STS-78 Mission Control Center
Status Report #30

Thursday, July 4, 1996 5 p.m. CDT

With their sleep shifts now set on a schedule to prepare for Sunday's
planned return to Earth, the astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Columbia
will receive a wakeup call at 11:39 tonight to begin the sixteenth
flight day of the mission.

Earlier today, Commander Tom Henricks recognized America's
Independence Day by showing a television view of the U.S. from space
with patriotic music playing in the background.  He also paid tribute
to the service personnel killed and injured in the recent bombing in
Saudi Arabia.

Work in the Spacelab module continued today with investigations into
the effects of microgravity on muscle strength and endurance,
astronaut lung function, and adaptation of the neurovestibular system
to a microgravity environment.  Laboratory work will continue tomorrow
with several of the experiments being wrapped up in preparation for
the return trip home planned for Sunday morning at the Kennedy Space
Center in Florida.

Henricks and Pilot Kevin Kregel completed work with a laptop computer
designed to test the crew's critical thinking skills and reaction
time.  They also tested a voice control system that repositions
Columbia's closed-circuit television cameras with verbal cues.  The
test showed the feasibility of the experiment to free crew members'
hands for other tasks.

Columbia's twentieth spaceflight enters the last three days with no
orbiter problems being tracked by Mission Control.  The spacecraft is
circling the Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of 168 statute
miles.

The JSC newsroom is open around the clock throughout the STS-78
mission.

***

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