Don Savage

Headquarters, Washington, DC March 21, 1995

(Phone: 202/358-1727)

Jim Sahli
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
(Phone: 301/286-8955)

RELEASE: 95-33

NASA'S RESTRUCTURED FUSE PROGRAM COSTS LESS, FLIES

EARLIER

NASA has accepted a proposal from Johns Hopkins

University, Baltimore, for restructuring the agency's Far
Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) mission from $254
million to $100 million in addition to launching the
spacecraft two years earlier than originally planned.

The change is part of an overall restructuring of the

Explorer program directed by Dr. Wesley T. Huntress, Jr.,
NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Science,
Washington, DC. The FUSE mission changes from a Delta-class
into a smaller class mission with launch scheduled for
November 1998.

"The FUSE principal investigator Dr. Moos and his

team are to be congratulated for their accomplishment," said
Huntress. "This very difficult effort, which the team
succeeded in doing in a very short period of time, involved
bringing down the size, complexity and cost of the mission
while preserving its essential ultraviolet science.

"Although the process was full of difficult and

painful choices and increased the level of risk to the
mission, the space physics and astrophysics communities
ultimately will benefit because we will be able to start the
new Medium Explorer (MIDEX) program and give them more
frequent flight opportunities," Huntress said.

The goal of the Explorer program restructuring was to

enable funding for more frequent MIDEX missions to be
launched on a new medium-lite expendable launch vehicle,
with development cost not to exceed $70 million (not
including launch, mission operations and data analysis).

"Under this restructuring, Dr. Moos will be

accountable to NASA for mission success, taking full
responsibility for all aspects of the mission including
instrument and spacecraft definition, development,
integration and testing," said David Mengers, FUSE Mission
Manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD.

-more-
-2-

"Also included are the ground system, science

operations, mission operations and data analysis. The
principal investigator has maximum flexibility to conduct
their investigations," said Mengers.

The FUSE mission was designed to study the origin and

evolution of the lightest elements -- hydrogen and deuterium
-- created shortly after the Big Bang, and the forces and
processes involved in the evolution of galaxies, stars and
planetary systems. The far ultraviolet region of the
spectrum can only be observed outside the Earth's
atmosphere.

Still under Phase B definition studies, formal NASA

acceptance of the program for development occurs this Fall
following reviews and acceptance by NASA and the project's
international partners, Canada and France.

The Explorer program is managed by the Explorer

Project Office at the Goddard Space Flight Center for the
Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.

- end -

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