Edward Campion
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                    January 2, 1989
(Phone:  202/453-8536)                                 3 P.M. EST

Jeff Carr
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone:  713/483-5111)

RELEASE:  90-1

ASTRONAUT CREW NAMED TO INTERNATIONAL MICROGRAVITY MISSION


     USAF Col. Ronald J. Grabe has been named to command STS-42, 
a 9-day mission aboard Space Shuttle Columbia in December 1990.  
Stephen S. Oswald will be the pilot, and William F. Readdy will 
fly as a mission specialist.


     Columbia will carry the International Microgravity 
Laboratory in which five NASA astronauts and two payload 
specialists will conduct a variety of studies and experiments in 
the fields of materials processing and life sciences.


     Mary L. Cleave, Ph.D., and Norman E. Thagard, Ph.D., were 
assigned to the flight as mission specialists in June 1989.  Two 
payload specialists will be named in the near future.


     Grabe, commanding his first Shuttle mission, flew previously 
as pilot on STS-51J in October 1985 and on STS-30 in May 1989.  
He was born June 13, 1945 in New York.


     Oswald will make his first space flight.  Born June 30, 
1951, in Seattle, he considers Bellingham, Wash., his hometown.


     Readdy, also making his first flight, was born Jan. 24, 
1952, in Quonset Point, R.I., but considers McLean, Va., his 
hometown.


     Cleave, mission specialist on STS-61B in November 1985 and 
on STS-30 in May 1989, was born Feb. 5, 1947, in Southampton, 
N.Y.


     Thagard, mission specialist on STS-7 in June 1983, STS-51B 
in April  1985 and on STS-30 in May 1989, was born July 3, 1943, 
in Marianna, Fla., but considers Jacksonville, Fla., his 
hometown.
                             - end-

TO:  MDS/PRA Group
     1615 L Street, N.W. - Suite 100
     Washington, D.C. 20036

DATE & TIME:  TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1990.  3:00 P.M.

ORDERED BY:  Edward Campion
NASA Headquarters/LMD
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20546             PHONE:  202/453-8400

PROJECT TITLE:  Release No:  90-1

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