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In This Issue:

� HUBBLE REPAIR MISSION LAUNCHED AT LAST 

� TERRA LAUNCHED TO TRACK EARTH'S HEALTH

� NASA's 1999 ACCOMPLISHMENTS

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HUBBLE REPAIR MISSION LAUNCHED AT LAST WINDOW IN 1999  

"We appreciate your patience in hanging in there with us," launch director 
Dave King told the 
Shuttle crew just before lift off. "We hope you have a great mission to 
Hubble, and we’ll see you back here before the next millennium." It was 
NASA’s last chance this year to send the shuttle and seven astronauts to 
Hubble’s rescue, but it finally got off. Concerns about unknown Y2K 
Software bugs set a strict time limit on the shuttle last launch window. 
The mission had been scheduled for October, but was postponed first by 
shuttle wiring damage, then a contaminated engine and a dented fuel pipe. 

The shuttle is scheduled to rendezvous with and capture the Hubble Space 
Telescope with its robot arm on Tuesday, December 21. Three spacewalks 
will be carried out on successive days starting Wednesday to perform the 
repairs and upgrades to Hubble.

On the first spacewalk Wednesday, astronauts Steve Smith and John Grunsfeld 
will replace the gyroscopes on Hubble, whose failure put the telescope into 
a safe mode last month. On Thursday, Michael Foale and Claude Nicollier 
will replace a computer and guidance sensor on Hubble. Smith and Grunsfeld 
will perform the final spacewalk Friday to repair some insulation and 
replace a data recorder.

To mitigate any Y2K risk, McMonagle said the shuttle will attempt to land 
on the 27th at either the Kennedy Space Center or Edwards. Normally, if 
weather prohibits a landing at KSC, the landing will be delayed rather 
than landing at Edwards and ferrying the shuttle back to Florida, at 
considerable expense.

TERRA LAUNCHED TO TRACK EARTH'S HEALTH 
                         
The $1.3 billion TERRA satellite will enable scientists to conduct remote 
sensing of Earth. Terra is the flagship of the Earth Observing System, a 
series of spacecraft that NASA plans to put in orbit to measure how Earth's 
oceans, air, land and people function together. Some of the things Terra 
will monitor include changes in land cover, climate change, ozone and 
natural disasters such as wildfires, droughts and floods. The satellite 
will sweep the Earth every 100 minutes in a near polar orbit. The data 
collected will be shared by hundreds of scientists around the world. 

The five instruments on Terra: http://terra.nasa.gov/

  ASTER: Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer. 
  This instrument will take high resolution infrared images of the Earth. 
  ASTER is a cooperative effort between NASA and Japan's Ministry of 
  International Trade and Industry. 

  CERES: Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System. This device consists 
  of two broadband scanning radiometers that will measure the Earth's 
  radiation balance and the role clouds play in maintaining that balance. 

  MISR: Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer. This is a new type of 
  instrument that will let scientists view the Earth with cameras pointed 
  at nine different angles. 

  MODIS: Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer. This instrument 
  will view the entire surface of the Earth every one to two days, making 
  observations of land and ocean surface temperature, land surface cover, 
  clouds, aerosols, water vapor and fires. 

  MOPITT -- Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere. An instrument 
  designed to study the lower atmosphere and observe how it interacts with 
  the land and ocean. MOPITT is provided by Canada and will be managed by 
  the Canadian Space Agency. 

NASA'S 1999 ACHIEVEMENTS  http://www.nasa.gov/newsinfo/top10_99.html
 
  HUBBLE ILLUMINATES UNIVERSE'S RATE OF EXPANSION

  Hubble scientists found a value for how fast the universe is expanding after 
  eight years of painstaking measurement. The rate of expansion, called the 
  Hubble Constant, is essential to determining the age and size of the universe. 
  Measuring Hubble's constant was one of the three major goals for the 
  telescope when it was launched in 1990. 
  http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/1999/19/index.html

  ASTRONOMERS FIND EVIDENCE OF FIRST PLANET ORBITING A PAIR OF STARS

  Astronomers funded by NASA witnessed for the first time a distant 
  planet passing in front of its star, providing direct and independent 
  confirmation of the existence of extrasolar planets that to date has 
  been inferred only from the wobble of their star. 
  http://bustard.phys.nd.edu/MPS/

  MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR PROVIDES FIRST GLOBAL 3-D MAP OF MARS

  An impact basin deep enough to swallow Mount Everest and surprising slopes in 
  Valles Marineris highlight a global map of Mars that will influence scientific 
  understanding of the red planet for years. Generated by the Mars Orbiter 
  Laser Altimeter (MOLA), the high-resolution map represents 27 million 
  measurements gathered in 1998 and 1999. 
  http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/tharsis/mola.html

  GAMMA RAY BURST IMAGED FOR FIRST TIME

  Astronomers racing the clock managed to take the first-ever-optical images 
  of one of the most powerful explosions in the Universe -- a gamma ray 
  burst -- just as it was occurring on Jan. 23, 1999. Such bursts occur 
  with no warning and typically last just for a few seconds.
  http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast27jan99_1.htm

  CHANDRA & FIRST FEMALE SHUTTLE COMMANDER

  Orbiter Columbia's 26th flight (July 22-27) was led by Air Force Col. 
  Eileen Collins, the first woman to command a Shuttle mission. STS-93 
  successfully carried to orbit the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the third 
  of NASA's "Great Observatories," joining the Hubble Space Telescope and 
  the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. 
  http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/collins.html

  FIRST DOCKING WITH INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

  STS-96 was the four-million-mile flight of Discovery, from May 27 to 
  June 6, on which the crew performed the first Shuttle docking to the 
  International Space Station and delivered more than 3600 pounds of 
  supplies -- ranging from food and clothes to laptop computers -- for 
  the first crew to live on the station next year. 
  http://http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/index-m.html

  CHANDRA, THIRD GREAT OBSERVATORY, BEGINS WORK

  After barely two months in space, NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory in 
  September took a stunning image of the Crab Nebula, the most intensively 
  studied object beyond our solar system, and revealed something never 
  seen before: a brilliant ring around the nebula's heart.
  http://chandra.nasa.gov/

  X-34 ROCKET PLANE TAKES TO THE SKY FOR SAFETY CHECKS

  Locked to the belly of its newly modified L-1011 carrier aircraft, a 
  test version of NASA's X-34 rocket plane made its first flight in 
  June as part of a certification process. The prototype of the robotic 
  spacecraft will test new technologies and methods of operations needed 
  to develop low-cost reusable space vehicles. 
  http://stp.msfc.nasa.gov/pathfinder/pathindex.html

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