Mission Control Center
STS-66 Status Report #3

Friday, November 4, 5 p.m. CST

With instruments in the cargo bay working well and an instrument-laden
satellite safely deployed and flying in orbital formation, Atlantis' crew
has settled into the pace of atmospheric observations that will continue
throughout the mission. 

The Red Team on board Atlantis -- Commander Don McMonagle, Payload
Commander Ellen Ochoa and Mission Specialist Joe Tanner -- will complete
its first full 12-hour shift working with the Atmospheric Laboratory for
Applications and Science-3 (ATLAS-3) at about 9:30 p.m. The Blue Team --
Pilot Curt Brown and Mission Specialists Jean-Francois Clervoy and Scott
Parazynski-- will then go on duty to continue the 24-hour payload
operations. 

The Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the
Atmosphere-Shuttle Pallet Satellite (CRISTA-SPAS), released from Atlantis
this morning to fly free and study the sun for eight days, is now trailing
Atlantis by about 22 nautical miles, separating from the orbiter at a rate
of about three miles per orbit. During the afternoon, controllers for the
satellite prepared CRISTA-SPAS for the hands-off operations over the next
several days. Controllers refined the satellite's navigation via ground
commands to solve a brief problem with its precise pointing ability, but
CRISTA-SPAS is now working well as it aims the scientific instruments at
their planned targets. 

Ochoa took two brief breaks from her work today first to explain the
Measurement of Solar Constant Experiment, or SOLCON, to ground controllers
and then to answer questions about her research from high school honor
students during an interview with WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. 

The crew reported a minor problem with the resistance settings on an
exercise bicycle carried on board Atlantis, however the problem was solved
by manually setting the bike's tension for each astronaut. Exercise is a
constant feature of all shuttle missions for both ongoing medical studies
and as a method of counteracting the effects of weightlessness on the
body. 

Atlantis is currently in a 165 by 164 nautical mile orbit, circling Earth
each 90 minutes, 25 seconds. 

*   *   *