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*****For immediate use October 29, 1998

NEC LCD Monitors to be Used in Today's Launch of NASA Space Shuttle

"NASA"		"NASA"

NEC Corporation (NEC) announced that it's MultiSync^® LCD2000 LCD monitors will be used during the launch of today's historic NASA Space Shuttle mission. The STS-95 launch features the return to space of both John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, as well as fellow crewmember Chiaki Mukai, the first female Japanese astronaut.

NEC also announced that NASA currently has plans to purchase up to 900 of the company's flat panel monitors for use in upgrading the Space Shuttle's launch processing computers. According to NEC, NASA purchased the monitors under the Scientific and Engineering Workstation Procurement (SEWP) contract.

NASA Experimental Control Room Tests LCD's

In 1997, NASA purchased a number of MultiSync LCD2000 monitor's for use in an experimental control room in the Launch Control Center (LCC). The experimental control room was a pilot project to test new technology for use in the new CLCS (Checkout and Launch Control System) control rooms being built at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida. These centers are used throughout NASA to test flight software and verify flight data; monitor equipment associated with the launch; and view test results, as well as performing many other pre-flight and post-flight tests.

Many of the MultiSync LCD2000 monitors that were used in the experimental control room, have now been moved to the operational firing rooms in the LCC, and will be used to demonstrate the display of procedures and retrieved data plots at a number of the control consoles during the STS-95 launch today.

As a result of the successful pilot project, NASA has plans to purchase up to 900 MultiSync LCD2010 LCD monitors, which could total a contract fee in excess of $4 million. The purchases will be made in phases as the control rooms are built. Currently under construction, the new state-of-the-art control rooms are to be completed in the year 2001. The CLCS project includes the construction of three LCC control rooms as well as smaller test sets to be located at the Kennedy Space Center and Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Wide-Viewing Angle Essential for NASA

According to Gregory Clements, lead engineer of the CLCS Subsystems Engineering division, NASA selected the MultiSync LCD2010 LCD monitors because of display quality as well as the reduction in space requirements, glare, cooling and power consumption and radiation emissions.

The LCD technology also allows for greater flexibility in the design of consoles and racks that house the displays. Clements sited that the most significant benefit to NEC's LCD technology was the wide-viewing angle due to NEC's XtraView^TM technology. Unlike other LCD technology, NEC's patented XtraView wide-viewing angle technology provides for 160-degree viewing angle both horizontal and vertically with no color degradation.

"It didn't take us long to realize how much more efficient we could be using the LCD 2010s," said Clements. "We particularly liked the portrait/landscape option and the XtraView wide-angle viewing capabilities. Being able to view data either horizontally or vertically will make it so much easier for our people to view documents, interpret test results and monitor important launch data. And, because XtraView provides wide viewing angles both up and down as well as left to right, it allows us to group several people looking over shoulders to view data on the screen, regardless of the orientation of the screen."

NASA CLCS Control Rooms

Announced in 1996, the CLCS project is a NASA-led effort at the Kennedy Space Center to design, develop and implement a new Checkout and Launch Control System. The CLCS project will feature major improvements over the current Launch Processing System (LPS) including the capability to monitor more than one orbiter from the same firing room.

A total of three control rooms and a number of smaller satellite centers are included in the re-design. NASA decided to incorporate commercial off-the shelf hardware and software to reduce system operating and upgrading costs. The project is expected to be completed and launch its first shuttle by April 2001.

MultiSync LCD Technology

NASA selected LCD technology over CRT because LCD monitors display high resolutions with virtually no image flicker. Selected for use in the CLCS renovation, the MultiSync LCD2010 is not only the world's largest LCD monitor, but also the world's largest Pivot Enabled display. Providing a full 20.1 inches of display area viewable in portrait or landscape mode, the LCD2010 allows, at the touch of a keystroke and a turn of the monitor, the image to be rotated 90 degrees.

In addition, the MultiSync LCD2010 can be permanently mounted to a wall, a portable arm, or any other mounting device that meets the VESA-approved LCD monitor-mounting standard. Additionally the LCD2010 runs across multiple operating system platforms. This enables NASA to use one display for both UNIX and PC platforms, further reducing the costs of support and training.

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Editor's Note:

*:	Architectural renderings of what the new NASA CLCS (Checkout and Launch Control System) can be found at http://lpsweb.ksc.nasa.gov/CLCS/ul/index.html. Please view cam5 or View1.