baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke) (01/19/90)
----------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, January 18, 1990 Audio: 202/755-1788 ----------------------------------------------------------------- This is NASA headline news for Thursday, January 18......... The flight of Columbia has moved into its tenth day but not without some excitement this morning while the crew was asleep. Erroneous navigation data from Mission Control to the orbiter's automatic pilot led to the firing of small thrusters. They made an unexpected change in columbia's attitude. Mission Commander Dan Brandenstein was informed of the problem. He turned off the autopilot and took over control manually. After monitoring new data the autopilot was turned back on and the crew returned to sleep. This morning the crew spoke with President George Bush and then held an on-orbit news conference with reporters at the Johnson Space Center. In addition, Bonnie Dunbar used the remote manipulator arm to check out waste water dump nozzles...experiments were completed...and orbiter day-before-entry checks were conducted. The weather looks good for an early morning landing tomorrow at Edwards Air Force Base. A storm center over southern California is moving east and should pose no threat. Touchdown of the Columbia is scheduled for about 5:55 A.M., Eastern time, on the concrete runway. NASA has selected 23 new astronauts. The 1990 group includes the first woman to be selected as a pilot trainee. She is Air Force Major Eileen Collins. and...Thomas Sega, the husband of Bonnie Dunbar...now in space aboard the Columbia...was selected as a mission specialist. Mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory report the primary command computer and high gain antenna have been switched back on aboard the Magellan spacecraft heading for Venus. Earlier this month a data error was detected by the computer and the system went into a safe mode. With a command sequence being transmitted today the spacecraft will be back in a normal cruise state. Magellan is now 113-million miles from earth. Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov Jet Propulsion Lab M/S 301-355 | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov 4800 Oak Grove Dr. | Pasadena, CA 91109 |