RELEASE:  97-179 (C97-u)

NASA SELECTS APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY FOR TIMED MISSION

       NASA has awarded a cost plus fixed-fee contract estimated
at $92 million to the Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics
Laboratory.  The contract is for the design and development of the
Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED)
Mission.

       The mission is part of NASA's effort to provide more
frequent access to space at lower costs.  Instruments aboard the
observatory will employ advances in remote sensing technology to
allow scientists to explore the Earth's mesosphere and lower
thermosphere from a global perspective.

       The Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory
will be responsible for the design, development, fabrication,
assembly, integration and testing of the observatory.  TIMED
consists of a spacecraft and four flight instruments:  Solar
Extreme Ultraviolet Experiment (provided by the University of
Colorado); TIMED Doppler Interferometer (provided by University of
Michigan); Global Ultraviolet Imager (provided by Aerospace Corp.,
Los Angeles, CA) and Sounding of the Atmosphere Using Broadband
Emission Radiometry Instrument (provided by NASA's Langley
Research Center, Hampton, VA).  Johns Hopkins also will manage the
development, integration and operation of these four instruments.
A majority of the work will be performed at the laboratory's
facilities in Laurel, MD.

       TIMED is scheduled to launch from the Western Test Range at
Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, aboard a Delta II expendable launch
vehicle in May 2000.