Mission Control Center
STS-66 Status Report #13

Thursday, November 10, 8 a.m. CST


Scientific observations of the sun, clouds and gases in the Earth's
atmosphere continued throughout the night as the Blue Team supported
operations for the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science. 

The Blue Team -- Pilot Curt Brown and Mission Specialists Jean-Francois
Clervoy and Scott Parazynski -- continued to monitor ATLAS-3
science-gathering activities, and Brown performed a series of maneuvers to
position the ATLAS instruments to observe the sun during orbital daylight
periods. 

After several "failed jet" messages were observed following a maneuver
earlier today, ground controllers had the crew check the forward hand
controller to verify its operation. Checkout validated performance in all
axes and flight controllers continue to study the possibility that
contacts in the hand controllers were transiently energized when the
flight control power was turned on. The problem does not impact any of the
Shuttle's current scientific work, since the smaller steering jets, or
verniers, are used to point the shuttle for the atmospheric observations. 

Clervoy took time to discuss the science and objectives of the STS-66
mission with European media representatives during an interview overnight. 

With the mission past its halfway point, the Red Team -- Mission Commander
Don McMonagle, Payload Commander Ellen Ochoa and Mission Specialist Joe
Tanner -- are scheduled to take a half day off today and the Blue Team
will take a half day off following wakeup late this afternoon.  The half
day off is a standard practice for Shuttle missions lasting more than 10
days. 

All systems on board Atlantis are performing well in support of the
science-gathering activities as the orbiter circles the Earth every 90
minutes at an altitude of approximately 161 x 158 nautical miles. 

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