NASA Daily News Summary
For Release: Dec. 22, 1999
Media Advisory m99-263


SUMMARY:

No News Releases Today.

Video:

NOTE: DUE TO STS-103 MISSION COVERAGE, THE VIDEO FILE TODAY WILL
RUN AT NOON ONLY.


ALL TIMES EASTERN

Video File for Dec. 22, 1999


ITEM 1 - CHANDRA X-RAY TELESCOPE MAPS VITAL ELEMENTS
         FROM SUPERNOVA

ITEM 2 - NASA TELEVISION'S TOP 10 STORIES IN 1999

NOTE:
On New Year's Eve, Dec. 31, 1999, NASA Television will air stock
footage of Earth viewed from the Shuttle.  The Earth Views will
commence at Noon Eastern Time, on 12/31/99 and continue until 4:00
a.m. Eastern Time, on 1/1/00.  There will be no live pictures from
space during that time period.


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If NASA issues any 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



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Video File for Dec. 22, 1999


ITEM 1 - CHANDRA X-RAY TELESCOPE MAPS VITAL ELEMENTS------TRT  :15
         FROM SUPERNOVA

The red, green, and blue regions in this Chandra X-ray image of
the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A show where the intensity of
low, medium, and high energy X rays, respectively, is greatest.
The red material on the left outer edge is enriched in iron,
whereas the bright greenish white region on the lower left is
enriched in silicon and sulfur.  In the blue region on the right
edge, low and medium energy X rays have been filtered out by a
cloud of dust and gas in the remnant.  (Image made with the
Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS).

Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO

A team of astronomers led by Dr. John Hughes of Rutgers University
in Piscataway, NJ, has used observations from NASA's orbital
Chandra X-ray Observatory to make an important new discovery that
sheds light on how silicon, iron, and other elements were produced
in supernova explosions.  An X-ray image of Cassiopeia A (Cas A),
the remnant of an exploded star, reveals gaseous clumps of
silicon, sulfur, and iron expelled from deep in the interior of
the star.  The findings appear online in the Astrophysical Journal
Letters at:
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/ApJ/journal/issues/ApJL/v528n2

Contact at Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL:  Steve
Roy (Phone 205/544-0034).
Contact at Chandra X-ray Observatory Center, Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA:  Dr. Wallace Tucker (Phone
617/496-7998).
Contact at Rutgers University Office of Media Relations,
Piscataway, NJ:  Joseph Blumberg  (Phone 732/932-7084, ext. 652)



ITEM 2 - NASA TELEVISION'S TOP 10 STORIES IN 1999

10. NEW MICROROBOT MAY ASSIST CREW IN SPACE
          Personal Satellite Assistant - ARC (first aired 9/8/99)

9.  MAKING AIR TRAVEL SAFER FOR AMERICANS
          Future Flight Central - ARC (first aired 12/10/99)
          Airborne Information for Lateral Spacing - LARC (first
               aired 11/8/99)

8.  FIRST X-34 CAPTIVE CARRY
          X-34 Captive carry - DFRC (first aired 6/29/99)
          X-34 Animation - DFRC/body  MSFC/engine (first aired
               8/24/99)

7.  NASA SCIENTISTS STUDY CLIMATE AND ITS EFFECTS
          La Nina and mapping its effects - GSFC (first aired
               9/10/99)
          El Nino/La Nina TOPEX update - JPL (first aired 12/8/99)
          Iceberg Watch - JPL (first aired 9/3/99)

6.  NASA LAUNCHES 3 MAJOR EARTH OBSERVING SPACECRAFT INCLUDING THE
    EOS FLAGSHIP TERRA.
          Terra launch and b-roll (first aired 12/20/99)

5.  MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR EXPLORES THE RED PLANET
          MGS Deploys Antenna, great pics - JPL (first aired
               3/29/99, 8/10/99)
          MGS Sees "Heart" on Mars - JPL (first aired 6/25/99)
          Magnetic Stripes Discovered on Mars - JPL (first aired
               4/29/99)
          MOLA First 3-D view of Mars - JPL (first aired 5/27/99,
               12/1/99)

4.  FIRST DOCKING OF THE SHUTTLE WITH THE ISS
          STS-96 Mission Highlights (first aired 5/4/99)

3.  FIRST GAMMA RAY BURST CAPTURED STSCI
          Gamma Ray images and animation of event (first aired
               1/23/99)

2.  CHANDRA X-RAY TELESCOPE TAKES ITS FIRST PICTURE
          Chandra X-Ray Telescope Launches - KSC (first aired
               1/14/99)
          Chandra First Light first image (first aired 8/26/99)

1.  FIRST FEMALE SHUTTLE COMMANDER EILEEN COLLINS:
          Announcement of Selection as Commander at White House
               (first aired 7/14/99)
          Shuttle suit-up and liftoff (first aired July 1999)
          On orbit and releasing Chandra (first aired July 1999)
          Commander Collins with Family - JSC (first aired
                7/15/99)



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


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 are posted to the NASA Acquisition information
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end of daily news summary