yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) (10/22/89)
MISSION CONTROL STATUS REPORT #12 10 p.m. CDT, Friday, October 20, 1989 Today, the crew used the IMAX camera to film the Straits of Gibralter during two consecutive orbital passes, Greece and its many islands, the island of Crete, the Aswan Dam, the Nile River and its delta, and the deserts of Saudia Arabia, including the many irrigation circles visible from space. During the pre-sleep period at the end of their working day, the astronauts took IMAX film and still images of Japan and Mt. Fuji. Earlier in the evening, the crew was advised of an opportunity to photograph the planet Jupiter, the ultimate destination of the mission's main payload, the Galileo spacecraft. Dr. Ellen Baker, mission specialist 3, provided a description of the medical facilities and capabilities available on orbit. Tomorrow, Flight Day 4, the crew will continue to gather video data for the Mesoscale Lightning Experiment and photography for the IMAX movie, "The Blue Planet". Mission specialists will take views of the Earth and Sun for the Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SSBUV), calibrating and deactivating the experiment around 8:00 a.m. on orbits 53 and 54. In addition, the Polymer Morphology experiment is scheduled to initiate processing of samples 12, 15, and 16. The next Mission Control Status Report will be filed Saturday morning.