Daily Talks at Visitor Center Highlight Return to Flight

Katherine K. Martin
Media Relations Office
216-433-2406


August 3, 2005
RELEASE: 05-029


Daily Talks at Visitor Center Highlight Return to Flight

NASA's Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, wraps up its series of talks each
day this week and continuing through the weekend to highlight the challenges
and successes during Space Shuttle Discovery's mission.

Each talk begins at 2:30 p.m. in Glenn's Visitor Center and will begin with
the day's highlights of activities on STS-114. Following each talk, visitors
will have the opportunity to interact with the speaker during a question and
answer session.

Today, Wednesday, August 3, a panel of NASA Glenn researchers will describe
the experiments they helped develop, which astronaut Soichi Noguchi
installed earlier this morning to test the effects of the space environment
on a number of materials and on new solar cell technologies. Kim de Groh
will speak about the Materials International Space Station Experiment
(MISSE) designed to investigate the effects of long-term exposure of
materials to the harsh environment of space. David Wilt and Mike Piszczor
will describe the Forward Technology Solar Cell Experiment (FTCSE), built as
part of MISSE. Mike Krasowski and Lawrence Greer will explain Glenn's role
in developing the electronics for FTSCE.

On Thursday, August 4, Roy Sullivan will talk about Glenn's efforts in
improving NASA's understanding of the mechanics of foam failure and to
improve the analysis and modeling methods for determining the stress states
that lead to foam shedding during launch.

Friday, August 5 will feature a talk by Jeff DeMange and Joshua Finkbeiner
on the essential work done at Glenn in making improvements to the seals
around the main landing gear doors of the Shuttle.

Saturday, August 6 features Derrick Cheston who will highlight numerous
areas of NASA Engineering and Safety Center work in which Glenn is involved.
These include potential areas of improvement needed to make the Space
Shuttle a safer vehicle to fly.

On Sunday, August 7, the last full day of Space Shuttle Discovery's mission,
Bryan Palaszewski will talk on the future of space exploration.

More information on these talks and a list of topics to be covered can be
found: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/events/discovery.html

Admission to the Visitor Center is free and is wheelchair accessible. The
Visitor Center is open Monday - Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturdays 10
a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m.

Access to the Glenn Visitor Center is limited to U.S. citizens. All adult
visitors must present government-issued photo identification upon entering
the center's main gate. All vehicles are subject to inspection.

Note: Media representatives interested in covering Return to Flight events
should contact the Media Relations Office at 216-433-2901 or Lori Rachul at
216-433-8806.

For more information about STS-114, please visit: http://www.nasa.gov/




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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info