Jennifer McCarter
Headquarters, Washington, DC                    November 13, 1997
(Phone:  202/358-1639)

Eileen M. Hawley
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone:  281/483-5111)

RELEASE:  97-263

TOGNINI NAMED TO STS-93 CREW

     Veteran French Space Agency (CNES) astronaut Michel Tognini 
(Col., French Air Force) will fly aboard Space Shuttle Columbia as 
a member of the STS-93 crew, slated for an August 1998 launch.

     A member of NASA's 1995 astronaut class, Tognini was one of 
seven astronauts selected by CNES in 1985.  He trained extensively 
at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, in 
support of joint Soviet-French space missions.  In 1992, he spent 
14 days aboard the Mir space station with crewmates Anatoly 
Solovyev and Sergei Avdeiev.  STS-93 will mark Tognini's first 
flight on the Space Shuttle. 

     During the five-day mission, Tognini and his crewmates will 
deploy the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility Imaging System 
(AXAF), which will conduct comprehensive studies of the universe.  
AXAF consists of three major elements:  a spacecraft with an 
inertial upper stage rocket motor, a telescope, and a science 
instrument module.  Its principal objectives are to study X-ray 
emissions of stars and planets and to resolve images of extended 
supernova remnants.

     The remaining STS-93 crew members will be named at a later date.  

     For additional information on Tognini, or any astronaut, see 
the NASA Internet biography home page at URL:

              http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/

                       -end-