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National Aeronautics and Space Administration Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Houston, Texas 77058 AC 713 483-5111

Rh Barbara Schwartz Release No. 90-045

Dunbar Names Payload Commander for USML-1

Bonnie J. Dunbar, Ph.D., has been named payload commander for the STS-S0 U.S. Microgravity Laboratory (USML-1) mission currently scheduled for March 1992.

USML-1 consists of a complement of experiments focusing on microgravity materials processing technology and other science and research requiring a microgravity environment. Orbiter Columbia will be modified with an Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO) kit which will provide additional expendable supplies, allowing a 13-day mission which will extend the scientific research time in space.

As payload commander, Dunbar is responsible for coordinating all payload requirements for the mission.

Dunbar was a mission specialist on STS 61-A, the West German D-1 Spacelab mission launched Oct. 30, 1985, and STS-32 in Jan. 1990 on which the crew successfully deployed the Syncom IV-FS satellite, retrieved the Long Duration Exposure Facility, and performed a variety of middeck scientific experiments,

Four candidates for two payload specialist positions on STS-50 were named in August with a final selection to be made in March 1991. The candidates are Lawrence J. DeLucas, O.D., Ph.D., of University of Alabama; Joseph Prahl, Ph.D., of Case Western Reserve University; Albert Sacco, Jr., Ph.D., of Worcester Polytechnic Institute; and Eugene H. Trinh, Ph.D., of Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The remainder of the seven-member crew will be announced later.