Douglas Isbell / Don Savage
Headquarters, Washington, DC                     April 17, 1998
(Phone:  202/358-1547)

John Watson
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
(Phone:  818/354-5011)

RELEASE:  98-64

DEEP SPACE 1 LAUNCH RESCHEDULED TO OCTOBER

     The planned July 1998 launch of NASA's Deep Space 1 
technology validation mission from Cape Canaveral, FL, has been 
rescheduled for October.  

     The delay is due to a combination of late delivery of the 
spacecraft's power electronics system and an ambitious flight 
software development schedule, which together leave insufficient 
time to test the spacecraft thoroughly for a July launch.

     The power electronics system regulates and distributes power 
produced by not only the solar concentrator array, a pair of 
experimental solar panels composed of 720 cylindrical Fresnel 
lenses, but also by an on-board battery.  Among many other 
functions, it helps the solar array to operate at peak efficiency, 
and ensures that the battery is able to cover temporary surges in 
power needed so that the ion propulsion system (which needs 
electricity for its basic operations) receives a steady power 
supply. 

     "With a new launch date for this bold mission, we can be more 
confident that we will be ready to fully exercise our payload of 
important technologies," explained Chief Mission Engineer Dr. Marc 
Rayman of  NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA.  
"The entire DS1 team looks forward to this opportunity to make a 
significant contribution to science missions of the future through 
the capabilities we are testing on DS1."

     Deep Space 1 is the first launch in NASA's New Millennium 
program, a series of missions designed to test new technologies so 
that they can be confidently used on science missions of the 21st 
century.  Among the 12 technologies the mission is designed to 
validate are ion propulsion, autonomous optical navigation, a 
solar power concentrator array and an integrated camera and 
imaging spectrometer. 

     The earlier July launch period for DS1 allowed it to fly a 
trajectory encompassing flybys of an asteroid, Mars and a comet.  
By the end of May, the mission design team is scheduled to 
finalize new target bodies in the Solar System for DS1 to 
encounter based on an October launch date.