Mark Hess
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                          
August 27, 1992
(Phone:  202/453-4164)

Barbara Schwartz
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone:  713/483-5111)


RELEASE:  92-136

CREW ASSIGNMENTS ANNOUNCED FOR STS-58 AND STS-61

   John E. Blaha (Col., USAF) will command the Spacelab Life 
Sciences-2 Space Shuttle mission STS-58 scheduled for launch 
next summer.  This mission will continue life sciences research 
on adaptation to microgravity in preparation for Space Station 
Freedom and future planetary exploration.  Blaha is a veteran of 
three previous Space Shuttle missions, as Pilot on STS-29 in 
March 1989 and STS-33 in November 1989 and as Commander on 
STS-43 in August 1991.

   Pilot on STS-58 is Richard A. Searfoss (Maj., USAF), a member 
of the 1990 astronaut class.  This is Searfoss' first flight.  
William S. McArthur, Jr., (Lt. Col., USA), also from the 
astronaut class of 1990 and assigned to his first flight, will 
be a mission specialist.

   Previously assigned crew members are Payload Commander M. 
Rhea Seddon, M.D., assigned in October 1991, and mission 
specialists Shannon Lucid, Ph.D., and David Wolf, M.D., both 
assigned in December 1991.

   Three mission specialists with spacewalking experience are 
named to join Payload Commander Story Musgrave, M.D., on STS-61 
Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission scheduled for late 
1993.  

   They are Tom Akers (Lt. Col., USAF) who flew on STS-41 in 
October 1990 and STS-49 in May 1992; Jeffrey A. Hoffman, Ph.D., 
who flew on STS-51-D in April 1985, STS-35 in December 1990 and 
STS-46 in August 1992; and Kathryn C. Thornton, Ph.D., who flew 
on STS-33 in November 1989 and STS-49 in May 1992.
                            - end -