Ed Campion
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                    
      
August 25, 1994
(Phone:  202/358-1778)

Kyle Herring
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone:  713/483-5111)

RELEASE:  94-142

CHANG-DIAZ NAMED PAYLOAD COMMANDER FOR TSS REFLIGHT

     Veteran astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz has been named payload
commander for Space Shuttle mission STS-76 -- the second flight
of the Tethered Satellite System (TSS) scheduled for early 1996.

     As payload commander on the 13-day mission, Chang-Diaz, 44,
will begin the necessary long-lead preparations required for TSS,
which was first flown in July/August 1992 as part of the STS-46
mission.  The Italian-built satellite is designed to orbit at the
end of a 13-mile-long tether to test techniques for managing
spacecraft at great distances and to study the electrodynamic 
effects of moving a conductive tether through the Earth's
magnetic field.

     STS-76 will be Chang-Diaz's fifth Shuttle mission.  He
served as mission specialist on STS 61-C in January 1986, STS-34
in October 1989, STS-46, and STS-60 in February 1994.

     He received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical
engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1973 and a
doctorate in applied plasma physics from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in 1977.  He was born in San 
Jose, Costa Rica.

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