Donald Savage

Headquarters, Washington, DC February 7, 1996

(Phone: 202/358-1547)

Jim Sahli
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
(Phone: 301/286-0697)

George Diller
Kennedy Space Center, FL
(Phone: 407/867-2468)

Keith Takahashi
McDonnell Douglas Public Relations, Huntington Beach, CA
(Phone: 714/896-1302)

RELEASE: 96-26

POLAR LAUNCH COMPLETES GLOBAL GEOSPACE SCIENCE

CONSTELLATION

NASA's Polar spacecraft, scheduled for a February launch

from Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), CA, is a key element of
a constellation of satellites which promise to revolutionize
understanding of the Sun's influence on Earth's space
environment.

"Polar will launch space physicists on a new voyage of

discovery and exploration," said Dr. Robert Carovillano, Polar
Program Scientist at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. "Polar
is the main link in a very critical chain of laboratories in
space which will study both the very inner and outer frontiers
of the chain of processes which intimately connects the Sun
with the Earth and the other planets. This launch marks the
beginning of a new era in our understanding of the interactions
of these tremendous forces."

The final mission in NASA's Global Geospace Science

(GGS) program, the Polar laboratory will be launched in an
orbit which loops over the Earth's poles for a three-year
mission to study the movement of energetic charged particles
above the polar regions. It will give scientists new
perspectives on how Earth's space environment is affected by
continual bombardment from radiation and particles from the
Sun, data which eventually could help scientists forecast
"space weather".

The most well-known effects of these particles are the

sometimes spectacular curtains of light known as the Northern
and Southern Lights, or auroras. More serious effects are the
damage the particles can cause when severe solar-driven storms
damage spacecraft electronics and even disrupt communications
and power networks on Earth -- systems on which society is
becoming ever more dependent.

"Polar will help us in a new area of research that

scientists call 'space weather' where the objective is to make
relevant observations of our solar-terrestrial system. Then,
we will put that data into models that will predict where and
when various types of space disturbances will occur," said Dr.
Robert Hoffman, Polar Project Scientist at NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. "Information from Polar about
the radiation environment that satellites and spacecraft
experience will enable the development of better radiation-
tolerant technology for space systems."

The Polar laboratory will perform simultaneous,

coordinated measurements of the key regions of Earth's
geospace, or space environment, with WIND, which was launched
November 1994 and is now measuring properties of the solar
wind. A large array of ground-based scientific observatories
and mission-related theoretical investigations also will be
involved.

NASA is collaborating with the European Space Agency and

the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences in
three additional solar-terrestrial missions, Geotail, SOHO and
Cluster. These missions, together with GGS, make up the
International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) science
initiative.

The Polar spacecraft, carrying 11 instruments, is

scheduled for launch on a Delta II rocket from the Western
Space and Missile Center, at VAFB. The instruments, supplied
by industry and university teams as well as by NASA, will study
a vast range of phenomena from electromagnetic radiation to
charged particles from very low to relativistic energies.
Especially important on Polar are three high resolution imagers
looking down on the Earth's polar region. The instruments will
image at wavelengths from the visible to ultraviolet and into
the X-ray region.

"The aim of ISTP is to understand the physical effects

of solar activity on interplanetary space and the Earth's space
environment. This will lead to the capability of predicting
the responses of each part of the Sun-Earth system to solar
activity," said Dr. Mario Acuna, ISTP Project Scientist at
Goddard.

Polar's orbit around the Earth will be inclined 86

degrees to the equator. The altitude of the furthest point
from the Earth on the orbit -- the apogee -- will be eight
Earth radii (32,000 miles), and the closest point -- the
perigee -- will be 0.8 Earth radii (3,200 miles).

Polar is a spin-stabilized cylinder-shaped spacecraft

7.9 feet in diameter and 6.9 feet high with many appendages for
instrument sensors. The dry weight of the spacecraft is about
2,200 pounds with an additional 660 pounds of hydrazine
propellant for orbit and attitude control.

Several NASA facilities will play key roles in the

collection and dissemination of Polar science data. NASA's
Deep Space Network will be used to command the spacecraft and
to collect Polar science data via radio link. At Goddard, raw
data will be processed, organized and stored. The project's
Central Data Handling Facility will produce "key parameter
data" for rapidly surveying the much larger volume of raw data
from the mission. Detailed analysis of the data will be
performed by investigators at their own sites and the data will
be shared through the NASA Science Internet connections
throughout the United States, Japan and Europe.

Spacecraft Pre-Launch Processing

The Polar spacecraft arrived at Vandenberg aboard a C-5

military aircraft on Oct. 16, 1995. It was transported to NASA
Hangar 836, NASA's spacecraft and launch vehicle checkout
facility at Vandenberg, to begin prelaunch checkout activities.
This work included propulsion system checks and electrical
system testing, and a series of functional tests which included
checkout of each of the spacecraft's instruments.

On Nov. 10, Polar was transported from Hangar 836

located on South Vandenberg to NASA Hazardous Processing
Facility 1610 located on North Vandenberg near Space Launch
Complex 2. There the spacecraft was fueled with its hydrazine
control propellant on Nov. 14 - 15. Polar was transported to
the launch pad on Jan. 23 and mated to the Delta II rocket.
The nose fairing installation activities placing it around the
spacecraft began on Jan. 29.

Delta-233 Processing

Delta-233, a Delta II launch vehicle manufactured by

McDonnell Douglas, began its preparation at NASA's Space Launch
Complex 2 with the erection of the first stage on Nov. 29,
1995. The second stage was hoisted atop the first stage on
Dec. 1, and the solid rocket boosters were erected in sets of
three on Dec. 5 - 7.

The electrical qualification testing of Delta-233 was

performed on Jan. 5-6. An electrical test to verify the in-
flight events which the vehicle normally performs was conducted
on Jan. 17. The vehicle was partially loaded with liquid
oxygen for a first stage leak check on Jan. 18. A Flight
Program Verification was performed on Jan. 25, a test which
verified the actual flight events and associated flight
software to be used on the Delta-233/ Polar mission.

Loading of the second stage with its complement of

storable propellants, an activity which normally occurs before
the countdown begins, was scheduled to occur two days before
launch on Feb. 22. Loading of the first stage with liquid
oxygen and RP-1, a highly refined kerosene, is performed in the
terminal countdown sequence which begins approximately three
hours before launch.

Information about the Polar mission and the ISTP are

available on the Internet at the following home page locations:

Polar: http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/ISTP/ggs_project.html

ISTP: http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Goddard manages the Polar project for NASA 's Office of

Space Science, Washington, DC.

- end -
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