Ed Campion

Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

July 7, 1994
(Phone: 202/358-1778)

Kyle Herring
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 713/483-5111)

RELEASE: 94-112

CREW NAMED FOR SECOND WAKE SHIELD FACILITY SHUTTLE FLIGHT

U.S. Navy Captain David M. Walker will command Endeavour's

ninth mission, STS-69, scheduled for mid-1995. The primary
objective of the flight will be to deploy and retrieve the Wake
Shield Facility (WSF) first flown on the STS-60 mission in
February 1994.

Walker's crewmates on the STS-69 mission are Kenneth D.

Cockrell, pilot, and James H. Newman and Michael L. Gernhardt,
mission specialists. James S. Voss (Lt. Col., USAF) was named
payload commander in August 1993.

The STS-69 mission will mark the second flight of the Wake
Shield Facility. WSF is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of
using this free-flying experiment to grow semiconductors, high
temperature superconductors and other materials using the
ultra-high vacuum created behind the spacecraft near the
experiment package.

The mission also will include the Office of Aeronautics and

Space Technology free flyer (OAST Flyer) which will be deployed
from the Shuttle containing several space technology experiments.
A small experiment designed to study ultraviolet emissions, called
the International Extreme Ultraviolet, Far Ultraviolet Hitchhiker
(IEH), will be part of the payload complement as well.

Walker will be making his fourth flight aboard the Shuttle.

His first mission was as pilot of the STS 51-A flight aboard
Discovery in November 1984. Two communications satellites were
deployed and two others retrieved and returned to Earth during
that mission.

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His second mission was as commander of Atlantis' STS-30 mission

in May 1989 to deploy the Magellan spacecraft that continues to
study the surface of Venus. Walker's third flight was aboard
Discovery on the STS-53 mission in December 1992. The primary
goal was to deploy a classified Department of Defense payload
(DOD-1).

Walker, 50, has been the Flight Crew Operations Directorate's

primary liaison to the Space Station program as Chief, Station
Exploration Support Office. He is from Eustis, Fla., and is a
1966 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.

STS-69 will be the second Shuttle mission for 44-year-old

Cockrell. His
first flight was aboard Discovery on the STS-56 mission in April
1993. The mission focused on better understanding the effects of
solar activity on the Earth's environment using a series of
instruments in the payload bay that made up the Atmospheric
Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS-2).

Prior to this assignment, Cockrell has been serving as a

spacecraft
communicator (CAPCOM) in Mission Control during launch and
landing. He was born in Austin, Texas. He received a master of
science degree in aeronautical systems from the University of West
Florida in 1974.

Newman, 37, will also be making his second spaceflight. He

previously flew as a mission specialist on STS-51 aboard Discovery
in September 1993. The mission included deployment of the
Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) and
deployment/retrieval of a science platform to study ultraviolet
emissions. Newman also conducted a spacewalk to test tools and
techniques for use on future missions.

From San Diego, Calif., Newman received his doctorate in

physics from Rice University in 1984. Since his last mission, he
has been assigned to the Mission Development Branch working on
payload science support.

Gernhardt, 38, will be making his first Shuttle flight. He was

born in Mansfield, Ohio, and received his doctorate in
bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991.

Prior to this assignment, Gernhardt has been detailed to flight

software verification in the Shuttle Avionics Integration
Laboratory (SAIL). He also has worked on several extravehicular
activity (EVA) projects, including direct support for last year's
mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope (STS-61).

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