David E. Steitz
Headquarters, Washington, DC
October 17, 1996
(Phone: 202/358-1730)

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

NOTE TO EDITORS: N96-65

SAC-B/HETE SCIENCE BRIEFING SET FOR OCT. 21 

Scientists will brief news media about the upcoming Satelite de Aplicaciones
Cientificas-B (SAC-B) and High Energy Transient Experiment (HETE) missions at 1 p.m 
EDT on Monday, Oct. 21. The briefing will originate from NASA's Goddard Space Flight 
Center Visitor Center, Greenbelt, MD. Scheduled to participate in the briefing will be:

- Dr. Brian Dennis, Principal Investigator, Goddard X-Ray Experiment, 
Goddard Space Flight Center
- Dr. Marcos Machado, Director of Science, CONAE - Dr. Dave Burrows, Co-
Investigator, Cosmic Unresolved X-Ray Background 
Instrument (CUBIC)
- Dr. George Ricker, HETE Principal Investigator, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

SAC-B is an international cooperative project between NASA and Argentina's National 
Commission of Space Activities (CONAE). The spacecraft is designed to advance the study 
of solar physics and astrophysics through the examination of solar flares, gamma ray 
bursts, diffuse cosmic X-ray background, and energetic neutral atoms. The spacecraft will 
be launched with a companion payload named High Energy Transient Experiment (HETE). 
HETE is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology built-spacecraft and will carry three 
instruments to study gamma-ray bursts. 

Both spacecraft are scheduled to be launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, 
Wallops Island, VA, on Tuesday, Oct. 29 at approximately 12:20 p.m. EST, using a 
Pegasus-XL launch vehicle. The Pegasus-XL, built by Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, 
VA, is a three-stage, solid-propellant booster system carried aloft a L-1011 aircraft. 

The briefing will be broadcast on NASA Television which is available on Spacenet 2, 
Transponder 5, Channel 9, located at 69 degrees West longitude. News media will have 
two-way question and answer capability from participating NASA centers. 

-end-