NASA Daily News Summary
For Release: Feb. 16, 2000
Media Advisory m00-029


SUMMARY

NEWS RELEASES:
ONSET OF TITANIC COLLISION LIGHTS UP SUPERNOVA RING

VIDEO:  ALL TIMES EASTERN

Due to Live Coverage of Space Shuttle Mission STS-99,
VIDEO FILE WILL ONLY RUN AT NOON PM TODAY.

Video File:
ITEM 1 - NEAR EARTH ASTEROID RENDEZVOUS (NEAR) MISSION IMAGES
         OF ASTEROID EROS
     ITEM 1a - NEW IMAGES
     ITEM 1b - IMAGES FIRST RELEASED YESTERDAY, FEB. 15

ITEM 2 - SHUTTLE RADAR TOPOGRAPHY MISSION (SRTM) IMAGES OF
         EARTH
     ITEM 2a - IMAGES FIRST RELEASED AT MISSION STATUS BRIEFING
               YESTERDAY, FEB. 15
     ITEM 2b - IMAGES FIRST RELEASED AT MISSION STATUS BRIEFING
               MONDAY, FEB. 14
     NOTE: NEW IMAGES WILL BE RELEASED AT TODAY'S MISSION STATUS
     BRIEFING ON NASA TELEVISION, 2:00 PM

ITEM 3 - HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE IMAGE: ONSET OF TITANIC COLLISION
         LIGHTS UP SUPERNOVA RING

ITEM 4 - NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES INDUCTS CARRUTHERS
         INTO ITS PORTRAIT GALLERY

ITEM 5 - STARSHINE TO RE-ENTER EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE IN A BLAZE
         OF GLORY - GSFC

ITEM 6 - STS-99 ANIMATION


For the up-to-date NTV Schedule during Space Shuttle mission STS-
99 see:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/nasatv/schedule.html



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


Other Live Television Events This Week:

February 17, Thursday
* 9:00 - 11:00 am - NASA FY 2001 Budget Posture Hearing
  Before House Science Committee (tape delayed from 2/16/00) - HQ
* 1:00 pm - NEAR Early Science Results Press Briefing - HQ

February 18, Friday
* 10:30 - Noon - International Space Station: Expedition 2000
  (tape delayed from 2/17/00)



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ONSET OF TITANIC COLLISION LIGHTS UP SUPERNOVA RING

    NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is giving astronomers a
ringside seat to a never-before-seen, violent, celestial
"main attraction" unfolding in a galaxy 169,000 light years
away.  The knockout event is the collision of the fastest
moving debris from an immense stellar explosion seen in
February 1987 with the gas ring that circles that site.

    This collision is beginning to cause the gases in the
ring to glow as they are heated to millions of degrees and
compressed by the sledgehammer blow of a 40 million mile-per-
hour blast wave.  In new pictures taken on February 2,
Hubble's sharp view revealed four bright new knots of heated
gas at places that had been fading slowly for a decade.
Under an observing program called the supernova intensive
survey, a team of astronomers has been monitoring SN1987A
with Hubble since it was launched in 1990.

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Donald Savage
(Phone 202/358-1547).
Contact at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD:  Nancy
Neal (Phone 301/286-0039).
Contact at Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD:  Ray
Villard (Phone 410/338-4707).

For full text, see:
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-027.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 File for Feb. 16, 2000:


ITEM 1 - FOUR IMAGES OF OF ASTEROID EROS FROM---------TRT :15 each
         NEAR EARTH ASTEROID RENDEZVOUS (NEAR) MISSION

Contact at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory,
Laurel, MD:  Helen Worth (Phone 240/228-5113).
Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Donald Savage
(Phone 202/358-1547).

In the first hours after NEAR¹s insertion into orbit around Eros,
the spacecraft¹s camera took these images from a range of 210
miles above the surface. The many craters visible serve as
landmarks for navigating the spacecraft. Images taken Feb. 14,
2000.



ITEM 2 - SHUTTLE RADAR TOPOGRAPHY MISSION (SRTM) IMAGES OF
         EARTH
     NOTE: NEW IMAGES WILL BE RELEASED AT TODAY'S MISSION STATUS
     BRIEFING ON NASA TELEVISION, 2:00 PM

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  David E. Steitz
(Phone 202/358-1730).


ITEM 2a - Image of Paranagua, Brazil----------------------TRT  :15

These X-SAR data were recorded by Endeavour on Feb. 15, 2000, over
the Baia de Paranagua in Brazil, approx. 200 km southeast of Sao
Paulo located in the State of Parana.  The Baia de Paranagua is an
estuary.  Further inland the highest peak of the Serra do Mar
Range, the Pico Parana, is visible.


ITEM 2b - 3-D ISLAND IMAGERY------------------------------TRT  :15

These X-band radar images were recently acquired by the Space
Radar Topography Mission payload aboard Endeavour on Feb. 15,
2000.  This 3-D image shows two islands, Miquelon and Saint
Pierre, located south of Newfoundland, Canada.


ITEM 2c - SOUTH AFRICA------------------------------------TRT  :15

This image shows a portion of the Great Karoo region of South
Africa¹s Northern Cape Province.  The semi-arid area is known for
its unique variety of flora and fauna.


ITEM 2d - SRTM IMAGE OF BRAZIL----------------------------TRT  :15

This topographic image acquired by SRTM shows an area south of the
Sao Francisco River in Brazil.  The scrub forest terrain shows
relief of about 1300 ft.  Areas like this are difficult to map by
traditional methods because of frequent cloud cover and local
inaccessibility.


ITEM 2e - SRTM IMAGE OF WHITE SANDS, NM------------------TRT  :15

X-band radar image taken from Endeavour in the course of the
Shuttle Radar Topography Mission.


ITEM 2f - SRTM IMAGE OF KAMCHATKA, RUSSIA-----------------TRT  :15

These X-band radar images were recently acquired by the Shuttle
Radar Topography Mission payload aboard Endeavour.  This image is
from Kamtchatka, Russia, at 90 meters.  This close-up image shows
terrain characteristics of the region never seen before.


ITEM 2g - SRTM IMAGE OF KAMCHATKA, RUSSIA-----------------TRT  :15

These X-band radar images were recently acquired by the Space
Radar Topography Mission payload aboard Endeavour. This image is
from Kamtchatha, Russia at 90 meters. This detailed image shows
terrain characteristics of the region never seen before.



ITEM 3 - HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE IMAGE: ONSET OF TITANIC COLLISION
         LIGHTS UP SUPERNOVA RING

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Donald Savage
(Phone 202/358-1547).
Contact at Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD:  Ray
Villard (Phone 410/338-4707).


ITEM 3a - NEW HUBBLE IMAGES-------------------------------TRT  :50

New Hubble images of SN1987A taken Feb. 2, 2000, show that four
new knots of gas have begun to glow in the complex ring structure
surrounding the exploded star.  This animation shows the evolution
of the structure from the initial explosion in 1987 to the
present.
TRT - :50


ITEM 3b - SUPERNOVA 1987A RING BLAZES---------------------TRT  :15

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2
image shows the blowing gas ring around Supernova 1987A as seen on
Feb. 2, 2000.  Excited by light from the explosion, the gas has
been fading for a decade; parts of it are now being heated by the
collision of an invisible shockwave from the Supernova explosion.


ITEM 3c - BRIGHT KNOTS IN THE SKY-------------------------TRT  :15

Image processing emphasizes four new bright knots of superheated
gas in the observation.  The brightest knot at the far right was
first seen in 1998.  Astronomers have been waiting three years to
see more of the ring light up as the Supernova shockwave smashes
into it.  This is a first sign of the collision to come in the
near future.



ITEM 4 - NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES INDUCTS CARRUTHERS
         INTO ITS PORTRAIT GALLERY

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Sonja Alexander
(Phone 202/358-1761).

ITEM 4a - FOOTAGE FROM EVENT------------------------------TRT 6:32

Dr. George Carruthers was one of three accomplished African
Americans inducted into the National Academies portrait gallery on
Feb. 14, 2000.  Former astronaut Dr. Bernard Harris spoke to
students from several Washington, D.C. area schools.  Music was
provided by the Walter Johnson Gospel/Show choir.


ITEM 4b - INTERVIEW EXCERPTS------------------------------TRT 2:06

Dr. George Carruthers, Senior Astrophysicist, Naval Research
Laboratory, Washington, DC



ITEM 5 - STARSHINE TO RE-ENTER EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE
         IN A BLAZE OF GLORY - GSFC

The Student-Tracked Atmospheric Research Satellite for Heuristic
International Networking Equipment (STARSHINE) will re-enter the
Earth's atmosphere in a fiery blaze of glory after nine months in
orbit on approximately February 18 or 19.

Contact at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD:  Nancy
Neal (Phone 301/286-0039).
Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Delores Beasley
(Phone 202/358-1753).

http://www.azinet.com/starshine/index.html


ITEM 5a - STARSHINE ANIMATION

The Student-Tracked Atmospheric Research Satellite for Heuristic
International Networking Equipment (STARSHINE) will re-enter the
Earth's atmosphere in a fiery blaze of glory after nine months in
orbit on approximately February 18 or 19.  STARSHINE was launched
from a Get Away Special (GAS) canister with a Hitchhiker ejection
system onboard Discovery.  Its highly inclined, low earth orbit
allows its mirrors to reflect back flashes of sunlight to
observers on Earth.


ITEM 5b - STARSHINE'S RETURN TO EARTH

STARSHINE is slowly falling in altitude with each orbit of the
Earth's atmosphere.  Predictions indicate that it will end its
nine-month mission on approximately February 18 or 19, when it
will descend to an altitude low enough for aerodynamic heating to
cause it to become a spectacular falling object in the sky and as
it vaporizes completely.  The reentry coincides with the peak of
the 11-year solar cycle, resulting in a more varied orbit for the
satellite's descent.  In addition, the data gathered may be able
to provide scientists with information about the solar cycle
peak's affect on our atmosphere.


ITEM 5c - ANIMATION OF STUDENTS OBSERVING STARSHINE

Students around the world measured STARSHINE'S rise and set in the
sky in terms of longitude, latitude and altitude from their
observing sites, then posted their observations on the project's
web site.  Students will be encouraged to try to see the fiery
reentry and capture it on film if possible. Groups such as the
U.S. Space Command also will be observing and recording the event.


ITEM 5d - DISCO BALL ROCKS IN SPACE

Video shows a replica of STARSHINE and how it would reflect light
from the sun.  STARSHINE was built by the Naval Research
Laboratory, Washington D.C., for deployment into space at a low
earth orbit from a Hitchhiker canister on the Space Shuttle
Discovery.  Students of all ages around the world worked on nearly
900 of the tiny mirrors in their classrooms and then sent them
back to the project, for placement on the spacecraft.


ITEM 5e - A WORLD CLASS PROJECT

The 878 tiny aluminum mirrors were voluntarily machined, sanded,
polished, and inspected by students of all ages around the world.
Students in the video are from Edgar Allen Poe Middle School in
Annandale, VA.  The mirrors were mounted on the surface of the
STARSHINE spacecraft to reflect flashes of sunlight to observers
on Earth during its mission.


ITEM 5f  - INTEGRATION OF STARSHINE

STARSHINE is placed into its canister before being shipped to
NASA's Kennedy Space Center, FL.  The ejection system that sent
Starshine into space is also shown.


ITEM 6 - STS-99 ANIMATION--------------------------------TRT 16:14



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


Unless otherwise noted, ALL TIMES ARE EASTERN.

ANY CHANGES TO THE 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 Elvia Thompson,
202/358-1696, elvia.thompson@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



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


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end of daily news summary