Brian Dunbar
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                                
August 26, 1993
(Phone:  202/358-0873)

Jim Elliott 
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. 
(Phone:  301/286-6256)


Release:  93-154

NASA/NOAA PANEL TO INVESTIGATE NOAA-13 FAILURE

   A 12-member panel of experts from NASA and NOAA has been 
named to investigate the failure of the NOAA-13 meteorological 
satellite, officials at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center 
(GSFC), Greenbelt, Md., announced today.  

   Dr. Shelby Tilford, Acting Associate Administrator for the 
Office of Mission to Planet Earth, NASA Headquarters, and Dr. 
Kathryn Sullivan, Chief Scientist, NOAA, requested Dr. John M. 
Klineberg, Goddard Center Director, to name the investigation 
board.  The board will investigate and to the extent possible, 
determine the cause of the spacecraft failure and recommend 
corrective actions which will minimize or preclude the 
possibility of similar future failures.  

   Klineberg named Jeremiah Madden, Associate Director of Flight 
Projects at Goddard, as board chairman.    

   Other panel members include H. Richard Freeman, Chief 
Engineer GSFC Engineering Directorate; Thomas E. McGunigal and 
Gary Davis, NOAA; William J. Middendorf, NASA Lewis Research 
Center, Cleveland; John Pandelides and Donald Lokerson, Flight 
Projects Directorate, GSFC; Edward Gaddy, Engineering 
Directorate, GSFC; Alfred L. Seivold, Flight Assurance 
Directorate, GSFC; James Greaves, Mission to Planet Earth 
Office, NASA Headquarters; and Michael Greenfield, Office of 
Safety and Mission Assurance, NASA Headquarters.  

   James Murphy, of the Flight Projects Office at Goddard, will 
serve as Recording Secretary.  The board will report its 
findings to Dr. Tilford and Dr. Sullivan.  
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   NOAA-13 was launched by the U.S. Air Force from Vandenberg 
Air Force Base on Aug. 9.  Preliminary evidence indicates the 
$67 million spacecraft's power system is not working.  
Controllers have had no communication with the satellite since 
Saturday, Aug. 21, at approximately 7:15 P.M. EDT, according to 
Charles E. Thienel, Meteorological Satellites Project Manager at 
Goddard.         

   NASA, through its Goddard center, serves as agent for NOAA in 
the procurement, development and launch of the NOAA satellites.            
                                      
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