Ed Campion
Headquarters, Washington, DC                    May 26, 1995
(Phone:  202/358-1778)

Lisa Malone
Kennedy Space Center, FL
(Phone:  407/867-2468)

RELEASE:  95-76

NASA SETS JUNE 8 AS LAUNCH DATE FOR 100TH HUMAN SPACE MISSION

     NASA managers today set June 8, 1995, as the official 
launch date for Space Shuttle Discovery on the STS-70 
mission.  The STS-70 mission achieves a unique milestone in 
the history of the American space program as it will mark the 
100th human space mission flown by the United States, a 
record that began with Alan B. Shepherd's historic 15-minute 
suborbital flight into space in 1961.  The primary objective 
of the STS-70 mission is the deployment of the Tracking and 
Data Relay Satellite-G, the last in a series for a space-based 
satellite network that provides communication, tracking, telemetry, 
data acquisition and command services essential to Shuttle and 
low-Earth orbital spacecraft missions.

     Discovery and the STS-70 crew are scheduled to be 
launched into a 160-mile circular orbit during a two-hour 30 
minute window which opens at 9:26 a.m. EDT on June 8.  The 
mission is scheduled for seven days, 22 hours and 10 minutes 
but Shuttle officials may shorten the flight to five days 
depending on when the mission actually begins so that the 
next Shuttle mission - a historic link up with the Russian 
space station Mir - can be launched on or about June 22.  An 
ontime STS-70 launch and full eight-day mission would result 
in a June 16 landing at the Kennedy Space Center at 7:36 a.m. 
EDT.

     Aboard Discovery will be a five-person crew commanded by 
two-time Shuttle pilot Terence (Tom) Henricks, pilot Kevin 
Kregel and mission specialists Donald Thomas (second flight), 
Nancy Curie (second flight) and Mary Ellen Weber.  This will 
be Kregel and Weber's first space voyage.
                                                             
			- end -

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