Add to NASA Daily News Summary
For Release: Nov. 15, 1999
Media Advisory m99-236a


Summary:

MARS PENETRATOR PROBES NAMED FOR PIONEERING POLAR EXPLORERS

HUBBLE TELESCOPE PLACED INTO SAFE HOLD AS GYROSCOPE FAILS


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MARS PENETRATOR PROBES NAMED FOR PIONEERING POLAR EXPLORERS

     NASA's Deep Space 2 microprobes, due to smash into the 
surface of Mars near the planet's south pole on Dec. 3, have been 
named Amundsen and Scott in honor of the first explorers to reach 
the South Pole of Earth.  Paul Withers, a graduate student at the 
University of Arizona in Tucson, wrote the winning essay, among a 
NASA-record 17,000 entries submitted in a public contest to name 
the ambitious space mission. 

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Doug Isbell (Phone 
202/358-1753).
Contact at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA:  Mary 
Hardin (Phone 818/354-5011).

For full text, see:
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/1999/99-135.txt 


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HUBBLE TELESCOPE PLACED INTO SAFE HOLD AS GYROSCOPE FAILS

     NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was placed into a safe hold at 
approximately 8:30 a.m. EST Saturday morning when gyroscope #1 
ceased operation.  With only two operational gyros remaining, the 
science program will be suspended until completion of Servicing 
Mission 3A, currently scheduled for launch aboard Space Shuttle 
Discovery on Dec. 6, 1999.  This gyro situation is not expected to 
impact the upcoming servicing mission.  In fact, anticipation that 
another gyro could fail was the primary reason that Hubble 
managers scheduled an early repair mission and split the third 
servicing mission activities into two flights:  Servicing Mission-
3A (Dec. 6, 1999) and Servicing Mission-3B (Mid-2001).  

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Donald Savage 
(Phone 202/358-1547).
Contact at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD:  Nancy 
Neal (Phone 301/286-0039).

For full text, see:
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/1999/99-136.txt 


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If NASA issues additional 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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