Kirsten Williams
Headquarters, Washington, DC                   June 22, 2000
(Phone: 202/358-0243)

June Malone
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville AL
(Phone: 256/544-0034)

Lanee Cooksey
Stennis Space Center, MS
(Phone: 228/688-1957)

RELEASE: 99-100

NASA FORMS TEAM TO REVIEW SPACE SHUTTLE MAIN ENGINE TEST INCIDENT

     Robert Sackheim, assistant director and chief engineer for 
propulsion at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, 
will lead a team to review the automatic shutdown of a recent 
Space Shuttle Main Engine test at NASA's Stennis Space Center, MS.

     At about 5 seconds into the planned 200-second test of a new 
high-pressure fuel turbopump configuration, higher than expected 
test temperatures caused the Shuttle Main Engine to shut itself 
down using its own internal safety mechanisms.

     The engine being tested was not a flight configuration.  It 
is a development unit used to validate the engine's capability to 
operate at higher-than-normal temperature levels.  The test used a 
main combustion chamber smaller than those currently flown on the 
Shuttle, which increases temperatures in the pumps to test for 
different temperature limits.

                                -end-