ejbehr@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (Eric Behr) (06/16/91)
MISSION STATUS REPORT #18 -- FLIGHT DAY 9
11:30 a.m. CDT -- Thursday, June 13, 1991
Columbia's crew was awakened to The Nylons' "Chain Gang" an
hour and a half late following a restless night of
interuptions to switch cooling loops on the Research Animal
Holding Facility and move experiment samples from one freezer
to the other.
Following wakeup, the crew busily conducted the final hours
of work in the Spacelab collecting urine, blood and saliva
samples along with echocardiograph and pulmonary function
data.
The last Getaway Special canister at the back of the payload
bay was opened. This payload consists of six experiments
performing various tests concerned with aqueous phases,
growing organic crystals and thin films, metallic materials,
observing cosmic ray interactions and measuring cosmic
radiation on the genetic and chromosomal structure of yeast.
The orbiter crew also was busy this morning putting Columbia's
systems through their paces to verify readiness to support
tomorrow's deorbit, entry and landing at Edwards AFB, CA.
Columbia continues to perform very well as the crew prepares
to stow equipment in the cabin and Spacelab module for tomorrow's
return.
Weather predictions at Edwards for the landing appear to be
favorable with winds out of the southwest at 15 knots gusting
to 20. With landing scheduled for runway 22, a direct
headwind on the orbiter presents no problem for landing.
The touchdown time is set for approximately 10:39 a.m. CDT.
MCC STATUS REPORT #19 --- FLIGHT DAY 10
5:00 a.m. --- Friday, June 14, 1991
Planning shift flight controllers spent their overnight shift
monitoring systems and reviewing plans for the final steps in the
Spacelab module and orbiter deactivations procedures in addition
to plans for deorbiting and landing.
Columbia's orbiter crew, commander Bryan O'Connor, pilot Sid
Gutierrez, and mission specialist Tammy Jernigan, were awakened
to "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong at 2:44 a.m. CDT
while the remainder of the crew slept until 3:44 a.m.
Today the crew will power down the equipment in the Spacelab,
stow the KU-band antenna, and close the payload bay doors in
preparation for landing. The port payload bay door closing is
scheduled to occur about 6:24 a.m. CDT.
About five minutes before the port payload bay door closing,
Mission Specialist 1 Jim Bagian will reenter the Spacelab module
and put the final urine samples in the lab's freezer L9I which
overnight was empty. All other urine, blood and saliva samples
are stowed in the lab's other freezer unit L8I. Bagian then will
videotape the payload bay door closing to document how the door
closing occurs with the loose environmental seal on the orbiter's
aft bulkhead. The closing of the starboard payload bay door is
scheduled for 7:01 a.m. CDT.
Columbia's deorbit burn is scheduled for 9:37 a.m. CDT. The
deorbit burn occurs when the vehicle's engines fire about three
minutes. That slows the spacecraft which allows it to begin its
fall toward the Earth's atmosphere. Landing is expected to occur
at 10:39 a.m. CDT at Edwards Air Force Base in California on the
base's concrete runway 22.
Weather predictions at Edwards for the landing continue to be
favorable with winds out of the southwest at 12 knots gusting
to 20 knots.
Three of Columbia's crew members, O'Connor, Gutierrez and
Jernigan, will return to Houston about 10 hours after landing.
The remainder of the crew - Bagian, Seddon, Gaffney and Hughes-
Fulford - will stay at Edwards for a week of continued
experiments to learn more about how the human body readapts to
gravity after being in a weightless environment for nine days.
STS-40 Postlanding Report 6/14/91
The seven-member STS-40 crew glided to a landing aboard Columbia
this morning at Edwards Air Force Base. Columbia's reentry and landing
went nominally and weather at Edwards was exceptionally crisp and clear as
Columbia landed right on time at 11:39 am EDT on concrete runway 22.
Even though Columbia's mission is finished and commander Bryan O'Connor,
pilot Sid Gutierrez and mission specialist Tammy Jernigan have completed
their mission tasks, the other crewmembers have another seven days of
life science experiments and procedures awaiting them. Mission
specialists Rhea Seddon and Jim Bagian and payload specialists Millie
Hughes-Fulford and Drew Gaffney will remain at Dryden Flight Research
Facility in the medical science facility for a week's worth of experiments
which mirror those performed in the Spacelab. The post-landing life science
investigations are as important to an understanding of the effects of
weightlessness as were the on-orbit investigations.
O'Connor, Gutierrez and Jernigan are scheduled to depart for Houston
tonight. Columbia will be ferried back to Kennedy Space Center next week.
In yesterday's final mission science summary briefing, mission experiment
director Dr. Ron White said Columbia's crew had accomplished nearly
100 percent of the required experiments and also had gathered data from
additional crew subjects for several of the investigations. The few
experiments whose data requirements were not completely met are presently
scheduled to refly on SLS-2. The science data has been superb, according
to White, and will form an exceptionally solid foundation for the SLS-2
mission, as well as adding to the database required for space station studies.
--
Eric Behr, Illinois State University, Mathematics Department
Internet: ejbehr@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu Bitnet: ebehr@ilstu