STS-83 Day 1 Highlights

On Friday, April 4, 1997, 5:00 p.m. CST, STS-83 MCC Status Report # 1 reports:

The shuttle Columbia, carrying seven astronauts on board, blasted off at 1:21 p.m. Central time from the Kennedy Space Center.for the start of a 16-day Spacelab microgravity research mission.

Commander Jim Halsell, Pilot Susan Still, Mission Specialists Janice Voss, Mike Gernhardt and Don Thomas and Payload Specialists Roger Crouch and Greg Linteris blasted off into the mid-afternoon Florida skies en route to an orbit about 170 statute miles above the Earth. The crew will spend more than two weeks studying the behavior of metals, materials and fluids in the absence of gravity and the properties of combustion. The astronauts will be split into two teams to conduct that work on a round-the-clock basis in the pressurized Spacelab science module in Columbia's cargo bay.

After the astronauts opened up Columbia's cargo bay, Voss and Crouch began to activate Spacelab and experiment systems before entering the Spacelab about 2 and a half hours into the mission. The Red team, consisting of Halsell, Still, Thomas and Linteris, began a 7-hour sleep period at 5 p.m. They'll be will be awakened at midnight to pick up experiment work from Blue team members Voss, Crouch and Gernhardt, who are scheduled to begin a full 8-hour sleep period at 1:21 a.m. Saturday.

On Friday, April 4, 1997, 6:00 p.m. EST, STS-83 Payload Status Report # 01 reports: (MET 0/04:39)

This afternoon's picture-perfect launch of Space Shuttle Columbia began a 16-day joint effort by the United States and 23 other countries to explore a variety of scientific mysteries.

Just before 6 p.m. CST this evening, Payload Commander Dr. Janice Voss and Payload Specialist Dr. Roger K. Crouch floated into the Spacelab module aboard Columbia and began setting up their orbiting research laboratory.

"Everything's going great" said Mission Manager Teresa Vanhooser from the Spacelab Mission Operations Control Center at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "We've planned and practiced for this mission for a long time and it's wonderful to see it coming together so well."

Mission Scientist Dr. Mike Robinson of the Marshall Center said, "We're tremendously excited about the opportunities that await us. We can't wait to get down to business -- the business of fundamental scientific research in space."

Over the next 12 hours, working with the science control team at Marshall, Columbia's crew will begin their research by initiating the protein crystal growth experiments, and firing up the onboard furnace that uses electromagnetic force to suspend and mix various samples of molten metals and alloys. They will also start recording how small disturbances aboard the Shuttle's laboratory affect the experiments conducted onboard.

This mission, Microgravity Science Laboratory 1, is primarily dedicated to 33 experiments being conducted in the low-gravity environment of space. These investigations concentrate on unraveling mysteries in three main areas: protein crystals, combustion and the study of metals and alloys. Also, this mission will test some of the hardware, facilities and procedures that will be used on the International Space Station.

The unique benefit of research in microgravity is that important scientific processes normally masked by gravity can be studied and experiments which are impossible to conduct on the ground become feasible.

A major thrust of this mission's overall scientific effort is in the area of protein crystal growth. Grown in space, proteins ranging from insulin to HIV-Reverse-Transcriptase have been produced as larger, purer and new, never-before-seen crystal structures. Only by obtaining the highest possible quality of crystals can scientists achieve the ultimate goal of this research -- determining the three-dimensional structure or blueprint of the proteins. By unlocking the structural details, scientists can better understand how they fit into the overall biology of the human body.

Protein crystal growth is a recurring Space Shuttle experiment because there are over 300,000 proteins in the human body and scientists know the structure of less than 1 percent of them.

The three Protein Crystal Growth Experiments on this mission will attempt to grow a record number of nearly 1,500 protein crystal samples.

Knowledge from these studies will help to address the social costs of illnesses and diseases -- now estimated at $900 billion annually just in the United States. These include cancer, diabetes, alcoholism, Alzheimer's and AIDS. Proteins associated with all of these illnesses either have been studied in space or continue to be part of ongoing experiments.

Other experiments to be conducted aboard Columbia involve combustion science -- the study of burning. These are designed to help researchers gain an understanding of the characteristics of fuels and fires, which can lead to increased efficiency and reduced emissions in internal combustion engines.

In the United States, the yearly expenditure on crude oil is estimated by the American Petroleum Institute as nearly $200 billion. A mere 1 percent increase in fuel efficiency -- for instance, improving a car's gas mileage from 25 mpg to 25.25 mpg - - would translate into an overall savings for the United States of nearly 100 million barrels of oil a year, or roughly $5.5 million per day.

In another category of experiments, scientists will study the mixing of constituents in molten metals and alloys and the "undercooling" of these mixed metals. Undercooling followed by rapid freezing or solidification is the process by which snowflakes are made. A drop of liquid can be cooled to a temperature below its normal freezing point, yet still remain liquid. The freezing process, when it occurs for these undercooled liquids, is very rapid. When these metals solidify, unique materials result that cannot be made or studied in any other way. Understanding the undercooling mixing process could lead to better aircraft, car and truck engines, stronger construction materials, as well as better foundry methods. This research could also lead to better welding, casting and soldering techniques.

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