Brian Dunbar
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                    
September 10, 1991
(Phone:  202/453-1547)


RELEASE:  91-144

NASA APPOINTS SPACELAB PAYLOAD SPECIALIST


   Dr. Lennard A. Fisk, NASA's Associate Administrator for 
Space Science and Applications, has appointed Dr. Dirk D. 
Frimout as payload specialist for the Atmospheric Laboratory 
for Applications and Science (ATLAS-1) Spacelab mission 
scheduled for flight in early 1992.

   Dr. Frimout, previously an alternate payload specialist for 
ATLAS-1, is the Spacelab Utilization Manager in the 
Microgravity and Columbus Utilization Department of the Space 
Station and Microgravity Directorate of the European Space 
Agency.  He received his Ph.D. in applied physics from the 
University of Ghent in his native Belgium in 1970.  Frimout, 
50, also is a co-investigator for the Grille Spectrometer, 
part of the ATLAS-1 payload.  While training for the mission, 
he will be assigned to the Institute Aeronomie Spatiale de 
Belgique, Belgium.

   Dr. Frimout will replace Michael K. Lampton, who became 
disqualified for medical reasons.  Lampton will continue to 
serve on the Spacelab Mission Operations Control Team as an 
alternate payload specialist.

   The ATLAS-1 mission is the first in a series of Spacelab 
missions that are part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth.  
ATLAS investigators will study the interaction of the Earth's 
atmosphere with the sun over an 11-year solar cycle.

   ATLAS-1 will carry 14 investigations in atmospheric 
science, solar physics, space plasma physics and astronomy.  
Experiments for the mission are provided by the United States, 
Belgium, France, Germany and Japan.

   The ATLAS mission series is managed by the Marshall Space 
Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., for NASA's Office of Space 
Science and Applications.
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