10/27/98
News directors: To arrange an interview with NASA consultant Fritz Hagerman, contact Dwight Woodward at (740) 593-1886.

ATHENS, Ohio -- John Glenn's shuttle ride may be good public relations for NASA and senior citizens, but no one should believe there is scientific merit to the flight, according to Fritz Hagerman, a NASA consultant and professor of physiology at Ohio University.

"I think everybody realizes it is a publicity ploy," said Hagerman, a member of NASA's 1998 Review Board for Facilities and Programs, a consulting group that reviewed NASA's overall mission. "It is a single case study and there is nothing to compare it with. I just wouldn't call it good science."

Hagerman, the U.S. Olympic Rowing Team's physiologist since 1968, was also a consultant on NASA's planned flight to Mars. He examined the impact of microgravity on muscle atrophy in mice and humans.

"It's just good public relations for NASA, and NASA could certainly use it," said Hagerman, who lists Glenn as on e of his personal heroes. "There hasn't been this much publicity around a space flight since the first one went up."