NASA Daily News Summary
For Release:  May 5, 2000
Media Advisory m00-90


SUMMARY


NEWS RELEASES:


NASA SELECTS NEW AIRCRAFT TECHNOLOGIES FOR RESEARCH

SOHO SCOOPS A PICTURE OF PLANETS ON PARADE

NEW CHANDRA OBSERVATIONS SHED LIGHT ON YOUNG SUPERNOVA:
SPACE SCIENCE UPDATE MAY 11


VIDEO

ALL TIMES EASTERN

VIDEO FILE FOR MAY 5, 2000

Item 1 - Planets on Parade (SOHO)- GSFC
         Item 1a - SOHO Animation
         Item 1b - Planetary Alignment (SOHO) (replay)
Item 2 - TRMM Sees Through Clouds, Aids Hurricane Forecasters
         - GSFC (replay)
Item 3 - Asteroid Kleopatra - a metal dog bone the size of New
         Jersey - JPL (replay)
Item 4 - Satellite Tracks Cholera - ARC (replay)


UPCOMING LIVE TELEVISION EVENTS



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


NEWS RELEASES


NASA SELECTS NEW AIRCRAFT TECHNOLOGIES FOR RESEARCH

NASA's Office of Aero-Space Technology has selected nine
aeronautical concepts for awards as part of its Revolutionary
Concepts program, which accelerates the exploration of high-risk,
revolutionary-breakthrough technologies in atmospheric flight.
The selected projects will receive approximately $300,000 each for
Phase I research.  NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards,
CA, is the lead center for the Revolutionary Concepts (REVCON)
program, with significant involvement from NASA's Ames Research
Center, Moffett Field, CA; Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH;
and Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA.

Note: Local angles in
     La Verne, CA          Andover, ME
     Los Angeles, CA       Schenectady, NY
     Palmdale, CA          Cincinnati,OH
     Pasadena, CA          Dayton, OH
     East Hartford, CT     Olmsted, OH
     Stratford, CT         Fort Worth, TX
     Patuxent River, MD    Seattle, WA
     Tel Aviv, Israel

More information about REVCON can be found on the Internet at:
     http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Projects/revcon/index.html

Contact at Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Michael Braukus (Phone:
202/358-1979).
Contact at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA:  Fred
Johnsen (Phone:  661/276-2998).

For full text, see:
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-070.txt



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


SOHO SCOOPS A PICTURE OF PLANETS ON PARADE

Exclusive images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
(SOHO) spacecraft will show four planets marching together on the
side of the sun opposite from Earth, near the climax of a line-up
of planets that is fascinating amateur astronomers around the
world this month.  On May 15, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn
will all be in the field of view of the Large Angle and
Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) instrument on SOHO.  Skywatchers
can view the show on the Internet; currently, Saturn, Jupiter, and
Mercury can be seen with SOHO.  NASA TV will broadcast video of
the planetary parade Friday, May 5, and updated versions will be
broadcast Friday, May 12, and Monday, May 15.  Because the planets
travel around the sun at different speeds, their position in the
sky as seen from Earth changes.  Rarely, some or all of the
planets appear together in the same area of sky, a circumstance
called planetary conjunction.  In the past, people attributed
special significance to celestial events, so such alignments have
altered the course of history.  The current conjunction presents a
striking but benign spectacle, with Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter
and Saturn grouped most tightly on May 17.

Images are available on the Internet at:
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/
or
http://sohowww.estec.esa.nl/hotshots/

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Dolores Beasley
(Phone: 202/358-1753).
Contact at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD:  Susan
Hendrix (Phone: 301/286-7745).

For full text, see:
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-076.txt



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


NEW CHANDRA OBSERVATIONS SHED LIGHT ON YOUNG SUPERNOVA:
SPACE SCIENCE UPDATE MAY 11

Images showing the full impact of the actual blast wave from
Supernova 1987A will be revealed during a Space Science Update at
1 p.m. EDT Thursday, May 11, in the James E. Webb Auditorium at
NASA Headquarters, 300 E St., SW, Washington, DC.  The
observations, made by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, are the
first time a blast wave has been seen at such an early stage in a
supernova.  A supernova explosion is among the most violent events
in nature.  Supernova 1987A, the first supernova observed in 1987,
was the brightest and nearest supernova to Earth in almost four
centuries.  Chandra, launched July 23, 1999, makes images at least
30 times sharper than any previous X-ray telescope.

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Dolores Beasley
(Phone: 202/358-1753).
Contact at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL:
Steve Roy (Phone: 256/544-6535).
Contact at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge,
MA:  Dr. Wallace Tucker (Phone: 617/496-7998).

For full text, see:
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/note2edt/2000/n00-021.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



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


VIDEO

LIVE TELEVISION COMING UP THIS WEEK

UPCOMING LIVE TELEVISION

May 9, Tuesday
- 6:00 - 11:30 am - La Nina Live News Interviews: Latest
  Conditions in the Pacific - GSFC

May 11, Thursday
- 6:00 - 10:00 am - Interstellar Transportation Live News
  Interviews - MSFC
- 10:00 am - Noon - Earth Sciences FY 2001 Budget Hearing Before
  the House Subcommittee on Space ad Aeronautics (recorded on
  5/10/00) - HQ
- 1:00 pm - Chandra Space Science Update - HQ

May 12, Friday
- 10:00 am - Noon - Follow-up to the Young Report Hearing Before
  the House Committee on Science (recorded on 5/11/00) - HQ
- 1:00 - 5:00 pm - Satellite Adjustment and Maintenance at all
  NASA uplink sites - All Centers
- 7:00 - 9:00 pm - Follow-up to the Young Report Hearing Before
  the House Committee on Science (recorded on 5/11/00) - HQ
- 10:00 pm - Midnight - Follow-up to the Young Report Hearing
  Before the House Committee on Science (recorded on 5/11/00) - HQ

May 13, Saturday
- Noon - 2:00 pm - Follow-up to the Young Report Hearing Before
  the House Committee on Science (recorded on 5/11/00) - HQ
- 2:00 - 4:00 pm - Earth Sciences FY2001 Budget Hearing Before the
  House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics (recorded on
  5/10/00) - HQ
- 4:00 - 6:00 pm - Follow-up to the Young Report Hearing Before
  the House Committee on Science (recorded on 5/11/00) - HQ
- 6:00 - 8:00 pm - Earth Sciences FY2001 Budget Hearing Before the
  House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics (recorded on
  5/10/00) - HQ
- 8:00 - 10:00 pm - Follow-up to the Young Report Hearing Before
  the House Committee on Science (recorded on 5/11/00) - HQ
- 10:00 pm - Midnight - Earth Sciences FY2001 Budget Hearing
  Before the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics (recorded
  on 5/10/00) - HQ

May 14, Sunday
- Noon - 2:00 pm - Follow-up to the Young Report Hearing Before
  the House Committee on Science (recorded on 5/11/00) - HQ
- 2:00 - 4:00 pm - Earth Sciences FY2001 Budget Hearing Before the
  House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics (recorded on
  5/10/00) - HQ
- 4:00 - 6:00 pm - Follow-up to the Young Report Hearing Before
  the House Committee on Science (recorded on 5/11/00) - HQ
- 6:00 - 8:00 pm - Earth Sciences FY2001 Budget Hearing Before the
  House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics (recorded on
  5/10/00) - HQ
- 8:00 - 10:00 pm - Follow-up to the Young Report Hearing Before
  the House Committee on Science (recorded on 5/11/00) - HQ
- 10:00 pm - Midnight - Earth Sciences FY2001 Budget Hearing
  Before the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics (recorded
  on 5/10/00) - HQ


For a complete list of upcoming live television events, 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/



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


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