Paula Cleggett-Haleim

Headquarters, Washington,D.C. February 2, 1990

(Phone: 202/453-1547)

Carter Dove
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301/286-5566)

RELEASE: 90-19

GAMMA-RAY OBSERVATORY SET FOR SHIPMENT TO FLORIDA LAUNCH SITE

The Gamma-Ray Observatory (GRO), one of NASA'S Four Great

Observatories, will be shipped Feb. 6 by builder TRW from its
Redondo Beach, Calif., facility to Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station (CCAFS), Fla., in preparation for Space Shuttle launch
from Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Fla., in November 1990.

Following the Shuttle launch, GRO will be deployed into a

near-circular orbit 279 miles from Earth, where it will gather
gamma-ray data generated at the beginning of time -- perhaps 15
billion years ago -- in a comprehensive scientific effort to
learn more about the origin and fate of the universe.

After shipment by a flatbed trailer-equipped truck from

Redondo Beach to Los Angeles International Airport, the NASA
satellite will be airlifted to CCAFS for further testing and
eventual integration at KSC with Space Shuttle Atlantis.

The GRO will be the heaviest spacecraft ever deployed from

the Space Shuttle, weighing nearly 17 tons. It is among the
first spacecraft designed exclusively by computer techniques.
Its four scientific instruments are the largest, most advanced
and most sensitive of their type ever flown in space. They are
designed to study gamma rays emitted by some of the most exotic
and explosive objects in the universe. After an initial 2-year
mission, the GRO may continue to function for 8 years or longer.

Completing the complement of NASA's Four Great Observatories

are: the Hubble Space Telescope, scheduled for Space Shuttle
Discovery launch from KSC April 18; the Advanced X-Ray
Astrophysics Facility; and the Space Infrared Telescope Facility,
the latter two planned for launch in the last half of the decade.

- end -

TO: MDS/PRA Group

1615 L Street, N.W. - Suite 100
Washington, D.C. 20036
DATE & TIME: FEBRUARY 2, 1990

ORDERED BY: Edward Campion

NASA Headquarters/LMD
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20546 PHONE: 202/453-8400

PROJECT TITLE: Release No: 90-19

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MAIL DATE: FEBRUARY 5, 1990

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