Feb. 24 , 1996

Jim Sahli
Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Md.   20771
(Phone:  301-286-0697)

Polar Status Report #1
Saturday, Feb. 24
4:45 a.m. PST


	After a successful launch at 3:24 a.m. PST this morning, NASA's Polar 
Spacecraft has now separated from its Delta II rocket and is in an elliptical polar 
orbit.  NASA's newest spacecraft was launched from Space Launch Complex-2 at 
Vandenberg AFB in California.  

	Polar is one of two spacecraft in NASA's Global Geospace Science 
mission, which is part of the International Solar-Terrestrial Physics program.  
Polar and a sister spacecraft, Wind, will perform simultaneous, coordinated 
measurements of key regions of Earth's space environment.  Included are 
observations of entry and transport of solar plasma over Earth's magnetic poles, 
imaging of the northern aurora (Northern lights) and investigations of solar wind 
properties. Wind was launched Nov. 1, 1994.

	The Polar spacecraft carrying 11 instruments separated from its Delta II 
rocket at 4:07 a.m. this morning approximately 43 minutes into flight.  The Polar 
spacecraft is currently in a elliptical orbit with an apogee of 32,000 statute miles 
and a perigee of 86 statute miles on a polar path inclined 86 degrees from the 
equator.

	The satellite, built by Lockheed Martin, is a spin-stabilized cylinder-
shaped spacecraft 7.9 feet in diameter and 6.9 feet high excluding the despun 
platform. Dry weight is 2,200 pounds, with an additional 660 pounds of 
hydrazine propellant for orbit and attitude control.  Its design life is three years.
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	"We are very pleased with the successful launch of the Polar spacecraft.  
Over the next weeks, we will be activating our instruments so that we can then 
start this important science mission for NASA and the country." said Don 
Crosby, Deputy Polar Project Manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center in 
Greenbelt, Md.  Goddard is managing the Polar project for the Office of Space 
Sciences at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. 

	The 11 instruments on the Polar spacecraft were supplied by industry 
and university teams as well as NASA and 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.

	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.

	Information about the Polar mission and the ISTP are available on the 
Internet at the following  locations:

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

ISTP:  	http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/
	
	Information will be updated on the Goddard Audio News Service, 301-
286-NEWS (6397), as it becomes available.  For additional information about the 
Polar mission, call the Goddard Newsroom at 301-286-8955.

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