Jim Cast

Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

January 29, 1992
(Phone: 202/453-8536)
2:30 p.m., EST

Release: 92-15

NASA RELEASES UPDATED MIXED FLEET MANIFEST

NASA today released its regular update of the Mixed Fleet

Manifest which includes projected Space Shuttle and expendable
launch vehicle schedules extending to FY 1998. This update
reflects all current budgetary constraints.

The near-term Shuttle flight schedule has changed very

little since March 1991. Since the August 1991 manifest, several
flights have been accelerated to earlier dates (STS-42, -45 and
-52). These schedule accelerations were supported by the success
of the continuous improvement activities which resulted in
significant mission preparation efficiencies. Since August, the
only change to the flight sequence through FY 1993 is the
deletion of the flight opportunity scheduled in August 1993.

While the flight rate has been reduced to eight per year
through FY 1996 and nine flights per year thereafter, resulting
in the loss of seven flights through 1997, these reductions have
been accommodated without significantly impacting customer
commitments. This primarily has been accomplished by deleting
three flight opportunities and a number of payload opportunities,
termination of the Aeroassist Flight Experiment and the Flight
Telerobotics Experiment, and transfer of the X-ray Timing
Explorer to a Delta II expendable launch vehicle.

TDRS-G has been moved back onto the Shuttle in 1995. Space
Station Freedom flights remain basically unchanged although three
additional Shuttle flights may be required in the absence of the
Advance Solid Rocket Motor to support Freedom's permanently
manned capability by late 2000.

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Shuttle missions scheduled for the upcoming calendar year

include the April flight of Atlantis carrying the Atmospheric
Laboratory for Applications and Science; the first flight of
Endeavour in May to retrieve and reboost the Intelsat-VI
communications satellite and to accomplish EVA experiments
relating to Space Station Freedom assembly; the refurbished
Columbia flight in June to conduct a 13-day
Extended-Duration-Orbiter flight carrying the U.S. Microgravity
Laboratory; an August Atlantis Tethered Satellite mission;
September missions with Shuttles Columbia and Endeavour carrying
LAGEOS II and Spacelab-J payloads; and the last scheduled,
dedicated DoD Shuttle mission aboard the refurbished Discovery in
December.

Expendable Launch Vehicle highlights include cancellation of

the Comet-Rendezvous-Asteroid-Flyby mission; TDRS-G, considered
for launch in April, 1995, but retained for launch aboard the
Space Shuttle in the 3rd quarter of FY 1995; the Earth-Observing
System spacecraft designs have been changed to be launched on a
series of intermediate and smaller performance ELVs.

In addition, Atlas-I launch dates for Geostationary

Operational Environmental Satellites I, J and K have been changed
to December 1993, 1994 and 1998, respectively, due to spacecraft
reprogramming.

Two new Space Exploration Initiative precursor missions have

been added to today's manifest -- the Lunar Resources Mapper and
a Lunar Geodetic Scout are scheduled for launch aboard Delta II
launch vehicles in April 1995 and March 1996, respectively.

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EDITORS' NOTE: A limited number of abbreviated copies of the

newly-released manifest is available in the NASA Headquarters
newsroom (400 Md. Avenue, S.W., Wash., D.C., Room 6043;
202/453-8400). Complete copies of the document will be available
at NASA center newsrooms as soon as possible.