Don Savage

Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

September 26, 1991
(Phone: 202/453-8400)

Debra J. Rahn
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
(Phone: 202/453-8455)

RELEASE: 91-154

PAYLOAD SPECIALISTS FOR TETHERED SATELLITE MISSION NAMED

Dr. Franco Malerba has been named Prime Payload Specialist

and Dr. Umberto Guidoni has been named Backup Payload Specialist
for the Tethered Satellite System (TSS-1) mission scheduled for
flight aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis next Summer. The
Tethered Satellite System is a cooperative mission between NASA
and Italy's space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI). As
Prime Payload Specialist, Dr. Malerba will be the first Italian
citizen to fly in space.

Malerba was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1946, and obtained his

doctorate in physics at the University of Genoa in 1974. He
joined ASI in 1989 after preliminary selection as an Italian
candidate for TSS-1 Payload Specialist. During the mission he
will work with the mission specialists in operating the Tethered
Satellite System aboard the Shuttle orbiter and carry out other
TSS science investigations during the 7-day mission.

Guidoni was born in Rome in 1954 and obtained his doctorate

in physics at the University of Rome in 1978. Since 1984 he has
been involved with the TSS program as a co-investigator of one of
the Italian experiments on the satellite, and in 1989 he joined
ASI after preliminary selection as a candidate for TSS-1 Payload
Specialist. As backup, he will be ready to participate in the
TSS-1 flight as Prime Payload Specialist if Malerba is unable to
fulfill his duties. During the mission he will serve in a key
science team role at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center,
Huntsville, Ala..

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The Tethered Satellite System consists of a satellite

attached to the Shuttle orbiter by a conducting cable, or tether,
which is wound on a motorized reel assembly in the Shuttle's
payload bay. The ASI is developing the satellite and NASA is
developing the deployer mechanism. Both are developing the
scientific complement. During the mission, the satellite will be
reeled out on the tether to 12 miles above the Shuttle's orbit to
verify the system design, demonstrate the capability to safely
deploy, control and retrieve the satellite and to conduct science
investigations. Twelve scientific investigations have been
selected for TSS-1, including studies of the electrodynamic
processes taking place in the Earth's upper atmosphere and of the
dynamic forces in a tethered satellite system.

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