Charles Redmond Headquarters, Washington, D.C. January 19, 1990 (Phone: 202/453-1549) Debra Rahn Headquarters, Washington, D.C. (Phone: 202/453-8455) RELEASE: 90-9 NASA ANNOUNCES PAYLOAD SPECIALISTS FOR SPACELAB IML-l MISSION NASA today announced, after consultation with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the European Space Agency (ESA), that Dr. Ulf D. Merbold, ESA, and Dr. Roberta L. Bondar, CSA, have been designated as the prime flight payload specialists for the first International Microgravity Laboratory mission (IML-l) aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia currently scheduled for launch in December l990. Dr. Kenneth E. Money, CSA, and Dr. Roger K. Crouch, NASA Headquarters, have been selected as the backup payload specialists. Dr. Money and Dr. Crouch will be principle communicators with the laboratory during the mission from the Payload Operations Control Center at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. They also will train for the payload mission such that they could substitute for Dr. Bondar and Dr. Merbold should they be unable to fly the mission. These Payload Specialist designations were made based on recommendations of the IML-l Investigators Working Group. IML-l is the first of a series of microgravity investigations using the Spacelab module. An international team consisting of over 200 investigators from more than a dozen countries will focus on materials and life sciences, two disciplines needing crew participation and access to reduced gravity. IML-l will use the Spacelab long module and is a dedicated microgravity mission. The investigations will use four life sciences experiment facilities, designed for multiple experiments, including biorack, gravitational plant physiology facility, microgravity vestibular investigations and space physiology experiments. - more - - 2 - Six materials experiment facilities also will be used, including fluid experiment system, vapor crystal growth system, mercury-iodide crystal growth system, organic crystal growth facility, the critical point facility and protein crystal growth facilities. These multi-experiment facilities have been built by the U.S., European, Canadian and Japanese investigators and organizations. In addition to the experiments which require these multiuser facilities, two other life science and three other materials science experiments with unique hardware will fly aboard IML-l. Columbia will fly in a l65 nautical mile-high, 28.5 degree orbit. Mission duration is planned for 9 days. A l0th day will be flown if flight resources allow. The orbiter will fly in a "gravity gradient" attitude (tail toward Earth) thereby producing the least gravitational disturbances on the Spacelab during the mission flight duration. The crew will consist of the two payload specialists and two payload-oriented mission specialists, Dr. Mary L. Cleave and Dr. Norman E. Thagard; Mission Commander, Colonel Ronald J. Grabe, USAF; Pilot, Stephan S. Oswald; and a 3rd general mission specialist, William F. Readdy. The IML series is intended as an ongoing international research program in materials and life sciences in a microgravity environment. The program is managed by NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications' Flight Systems Division, Washington, D.C. Wayne Richie is the IML-l Program Manager and Dr. Ronald White, Life Sciences Division, is the Program Scientist. The IML-l Mission Manager is Robert McBrayer and the Mission Scientist is Dr. Robert Snyder, both from the Marshall Space Flight Center. - end - TO: MDS/PRA Group 1615 L Street, N.W. - Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20036 DATE & TIME: FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1990 ORDERED BY: Edward Campion NASA Headquarters/LMD 400 Maryland Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20546 PHONE: 202/453-8400 PROJECT TITLE: Release No: 90-9 PRINT ORDER: 2194 PRINTING: Camera Ready, lst pg on NASA logo, other pages plain ENCLOSE & MAIL: Release of 2 pages MAIL DATE: MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 1990 EXTRA COPIES: Deliver specified quanities to locations below: 50 copies 275 copies 75 copies -------------------- ------------------- ----------------- National Press Club NASA Mailroom NASA Newsroom 13th floor newsrack NASA Headquarters NASA Headquarters National Press Building 600 Independ. Ave, SW 400 Maryland Ave, SW 529 14th Street, NW Room A16 Room 6043 Washington, DC 20045 Washington, DC 20546 Washington, DC 20546 MEDIA SUMMARY OPTION: Name-by-name media summary - 1 copy CLIENT COMPUTER LISTS: Run the following: LS-CA, LS-FA, LS-GA*27E, LS-JA*27:T, LS-JA*27:E, LS-KA TYPE OF RELEASE & PIX: General news X 21:T-23:T PUT ADDRESSING ON: Self-mailer MEDIA SELECTION: END OF ORDER FORM END OF TRANSMISSION