 
launched on a new medium-lite expendable launch vehicle, 
with development cost not to exceed $70 million (not 
including launch, mission operations and data analysis).  

       "Under this restructuring, Dr. Moos will be 
accountable to NASA for mission success, taking full 
responsibility for all aspects of the mission including 
instrument and spacecraft definition, development, 
integration and testing," said David Mengers, FUSE Mission 
Manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD.

                             -more-
                               -2-

       "Also included are the ground system, science 
operations, mission operations and data analysis.  The 
principal investigator has maximum flexibility to conduct 
their investigations," said Mengers.

       The FUSE mission was designed to study the origin and 
evolution of the lightest elements -- hydrogen and deuterium 
--  created shortly after the Big Bang, and the forces and 
processes involved in the evolution of galaxies, stars and 
planetary systems.  The far ultraviolet region of the 
spectrum can only be observed outside the Earth's 
atmosphere.

       Still under Phase B definition studies, formal NASA 
acceptance of the program for development occurs this Fall 
following reviews and acceptance by NASA and the project's 
international partners, Canada and France.

       The Explorer program is managed by the Explorer 
Project Office at the Goddard Space Flight Center for the 
Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.

                                 - end -


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