NASA Daily News Summary
For Release:  Mar. 14, 2000
Media Advisory m00-49


SUMMARY

NEWS RELEASES:

NASA RENAMES NEAR SPACECRAFT
FOR PLANETARY SCIENCE PIONEER GENE SHOEMAKER

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VIDEO:

VIDEO FILE:
ITEM 1- MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR TRACKS MARTIAN DUST DEVILS - JPL
ITEM 2- SEAWIFS TRACKS MIDWEST SNOW STORM - GSFC (replay)
ITEM 3- KC-135 ANIMATION - JSC (replay)

LIVE TELEVISION EVENTS THIS WEEK



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NEWS RELEASES

NASA RENAMES NEAR SPACECRAFT
FOR PLANETARY SCIENCE PIONEER GENE SHOEMAKER

     The NASA satellite conducting the first-ever close-up study
of an asteroid will be renamed to honor Dr. Eugene M. Shoemaker, a
legendary geologist who influenced decades of research on the role
of asteroids and comets in shaping the planets.  The Near Earth
Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft, currently orbiting asteroid
433 Eros more than 145 million miles from Earth, will now be known
as NEAR Shoemaker.  Shoemaker died in a 1997 car accident in the
Australian outback while on an annual study of asteroid impact
craters. With his wife and research partner, Carolyn, Shoemaker
was part of the leading comet discovery team of the past century,
perhaps most famous for finding the comet (Shoemaker-Levy 9) that
broke up and collided with Jupiter in 1994.

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Donald Savage
(Phone 202/358-1547).
Contact at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, MD:  Mike
Buckley (Phone 240 228-7536).

For full text, see:
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-038.txt



-----------------------------


If NASA issues any news releases later today, we will e-mail
summaries and Internet URLs to this list.

Index of 2000 NASA News Releases:
http://www.nasa.gov/releases/2000/index.html

Index of 1999 NASA News Releases:
http://www.nasa.gov/releases/1999/index.html


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VIDEO

VIDEO FILE:

ITEM 1- MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR TRACKS MARTIAN DUST DEVILS - JPL
ITEM 2- SEAWIFS TRACKS MIDWEST SNOW STORM - GSFC (replay)
ITEM 3- KC-135 ANIMATION - JSC (replay)

For more detail, see
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/tv-advisory/nasa-tv.txt



-----------------------------


LIVE TELEVISION EVENTS THIS WEEK:

March 14, Tuesday
- *4:30 - 7:00 pm - KC-135 Student Campaign Live News
   Interviews - JSC

March 16, Thursday
- 6:00 - 10:00 am - International Space Station Repair Kit Live
  News Interviews - MSFC
- 1:00 - 4:00 pm - FY2001 Budget Posture Hearing before the House
  Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on VA-HUD-Independent
  Agencies (recorded 3/15/00) - HQ
- 5:00 - 7:00 pm - KC-135 Student Campaign Live News Interviews
  - JSC

March 17, Friday
- 9:00 am - Noon - FY2001 Human Space Flight Budget Hearing before
  the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics (replay from
  3/16/00) - HQ
- 2:00 - 7:00 pm - Johnson Space Center Regional First Robotics
  Competition - Astro Arena, Houston, TX (direct uplink to NTV)

March 18, Saturday
- 8:00 am - 3:00 pm - Langley Research Center Eastern Regional
  First Robotics Competition - Virginia Commonwealth University,
  Richmond, VA (direct uplink to NTV)
- 4:00 - 8:00 pm - Ames Research Center BOT-BALL Regional
  Competition - ARC


For the entire schedule, see
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/breaking.html



-----------------------------


Unless otherwise noted, ALL TIMES ARE EASTERN.

ANY CHANGES TO THE VIDEO LINE-UP WILL APPEAR ON THE NASA VIDEO
FILE ADVISORY ON THE WEB AT
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/tv-advisory/nasa-tv.txt
WE UPDATE THE ADVISORY THROUGHOUT THE DAY.

The NASA Video File normally airs at noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m.
and midnight Eastern Time.

NASA Television is available on GE-2, transponder 9C at 85 degrees
West longitude, with vertical polarization. Frequency is on 3880.0
megahertz, with audio on 6.8 megahertz.

Refer general questions about the video file to NASA Headquarters,
Washington, DC: Ray Castillo, 202/358-4555, or Fred Brown,
202/358-0713, fred.brown@hq.nasa.gov

During Space Shuttle missions, the full NASA TV schedule will
continue to be posted at:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/nasatv/schedule.html

For general information about NASA TV see:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/



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Contract Awards

Contract awards are posted to the NASA Acquisition information
Service Web site: http://procurement.nasa.gov/EPS/award.html



*****************************


The NASA Daily News Summary is issued each business day at
approximately 2 p.m. Eastern time. Members of the media who wish
to subscribe or unsubscribe from this list, please send e-mail
message to:

Brian.Dunbar@hq.nasa.gov



*****************************


end of daily news summary


Add to NASA Daily News Summary
For Release:  March 14, 2000
Media Advisory m00-049a

ALL TIMES EASTERN



GLAST SECONDARY INVESTIGATION SELECTED TO MONITOR GAMMA RAY BURSTS

NASA has selected the Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) to be flown on
the Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) mission, planned
for launch in 2005.  This instrument will complement the primary
instrument, the GLAST Large Area Telescope Flight Investigation,
selected Feb. 28, 2000.  GLAST will explore the most energetic and
violent events in a quest for the ultimate sources of energy in
the Universe.  Objects explored will include distant galaxies
fueled by super massive black holes at their center, neutron stars
and individual black holes that are the remnants of stars that
have ended their life with an explosion (supernova), and many
other stars at the extremes of mass and energy.

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Dolores Beasley
(Phone: 202/358-1753).

For full text, see:
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-039.txt



**********


If NASA issues additional news releases later today, we will e-
mail summaries and Internet URLs to this list.
Index of 1999 NASA News Releases:
http://www.nasa.gov/releases/1999/index.html

**********

The NASA Daily News Summary is issued each business day at
approximately 2 p.m. Eastern time. Members of the media who wish
to subscribe or unsubscribe from this list, please send e-mail
message to:

Brian.Dunbar@hq.nasa.gov

**********

end of add to daily news summary