Ed Campion

Headquarters, Washington, D.C. February 26, 1990

(Phone: 202/453-1134) 3 p.m. EST

Jeffrey E. Carr
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 713/483-5111)

RELEASE: 90-31

VETERAN SHUTTLE ASTRONAUT WILLIAMS TO RETIRE FROM NASA, NAVY

Navy Capt. Donald E. Williams, veteran of two Shuttle

flights, will retire from NASA and the Navy, effective March 1,
to pursue a career in private industry.

"I reached my goal as a pilot, which was to command a

mission," said Williams. "Now it's time to go on to other
challenges. JSC and NASA have been a wonderful place to work and
I'm proud to have been a part of the team."

Williams was selected by NASA as an astronaut in 1978, and

made his first space flight in April 1985 as pilot of Discovery
on mission STS-51D, which included the first unscheduled
rendezvous and spacewalk. He flew again as crew commander of
Atlantis in October 1989 on mission STS-34, highlighted by the
deployment of the Jupiter probe, Galileo.

Prior to STS-34, Williams served as chief of the Astronaut

Office Mission Support Branch. He also served as Deputy Manager
of Operations Integration in the NSTS Program Office and as
Deputy Chief, Aircraft Operations Division during his years with
NASA.

Williams will be joining Science Applications International

Corporation in Houston as Senior Systems Engineer.

- end -

Beginning March 15, 1990, NASA news releases and other NASA
information is available electronically on CompuServe and GEnie,
the General Electric Network for Information Exchange. On the
same date, NASA information on the Dialcom electronic service
will be discontinued. For information on CompuServe, call
1-800-848-8199 and ask for representative 176. For information
on GEnie, call 1-800-638-9636.
TO: MDS/PRA Group
1615 L Street, N.W. - Suite 100
Washington, D.C. 20036

DATE & TIME: FEBRUARY 26, 1990

ORDERED BY: Edward Campion

NASA Headquarters/LMD
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20546 PHONE: 202/453-8400

PROJECT TITLE: Release No: 90-31

PRINT ORDER: 2217

PRINTING: Camera Ready, lst pg on NASA logo, other pages plain

ENCLOSE & MAIL: Release of 2 pages

MAIL DATE: FEBRUARY 27, 1990

EXTRA COPIES: Deliver specified quanities to locations below:

50 copies 275 copies 75 copies

-------------------- ------------------- -----------------
National Press Club NASA Mailroom NASA Newsroom
13th floor newsrack NASA Headquarters NASA Headquarters
National Press Building 600 Independ. Ave, SW 400 Maryland Ave, SW
529 14th Street, NW Room A16 Room 6043
Washington, DC 20045 Washington, DC 20546 Washington, DC 20546

MEDIA SUMMARY OPTION: Name-by-name media summary - 1 copy

CLIENT COMPUTER LISTS: Run the following:

LS-CA, LS-FA, LS-GA*27E, LS-KA

TYPE OF RELEASE & PIX: General news X 21:T-23:T

PUT ADDRESSING ON: Self-mailer

MEDIA SELECTION:

END OF ORDER FORM

END OF TRANSMISSION