STS-78 Day 8 Highlights

Back to STS-78 Flight Day 07 Highlights:

On Thursday, June 27, 1996, 7:00 a.m. CDT, STS-78 MCC Status Report # 15 reports:

Life and Microgravity Spacelab experiments are continuing today as Columbia's astronauts document how space flight is affecting their minds and bodies.

Work will concentrate on sessions at the Human Behavior Workstation, which measures the ability of the astronaut to respond to changes in his or her environment. The crew will also conduct investigations with the Astronaut Lung Function Experiment, to measure the effects of microgravity and heavy exercise on pulmonary capability, and the Torque Velocity Dynamometer, which measures leg muscle strength.

The seven STS-78 astronauts were awakened shortly before 3 AM Central time today to the sound of "Every Breath You Take, Every Move You Make" by Police -- played in honor of the Lung Function experiment and the flight controllers in Mission Control overseeing what is expected to be the longest Shuttle flight in history. A decision by mission managers to extend the flight to 17 days for additional science will likely be made over the weekend after consultations with payload managers at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and a review of Shuttle systems.

Payload Commander Susan Helms is scheduled to be interviewed by KNX Radio in Los Angeles at 8:59 a.m. Central time and Commander Tom Henricks and Payload Specialist Jean-Jacques Favier will participate in an educational discussion of the mission's scientific aspects with French students at a Paris technical school at 2:39 p.m.

Columbia again is orbiting with its tail to the Earth to minimize disturbance to the microgravity experiments. There are no problems being tracked aboard the oldest orbiter in the Shuttle fleet.

On Thursday, June 27, 1996, 5:00 p.m. CDT, STS-78 Payload Status Report # 08 reports: (MET 007/07:00:00)

As the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia today entered its second week in space, the seven crew members conducted experiments primarily focusing on the effects of weightlessness on human physiology. Results from the studies of muscle activity, performance and sleep will help future mission planners organize crew schedules for greater efficiency and productivity.

The crew continued the Astronaut Lung Function Experiment extensively today. Payload Commander Susan Helms, Mission Specialists Dr. Richard Linnehan and Dr. Charles Brady, and Payload Specialist Dr. Robert Thirsk all took part in the experiment, headed by Dr. John West of the University of California in San Diego. The experiment may lead to a better understanding of how gravity affects the pulmonary system during rest and heavy exercise. According to the experiment's co-investigator, Dr. G.K. Prisk, also of the University of California in San Diego, today's lung investigations followed "excellent runs" Wednesday by Shuttle Commander Tom Henricks and Pilot Kevin Kregel.

For a second consecutive day, Henricks, Kregel, Thirsk and Payload Specialist Dr. Jean-Jacques Favier continued to enter responses to a battery of problem-solving tasks on the laptop computer Performance Assessment Work Station. Information from the almost-daily tests of the crew's mental function abilities will be used to create future crew schedules, taking advantage of peak mental performance periods. This morning Brady, Linnehan and Favier moved into a second consecutive day of musculoskeletal experiments on the Torque Velocity Dynamometer. They completed a series of left leg exercises while sensors monitored muscle activity. Crew members have used the dynamometer throughout the mission to measure how spaceflight affects arm and leg strength, power and endurance.

One of the life sciences experiments, tracing development of fish embryos, will conclude during Friday's crew shift. Thirty-six Medaka embryos -- a hardy fish embryo known to tolerate reduced temperatures well -- have been developing in the Space Tissue Loss Module onboard Columbia. Crew members have frequently monitored videos of the embryotic development, which has been simultaneously viewed by researchers on Earth. The goal of this experiment is to determine gravity's role in normal development.

Today, LMS Mission Scientist Dr. Patton Downey of the Marshall Center said the "ultimate results of this experiment will depend on analysis of the samples after the flight." But based on information gathered from the video transmissions, said Downey, "it appears that the samples in orbit are developing at a slower rate than the ground-controlled samples." That preliminary analysis, said Downey, "indicates that gravity is an important factor in the development process. One of the biggest mysteries in science is how you start from one cell and develop different types of structures and tissues. This experiment indicates that gravity may be an important factor in this development."

Two experiments continued today, in the microgravity sciences area, on the movements and interaction between pairs of bubbles and drops in liquids. This morning crew members removed an experiment from the Bubble, Drop and Particle Unit which began Wednesday afternoon that consisted of injecting drops of Fluorinet into silicone oil. Principal Investigator Dr. R.S. Subramanian of Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., then elected to schedule a second one-day run of his investigation that injects inert gas bubbles into silicone oil. Subramanian said his fluid physics experiment may help uncover processes involving gas bubbles, liquid drops or liquid layers. He said this research could lead to new high- strength metals and temperature-resistant glasses and ceramics.

On Wednesday a team of engineers and scientists at the Marshall Space Flight Center's Payload Crew Training Complex practiced an in-flight maintenance procedure on a model of the Bubble Drop Unit. The practice procedure was designed to route around a shorted cable in that unit. Tonight, a video of the ground practice is to be uplinked to Columbia before the crew begins its sleep period. Maintenance on the unit is now scheduled to be performed by the crew on Friday.

Teams of scientists and researchers on the ground at Marshall Center and other sites around the world continue their 24-hour observation and monitoring of the more than 40 experiments aboard Columbia. On previous Spacelab missions, most of the principal researchers for onboard experiments gathered at a central location. But for this mission, principal remote sites are operating in the United States, Belgium, France and Italy -- all are linked to the Marshall Center by a sophisticated teleconferencing network.

At Marshall Center for this mission, Dr. Graham Biddis of the European Space Agency, who serves as operations engineer for the Advanced Gradient Heating Facility, is helping to oversee an international group of researchers. "We have a multi-national team and we are working extremely well together," said Biddis. "I am pleased with the successful communication and cooperation among the international teams." This world-wide cooperative effort foreshadows similar science operations that are planned for the future International Space Station.

On Thursday, June 27, 1996, 6:00 p.m. CDT, STS-78 MCC Status Report # 16 reports:

With another day of scientific investigation behind them, Columbia's astronauts were set to begin an eight-hour sleep period at 6:19 this evening.

The crew continued its work in the Spacelab module today measuring changes in muscle strength and lung capacity, and working on a Human Behavior Workstation that measured their ability to respond to changes in their external environment.

Mission Specialist Chuck Brady held an unlit Olympic Torch aloft while exercising on the bicycle ergometer in the Spacelab today. He was joined by his crewmates on board in that informal salute to the 1996 Olympics which open July 19 in Atlanta.

Also this morning, Payload Commander Susan Helms discussed the STS-78 mission in an interview with KNX Radio in Los Angeles. In the afternoon, science students in Paris, France asked questions of French Payload Specialist Jean-Jacques Favier and Mission Commander Tom Henricks.

Late in the crew's day, flight controllers in Mission Control Houston and investigators in the Spacelab Operations Control Center in Huntsville, Alabama, used a videoteleconferencing system on Columbia to demonstrate a maintenance procedure on the Bubble Drop and Particle Unit experiment. The system allowed the crew and ground controllers to view a videotape of the procedure and discuss each step with each other as they worked through the procedure.

The astronauts will awaken to begin Flight Day 9 at 2:19 Friday morning. Columbia again is orbiting with its tail to the Earth to minimize disturbance to the microgravity experiments. There are no problems being tracked aboard the orbiter.

Go to STS-78 Flight Day 9 Highlights: