STS-90 MISSION ARCHIVE - COMPLETE Updated: 05/03/98 Shuttle Columbia/Neurolab By William Harwood CBS News/Kennedy Space Center The following copy originally was posted on the CBS News "Up To The Minute" Current Mission space page (http://uttm.com/space/missions/current.html). Comments and corrections welcome! TABLE OF CONTENTS -Shuttle Columbia glides to smooth landing (05/03/98) -Hydraulic system problem not considered serious (05/02/98) -Neurolab mission hailed as success (05/01/98) -Mission extension ruled out (04/30/98) -Blood pressure experiment goes well (04/29/98) -More neonates die; others rally (04/28/98) -Higher-than-expected death rate for neonates (04/27/98) -Astronauts enjoy half-day off (04/26/98) -Astronauts repair CO2 removal system (04/25/98) -Carbon dioxide removal system shuts down (04/24/98) -Vanna White calls shuttle crew (4/23/98) -Perchance to dream: Sleep research in space (04/22/98) -Ball catch experiment provides clues to nervous system (04/21/98) -Rats shed light on neural mapping (04/20/98) -Astronauts begin second day of science (04/19/98) -Shuttle crew kicks off science operations (04/18/98) -Shuttle Columbia rockets into orbit (04/17/98) -Shuttle launch delayed 24 hours (04/16/98) -Animals loaded aboard shuttle for research flight (04/15/98) -Countdown ticks smoothly toward shuttle launch (04/14/98) -Countdown begins for Neurolab mission (04/13/98) =================================================================== Shuttle Columbia glides to smooth landing (05/03/98) 10:30 p.m. Update: NASA mulls reflight; astronauts endure additional tests After 16 days poking, prodding and studying each other's adaptation to weightlessness, the Columbia astronauts returned to Earth today and began a fresh round of experiments to chart their re-adaptation to gravity. The shuttle's menagerie of mice, rats, crickets fish and snails was quickly moved from the orbiter to a nearby laboratory facility for behavioral studies and quick dissections to catch the initial phases of readaptation as they occurred. The astronauts, in turn, were subjected to a battery of tests to measure their autonomic adaptation, sleep patterns, balance and orientation and the way the brain regulates blood pressure. Many of the experiments they carried out in orbit are being repeated on the ground as the crew members adjust to the unfamiliar tug of gravity. "I believe the scientific return that comes out of the Neurolab flight is going to astounding," said commander Richard Searfoss. "Our mission is still really going on and will be, particularly for our payload crew, for the next several days. "With the Neurolab flight, we're adding to the compendium of knowledge we have ... of what happens when you take this variable of gravity away from living beings. There are a lot of ramifications for that, not only for astronauts but also for folks down here on the ground." Payload commander Richard Linnehan, a veterinarian, said the flight was so challenging for the crew "it just was a blur. I started calling it Blurrolab instead of Neurolab because I just could never remember what day it was or where we were, we just kept on going. And we knocked out the experiments, we had some excellent, excellent results on the human side." But Linnehan said he was surprised, then seriously concerned that 55 out of 96 neonatal rats on board died or had to be put to sleep. "There were some unfortunate happenings there on the animal side in that we had some deaths of neonate rats that flew in the research animal holding facilities," he said. "It turns out it was an unforeseeable event and it's regrettable that it happened. However, we still get back most of the primary science for all the PIs [principal investigators]." At a post-flight news conference 10 hours after landing, Linnehan thanked his crewmates for helping hand feed and care for the sick rats, saying "we had a veterinary ICU going in the [Spacelab] module for about a week. We checked these animals every night." While it's not yet known what caused the higher-than-expected mortality, Linnehan said it might have been caused by the design of the cages used to house the animals. "It may be just a function of the way the cages were built and the way the mothers moved around in the cages," he said. "Some of the animals were not able to maintain a hold or get to a mother at the certain times they needed to. We actually saw them free floating and they appeared to be doing well but I just don't think they could figure out the environment well enough to get to the mother and nurse. And so they became dehydrated. And as you know, when you become dehydrated you become depressed and that just is a cyclical thing that builds and builds and you get to the point where some of them just succumb to that." Shuttle program manager Tommy Holloway, meanwhile, said NASA managers will decide Monday or Tuesday whether to relaunch Columbia and its crew in August to carry out additional Neurolab research. A reflight is possible because of delays in the international space station program that have opened up a three-month gap in the shuttle flight schedule. "I expect we'll make that decision either tomorrow or Tuesday," Holloway said of the reflight option. "There are two or three things we need to think about, first of all the value of reflying Neurolab and what we can learn from it. Secondly, the overall workload across the system in terms of what the agency wants to do." Holloway said NASA currently is targeting Sept. 4 for launch of the first U.S. space station element, which means the first Russian element, a NASA-financed Russian-built core module called the FGB, would fly in mid August. But he held open the possibility the start of station assembly could get delayed to December or January. Senior NASA and Russian Space Agency planners will meet later this month at the Kennedy Space Center to set a firm station launch schedule. Late last month, U.S. and Russian managers met in Moscow to review progress building a critical Russian element called the service module. The service module, officially scheduled for launch in December, is running four months behind schedule. Going into the Moscow meetings, NASA managers wanted the Russians to agree to begin deorbiting the Mir space station this summer, resulting in a controlled re-entry in July 1999. The Russians had been holding open the possibility of flying Mir through December 1999, but NASA managers were concerned the Russians could not support both Mir and the international space station. Last week, senior Russian managers agreed to begin lowering Mir's altitude this summer and, based on progress building the international station, to deorbit Mir next summer. No one has said what NASA gave in return for the Mir concession, but the Russians are not known for giving much away when it comes to bargaining. U.S. agency sources say the Russians would like to delay the start of space station construction to November or December to help the country's income-generating commercial launch program. Such a slip would leave NASA with just three shuttle flights for the rest of 1998: A voyage to Mir in early June, Sen. John Glenn's flight in late October and STS-88, the first U.S. space station construction flight. Launch of a Hubble-class X-ray telescope currently scheduled for December would slip to late January under that scenario and a Neurolab reflight in August might make sense. If a second mission is approved, program scientist Mary Anne Frey said the crew would repeat many of the experiments carried out on the first flight and possibly add a half dozen others that were approved for flight but did not fit on the original mission. Whether Neurolab flies again or not, mission scientists are elated with the results of Columbia's voyage, saying the data obtained during the shuttle's 16-day flight "are really a precious resource that will help us unlock some of the mysteries of the brain." "It's a mission of firsts,"Frey continued. "The first direct nerve recordings from space, the first surgeries from space and the first joint recordings of sleep and respiration. And many others. For the most part, scientists received more data than they ever anticipated. And it's top quality. "The landing of the shuttle was one reason to cheer, but it ends only one phase of the Neurolab program," she said. "I wish I could tell you the results right now. But much remains to be done. They're collecting data to learn about the re-adaptation process. Some of this data collection will continue for months. At the same time, the data and tissues must be analyzed, evaluated and interpreted. That process is expected to take most of the next year to complete. Gay Holstein, a principal investigator with one of the rat experiments, said "I'm sitting here like a little kid with ants in my pants. I can't wait to get going on my experiment." 12:20 p.m. Update: Shuttle Columbie glides to smooth landing Dropping out of a cloudless blue sky, the space shuttle Columbia glided to a smooth touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center today to wrap up a successful 16-day mission to probe how the brain and nervous system are affected by weightlessness. Scientists were standing by to rush lab rats to a nearby facility for post-flight dissections to study the initial changes that occur with the onset of gravity. "One of the major things a lot of our investigators want to look at is this recovery phase in the animals," said Joe Bielitzki, NASA's chief veterinarian. "And so they want to be able to do their dissections as quickly as possible. Everybody's figuring that between five and six o'clock the bulk of the animals will be at the hangar and in the investigators' hands." The astronauts, too, face a battery of post-flight tests to chart their re-adaptation to gravity as they await word on a decision whether or not they will be cleared to blast off again in August aboard Columbia to collect additional data. The proposed re-flight would take advantage of a gap in shuttle flights caused by delays in the international space station program. A decision one way or the other is expected in the next few days. With commander Richard Searfoss and pilot Scott Altman at the controls, Columbia began its fiery descent with a rocket firing at 11:10 a.m. that slowed the shuttle enough to drop it out of orbit. Crossing the coast of California just north of San Francisco, Columbia streaked across the southwest United States and then over the Gulf Coast region before reaching the Kennedy Space Center. As always, the shuttle's arrival was heralded by twin sonic booms, giving thousands of Sunday beach goers a special treat. Searfoss took over manual control at an altitude of about 50,000 feet, guiding Columbia through a sweeping right turn to line up on runway 33 at the Florida spaceport and then settled to a flawless landing at 12:08:59 p.m. The flight spanned 255 complete orbits - 6.6 million miles - since blastoff April 17 from nearby launch pad 39B. "Wheels stopped, Houston" Searfoss radioed as the shuttle coasted to a halt. "Welcome home, Columbia," replied astronaut Kent Rominger from mission control. "A beautiful landing, Rick, and congratulations to you and your crew." The 90th shuttle flight was devoted to studying how the brain and nervous system adapt to weightlessness and then re-adapt to gravity. Twenty six peer-reviewed experiments were carried out inside a Spacelab research module mounted in Columbia's cargo bay, 11 devoted to human studies and 15 devoted to animal research. Most of the experiments carried out aboard Columbia went smoothly, although more than half the 96 neonatal rats on board died unexpectedly, either due to maternal neglect, lactation problems or some other factor. Even so, researchers say they should be able to accomplish nearly all of their primary scientific objectives. The high neonate mortality rate "affected six of the animal investigators," Bielitzki said. "We won't know until we really see what we've got [after landing], but we're still fairly positive they're going to get 70 percent of what they planned under optimal conditions. So the net science loss is probably eight to 10 percent of 100 percent. Some investigators got 130, 140 percent. But it was problem, we would have liked to have had a full complement of animals." He said investigators would figure out what went wrong, adding "This is something we've got to resolve or we can't go on with these kind of studies. It may be an environmental factor, it may be weightlessness, it may be stress induced." Searfoss, Altman, flight engineer Kay Hire, veterinarian Richard Linnehan, Canadian astronaut Dafydd Williams and guest researchers James Pawelczyk and Jay Buckey Jr. were expected to leave the shuttle about an hour after touchdown. They face a variety of post-landing exams and tests to chart their re-adaptation to gravity and all told, scientists expect to take about a year to fully evaluate research data from the mission. 11:15 a.m. Update: Shuttle braking rockets fired Flying upside down and backward over the southern Indian Ocean, shuttle commander Richard Searfoss and pilot Scott Altman fired the shuttle's twin braking rockets at 11:10 a.m. for two minutes and 21 seconds, slowing the vehicle by about 154 mph and dropping it out of orbit. Landing on runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center is scheduled for 12:09 p.m. The weather at the Florida spaceport is ideal, with a cloudless blue sky and light winds, and there are no technical problems of any significance beyond the hydraulic system cooling issue discussed below. This status report will be updated aft 6:45 a.m. Update: Shuttle astronauts set for landing The Columbia astronauts are readying the shuttle for landing today at the Kennedy Space Center to close out a successful 16-day mission to study the inner workings of the brain and nervous system. With good weather expected, commander Richard Searfoss and pilot Scott Altman plan to fire Columbia's twin braking rockets at 11:10:20 a.m. for two minutes and 21 seconds, slowing the shuttle by 154 mph to set up a touchdown on runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center at 12:09:09 p.m. The only technical issue of any significance is a cooling system problem with one of the shuttle's three hydraulic power units. Without cooling, auxilliary power unit No. 3 cannot run more than about 10 minutes without overheating. As a result, Columbia's crew will delay starting APU 3 until about six-and-a-half minutes before landing. The shuttle can easily fly with two APUs and entry flight director John Shannon characterized the cooling glitch as a relatively minor problem (see Saturday's status report below for additional details). Here is today's re-entry timeline: TIME.........EVENT 07:10 a.m....Crew switches to deorbit timeline 08:30 a.m....The shuttle's payload bay doors are closed 08:52 a.m....OPS-3 entry software is loaded 09:16 a.m....The astronauts review entry procedures 09:45 a.m....The crew begins donning pressure suits 10:49 a.m....Mission control gives a "go" for deorbit ignition 11:10 a.m....Deorbit burn 11:37 a.m....The shuttle falls into the discernible atmosphere 12:09 p.m....Columbia lands on runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center The astronauts have two opportunities on successive orbits to land at the Kennedy Space Center. If they can't make either one for some reason, Columbia will remain in orbit an additional day and the astronauts will try again Monday. Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., is not an option for today. Here are both of today's landing options: ORBIT....TIME............EVENT...............DETAILS 255......11:10:20 a.m....Deorbit ignition....dV: 226 fps; dT: 2:21 .........11:37:17 a.m....Atmospheric entry...4,433 n. miles to KSC .........12:02:51 p.m....Mach 2.5............Altitude: 79,400 feet 256......12:09:09 p.m....Landing.............Runway 33 256......12:44:42 p.m....Deorbit ignition....dV: 225 fps; dT: 2:20 .........01:11:35 p.m....Atmospheric entry...4,434 n. miles to KSC .........01:37:07 p.m....Mach 2.5............Altitude: 79,400 feet 257......01:43:24 p.m....Landing.............Runway 33 Columbia's flight was devoted to studying how the brain and nervous system develop and adapt in weightlessness. Scientists also are interested in how the nervous system re-adapts to gravity after the return to Earth. Landing at the Kennedy Space Center is critical because that's where scientists are stationed to carry out post-flight rat dissections to study the onset of that re-adaptation. Joseph Bielitzki, NASA's chief veterinarian, said the animals should be out of Columbia's Spacelab module and in the laboratory by about 5 p.m. if the shuttle lands on time. This status report will be updated periodically as events warrant. =================================================================== Hydraulic system problem not considered serious (05/02/98) 3:00 p.m. Update: Hydraulic problem considered minor; good weather expected for Sunday landing The shuttle Columbia's crew packed up today for a return to Earth Sunday to close out a successful 16-day science mission. One of the ship's three hydraulic power units has a problem with its cooling system, but the shuttle can easily land with just two auxilliary power units and entry flight director John Shannon classified the problem as minor. "I don't consider it to be really any additional risk," he said at an afternoon news briefing. In any case, he added, the third hydraulic system will be turned on six-and-a-half-minutes before touchdown, giving the crew full redundancy for the most demanding portion of the shuttle's final descent. And contrary to misleading wire service reports, this is not a case of lost power or a crippled shuttle limping home. Even during the 40 minutes when the third auxilliary power unit, or APU, is not operating, "the crew will not notice any change in the vehicle's flying characteristics," Shannon said. For the record, a virtually identical problem cropped up during shuttle mission STS-43 in August 1991 and the crew had no problem with landing. And during mission STS-79 in 1996, one of the shuttle Atlantis's APUs failed outright during launch and was not used at all during entry. Again, the landing was uneventful and flight controllers don't expect any problems Sunday with Columbia. Flying upside down and backward over the southern Indian Ocean, commander Richard Searfoss and pilot Scott Altman plan to fire Columbia's twin braking rockets at 11:10:20 a.m. Sunday to drop the ship out of orbit. Touchdown on runway 33 is expected at 12:09:09 p.m. A second opportunity is available one orbit later, at 1:43:24 p.m. Here are the latest times for both landing opportunities Sunday: ORBIT....TIME............EVENT...............DETAILS 255......11:10:20 a.m....Deorbit ignition....dV: 226 fps; dT: 2:21 .........11:37:17 a.m....Atmospheric entry...4,433 n. miles to KSC .........12:02:51 p.m....Mach 2.5............Altitude: 79,400 feet 256......12:09:09 p.m....Landing.............Runway 33 256......12:44:42 p.m....Deorbit ignition....dV: 225 fps; dT: 2:20 .........01:11:35 p.m....Atmospheric entry...4,434 n. miles to KSC .........01:37:07 p.m....Mach 2.5............Altitude: 79,400 feet 257......01:43:24 p.m....Landing.............Runway 33 As for the weather forecast, "it was a real good call not to extend the mission one day for science," Shannon said today. "There is a front that we expect to start to affect the Cape weather on Monday, it will bring rain showers and low cloud ceilings. As for tomorrow's forecast, though, we're in pretty good shape. It looks like we will not have any precipitation, any low cloud ceilings. The only thing that could affect us tomorrow is crosswinds. The wind right now is expected to blow straight out of the west between eight and 14 knots. Our limit for the shuttle is 15 knots so we'll obviously be watching that real closely." The APU problem is the only technical issue of any significance affecting Columbia. The shuttle relies on three APUs to provide the hydraulic power needed to move the ship's rudder, elevons and rocket nozzles during launch. They also drive the orbiter's landing gear brakes and steering systems. The APUs are only used during launch and re-entry and a shuttle can safely land (in good weather) with just one operational APU. Shortly after launch on April 17, engineers noticed the cooling system used by APU 3 failed to activate when the unit's temperature limit was reached. APUs are cooled by water spray boilers that literally spray water on critical components when the temperature gets too high. APUs typically run for about 10 minutes before they get hot enough to require cooling. Engineers suspected an ice buildup in the water spray boiler and they expected it to melt by the end of the mission. To find out, the astronauts started APU 3 today to support a routine day-before-landing test of critical entry systems. "We expected to see cooling on it today, we thought maybe we just had some ice in there during ascent," Shannon said. "That turned out not to be the case. We let the APU run for a little over 10 minutes, we reached our limit, did not see any cooling on it. We swapped the electronic controllers. We still had no cooling so we went ahead and shut the system down." The normal flight plan for re-entry calls for a shuttle crew to start one APU five minutes before the rocket firing that drops the ship out of orbit. The other two are started about 15 minutes later, 13 minutes before the shuttle's falls into the discernible atmosphere at an altitude of 400,000 feet. For Columbia's landing, Shannon said the crew will delay starting APU 3, the one with the cooling problem, until the shuttle slows to a velocity of 2.5 times the speed of sound, which will occur about six-and-a-half minutes before touchdown at an altitude of 79,400 feet. Cooling typically is not required until an APU has run for more than 10 minutes so all three will be available during the final phases of the descent when hydraulic power is needed most. 9:00 a.m. Update: Hydraulic power unit shows additional cooling problems During a routine day-before-entry checkout of the shuttle's hydraulic system, auxilliary power unit No. 3 failed to cool properly with either of its two electronic controllers. This is the same APU that experienced cooling problems shortly after Columbia reached orbit. Flight controllers suspected the power unit's cooling system had iced up, which happens from time to time, and that it would work normally later in the mission. For that reason, the astronauts fired up APU 3 for today's flight control system checkout and again, the cooling system failed to work. The shuttle relies on three APUs to provide the hydraulic power needed to move the ship's rudder, elevons and rocket nozzles during launch. They also drive the orbiter's landing gear brakes and steering systems. The APUs are only used during launch and re-entry. If the problem with APU 3's cooling cannot be corrected, the astronauts likely will make most of their descent Sunday using just two APUs, waiting to start No. 3 until just a few minutes before touchdown. That shouldn't be a problem because the shuttle can land with just one operational APU. But APUs are critical pieces of hardware - the shuttle cannot land without hydraulic power - and flight controllers want as much redundancy as possible to protect against additional failures. This topic will be discussed in more detail during today's mission status briefing with entry flight director John Shannon. But again, this is not expected to be a problem Sunday. 7:30 a.m. Update: Astronauts try hand as plumbers The Columbia astronauts are conducting a few final Neurolab experiments today and gearing up for landing Sunday to close out a 16-day mission. Earlier today, commander Richard Searfoss transferred 70 pounds of waste water from the shuttle's septic tank to a rubber contingency water bag, which was then stowed for re-entry. With Columbia's waste water dump line clogged, the transfer procedure freed up enough space in the holding take to accommodate the crew's sewage requirements even if bad weather or some other problem delays re-entry all the way to Tuesday. The transfer procedure went smoothly, Searfoss said, with no leaks or unpleasant odors. "We'd like to join the plumber's union," Searfoss joked when the work was complete. The commander, pilot Scott Altman and flight engineer Kay Hire then turned their attention to a routine day-before-landing checkout of the shuttle's hydraulic system, cockpit displays and steering jets to make sure the orbiter is shipshape and ready for the long glide back to the Kennedy Space Center. Around noon today, the crew will stow Columbia's KU-band antenna, ending routine television transmissions from the shuttle. The orbiter's payload crew, meanwhile - Richard Linnehan, Dafydd Williams, James Pawelczyk and Jay Buckey - pressed ahead with a few final Spacelab experiments before beginning the tedious process of stowing gear and preparing their Spacelab research module for entry. Partial deactivation will begin around 2:30 p.m. A news briefing with entry flight director John Shannon is scheduled for 1 p.m. and an updated weather forecast and other details will be posted here as soon as possible. In the meantime, here's today's timeline of crew activities: 04:19 a.m....Crew wakeup 07:24 a.m....Richard Searfoss, Scott Altman and Kay Hire conduct the reaction control system hot-fire test to insure Columbia's readiness for entry and landing tomorrow 07:39 a.m....Searfoss, Altman and Hire activate one auxiliary power unit and conduct the flight control system checkout to insure Columbia has full use of flight control surfaces for tomorrow's entry and landing 07:44 a.m....Richard Linnehan resupplies water for the rodents; Dafydd Williams and James Pawelczyk conduct vestibular experiments 10:19 a.m....Linnehan and Jay Buckey conduct vestibular experiments 10:29 a.m....Searfoss, Linnehan and Hire conduct landing sims with the PILOT computer 10:59 a.m....Several crewmembers begin cabin stow; Buckey stows the vestibular experiment 11:49 a.m....Altman conducts communications checks with landing sites in California and Florida for tomorrow's entry; Linnehan stows Columbia's KU-band communications antenna 01:00 p.m....Mission status briefing 01:29 p.m....The astronauts conduct a deorbit briefing among themselves 01:59 p.m....Searfoss and Altman stow the bicycle ergometer device; others resume cabin stow; Pawelczyk begins to deactivate Spacelab science payload components 02:29 p.m....Linnehan and Williams conduct a partial deactivation of the Spacelab module 03:49 p.m....Searfoss stows the port radiator 04:04 p.m....Private medical conference 04:34 p.m....Searfoss initiates a waste water dump 05:00 p.m....Daily video highlights reel; repeated hourly through crew wakeup 07:59 p.m....Crew sleep begins And here is today's morning status report from the Johnson Space Center: STS-90 Mission Control Center Status Report #31 Saturday, May 2, 1998 - 7 a.m. EDT With nearly all of their science studies complete, Columbia's astronauts were awakened at 4:29 a.m. EDT today to begin a busy day preparing for their return to the Kennedy Space Center late Sunday morning. Commander Rick Searfoss is scheduled to route a line from Columbia's waste tank to a Contingency Waste Container (CWC) to offload about 80 pounds of waste water throughout the course of the day. This will ensure that the tank's capacity will be adequate to support as much as two additional days in orbit in the event Columbia cannot land as planned due to weather conditions. Columbia's science crew -- Mission Specialists Rick Linnehan and Dave Williams and Payload Specialists Jim Pawelczyk and Jay Buckey -- will wrap up science activities this morning when they complete some vestibular experiments. Crew members also will begin cabin stowage activities. Searfoss, Pilot Scott Altman and Mission Specialist Kay Hire will conduct a hot-fire test of the shuttle's reaction control system to ensure Columbia's readiness for tomorrow's entry and landing. About an hour later, they will activate one auxiliary power unit and check out the flight control system to make sure Columbia has full use of its flight control surfaces in anticipation of Sunday's landing. They also will conduct landing simulations with the Portable In-flight Landing Operations Trainer (PILOT). The astronauts will conduct a deorbit briefing among themselves early in the afternoon. Payload commander Rick Linnehan will replenish water supplies and carry out other routine husbandry tasks for the rodents on board and the science crew will put away experiment hardware and partially deactivate the Spacelab module. Columbia's KU-band communications antenna also will be stowed just before 12 p.m. today. Meteorologists are forecasting favorable conditions at the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday for a landing at 12:09 p.m. EDT. Columbia remains in a 150 x 131 nautical mile orbit, circling the Earth every 90 minutes. =================================================================== Neurolab mission hailed as success (05/01/98) 5:30 p.m. Update: Astronauts wrapup experiments; look to Sunday landing The Columbia astronauts completed a final round of neonatal rat dissections today and while a few final experiment runs remain to be carried out Saturday, mission scientists are declaring the Neurolab flight a productive success. "From an overall mission science point of view, although we have a couple of important activities left tomorrow morning, I think we can conclude already that this Neurolab mission has been a great success with regard to the data collected," said mission manager Jerry Homick. "We went into this mission facing a number of challenges. We knew we had a difficult timeline to work with, we knew that we had a number of complex hardware systems ... to acquire the data and we knew we were going to be implementing a number of very difficult experimental procedures using cutting edge technologies. "With all of that in mind, we did expect to achieve a great deal of success with this mission and I'm pleased to report that I think we've exceeded our expectations," he said. Along with wrapping up the neonate dissections, the astronauts concluded an experiment to learn more about how the brain tracks moving objects and coordinates muscle activity to carry out seemingly simple tasks like catching a ball. Other tests were carried out to shed light on how baby rats learn how to orient themselves and move about in the absence of gravity. While the neonates have experienced a higher mortality rate than expected - 52 of 96 animals have died - the situation appears to have stabilized, thanks to hand feeding and increased crew attention. As of late this afternoon, 38 healthy neonates remained available for post-flight observation and study. Flight controllers, meanwhile, have not been able to do much about a clog in the shuttle's waste water dump line. Excess water and waste from the orbiter's toilet are routinely dumped overboard during shuttle flights. The current clog developed late in the mission, after the waste tank had been dumped to 30 percent. A subsequent dump lowered the level still more and there's no issue for an on-time landing Sunday. But the waste tank would not be able to accommodate an extra day in space should Sunday's re-entry be delayed for any reason. As a result, flight controllers are expected to ask the crew to divert waste water into a large rubber bag called a contingency water container as a precaution. Two such bags are on board. "We can get to end of mission," said Jeff Bantle, a NASA mission operations manager. "But if for some reason we wave off, we wouldn't have enough ullage in the tank to go past end of mission. So we've been discussing filling what we call a contingency water container. It's a plastic, kind of vinyl bag with a bladder inside. We've used it before. ... So that's the way we're probably headed at this point. That's probably the most prudent thing to do right now, to go ahead and fill up a CWC, as we call it, and then we can go well past end of mission." 7:00 a.m. Update: Shuttle crew troubleshoots drain clog The Columbia astronauts are working through another busy day of Neurolab research, dissecting neonate rats, working with the ball catch experiment and studying the adaptation of other neonates to the absence of gravity. Early today, commander Richard Searfoss was asked to attempt another shuttle waste water dump in continuing efforts to troubleshoot an apparent clog in the shuttle's sewage system. A day-and-a-half ago, the crew was unable dump the contents of the waste tank overboard because of some sort of blockage. Flight controllers asked Searfoss and pilot Scott Altman to bypass a suspect filter and while that appeared to work briefly, the line remained stopped up. That's not a problem because there's plenty of room remaining in the onboard tanks for the remainder of Columbia's flight. If worse came to worse, the crew could always divert waste water into large rubber bags on board for just that purpose. In the meantime, troubleshooting continues. With landing on tap Sunday (see the Reporter's Notebook below for preliminary deorbit and landing times), the astronauts are wrapping up their orbital research. Here's today's timeline: 07:39 a.m....Dafydd Williams and James Pawelczyk begin neonate dissection procedures 08:49 a.m....Jay Buckey begins the ball catch experiment and is joined by Pawelczyk 09:49 a.m....Richard Linnehan joins the neonate dissection procedures; Kay Hire reservices the water supply for other rodents 11:29 a.m....Linnehan and Williams stow the general purpose workstation 11:49 a.m....Richard Searfoss, Altman and Hire conduct landing sims with the PILOT computer 01:24 p.m....Searfoss cleans orbiter filters; Linnehan and Williams conduct the ball catch experiment 02:04 p.m....Searfoss and Hire replenish the feeder for the rodents; Buckey studies the dexterity of the remaining neonates 03:09 p.m....WALA-TV/Mobile Press Register interview the astronauts 03:30 p.m....Mission status/science briefing 03:49 p.m....Linnehan and Pawelczyk conduct the ball catch experiment; Hire deactivates the Bioreactor Demonstration System; Scott Altman deactivates the sequential still video device 05:00 p.m....Daily video highlights reel; repeated hourly until crew wakeup 07:44 p.m....Private medical conference 08:29 p.m....Crew sleep begins Here's today's morning status report from the Johnson Space Center: STS-90 Mission Control Center Status Report #29 Friday, May 1, 1998 -- 7 a.m. EDT Columbia's astronauts were awakened at 4:55 a.m. EDT today to begin their third week of studying how the brain and nervous system adapt to the weightless environment of space. Overnight, flight controllers continued to work on possible solutions to an apparent blockage in Columbia's waste water dump line. Commander Rick Searfoss and Pilot Scott Altman yesterday bypassed a clogged filter, routed a hose through a spare filter and vented waste water overboard, but the blockage remained. Columbia's science crew will turn its attention to dexterity tests and dissections of additional rat neonates and the ball-catch experiment. Mission Specialists Rick Linnehan and Dave Williams and Payload Specialist Jim Pawelczyk will dissect the newborn rats. The dexterity test will test the response of young rats as they are tilted and turned while walking and climbing on a special apparatus with various surfaces. Later, all four payload crew members will repeat the ball-catch experiment. This experiment studies the ability of the central nervous system to accept and interpret new stimuli in space. The astronauts have performed this test at various points in the mission so scientists can compare their responses as their bodies adapt to weightlessness. Mission Specialist Kay Hire will deactivate the Biotechnology Demonstration System (BDS), which is being used to grow human kidney cells and bone marrow cells in three dimensions. This afternoon, Hire will be interviewed by WALA-TV and the Press Register, both of Mobile, Ala. This event will be carried on NASA Television at 3:09 p.m. EDT. Hire, Commander Rick Searfoss and Pilot Scott Altman will continue to hone their piloting skills in preparation for Sunday's planned landing at the Kennedy Space Center by once again using the Portable In-flight Landing Operations Trainer (PILOT). Consisting of a laptop computer and a joystick system, PILOT helps to maintain a high level of proficiency for the end-of-mission approach and landing tasks required to bring Columbia safely back to Earth after this long mission. Altman also plans to replenish the air supply for the crickets living in the Botany Experiment Incubator (BOTEX) unit onboard. This experiment with crickets in various stages of development will provide information about the relative importance of the environment and other external stimuli such as gravity on nervous system development. Linnehan, Searfoss and Hire also will carry out routine husbandry tasks for the rodents on board. The preliminary weather forecast at the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday looks favorable for a landing at 12:09 a.m. EDT. Columbia remains in a 151 x 131 nautical mile orbit, circling the Earth every 90 minutes. =================================================================== Mission extension ruled out (04/30/98) 6:00 p.m. Update: Shuttle landing options outlined The shuttle Columbia's crew has wrapped up the day's orbital research while flight controllers look ahead to a landing attempt Sunday to close out a 16-day mission. At a news conference this afternoon, Neurolab scientists said they decided not to ask for an additional day in space because of the prospects that deteriorating weather that could divert the shuttle and its biological samples to a California landing. "We looked at the mission extension and it was tempting," said science manager Lele Newkirk. "But because we have Sunday and Monday to land at Kennedy - Kennedy being our primary landing site, obviously - we chose to land on Sunday. The KSC landing is important primarily to the (animal) projects, that's where we want to receive all the animals and they do all the post-flight data collection down there." Sunday's weather looks good, giving the shuttle crew two landing opportunities on successive orbits. Two more opportunities will be available Monday, although conditions will not be quite as good. If the flight had been extended one day, and if the shuttle failed to get back to Kennedy on Monday, the odds would go up for a California landing Tuesday. "We looked at the pros and cons," said Newkirk. "But the factor of getting into Kennedy was critical to the [animal] program. We felt we wanted two attempts into Kennedy on Sunday and two attempts Monday, also, so that we could have a very good chance of coming home to Kennedy." Here are the latest landing and entry numbers from mission control: REV....SITE...DEORBIT......LANDING SUNDAY 255....KSC....11:11 a.m....12:09 p.m. 256....KSC....12:46 a.m....01:43 p.m. MONDAY 271....KSC....11:06 a.m....12:04 p.m. 272...*EDW....12:32 p.m....01:30 p.m. KSC....12:40 p.m....01:38 p.m. 273...*EDW....02:06 p.m....03:04 p.m. *Assumes Edwards AFB, California is staffed for landing support) And here is the crew's deorbit timeline for the first opportunity Sunday: TIME........EVENT 07:06 a.m...The crew begins working from the deorbit prep timeline 08:31 a.m...The shuttle's cargo bay doors are closed 08:40 a.m...Columbia's flight computers begin running OPS-3 entry software 09:44 a.m...The astronauts begin donning their entry suits 10:11 a.m...Seat Ingress 10:33 a.m...Braking rocket gimbal check 10:50 a.m...Mission control "go" for deorbit ignition 10:52 a.m...Columbia maneuvers to the deorbit orientation 11:11 a.m...Deorbit ignition 12:09 p.m...Landing at the Kennedy Space Center 1:00 p.m. Update: NASA rules out mission extension NASA's mission management team this morning ruled out a one-day mission extension for the shuttle Columbia's crew, keeping the astronauts on schedule to land at the Kennedy Space Center at 12:09 p.m. Sunday. Two landing opportunities on successive orbits Sunday will fall between two frontal systems, forecasters say, which should result in favorable conditions at the runway. The outlook for Monday and Tuesday calls for deteriorating weather. A high priority for Columbia's Neurolab mission is getting the crew's biological samples - insects, fish and tissue from dissected rats and mice into laboratories at the Kennedy Space Center as soon as possible after landing to maximize the science return. The mission management team decided the need to assure a Florida landing outweighed the value of any additional science that could be performed during an extra day in space and the crew was ordered to stick to its original schedule. 7:00 a.m. Update: Astronauts await word on possible mission extension NASA's mission management team meets later this morning to decide whether to extend the shuttle Columbia's mission by one day to collect additional data about how the brain and nervous system adapt to weightlessness. To properly process the many biological samples on board and to maximize the scientific return from the mission, Columbia must land at the Kennedy Space Center and a major factor in the decision on whether to extend or not will be the long-range weather forecast. Will advise. Otherwise, the astronauts are gearing up for another busy day of research activity, carrying out more rat dissections and participating in experiments to probe the inner workings of their own balance and orientation systems. This is the final flight of a $1 billion European-built Spacelab research module and at 3:45 p.m., commander Richard Searfoss and Richard Linnehan will chat with officials in Germany about the end of what has been a remarkably successful program. Here's the rest of today's timeline: 08:19 a.m....Richard Linnehan and Jay Buckey begin rodent dissection procedures 09:34 a.m....Kay Hire resupplies water for the rodents 09:39 a.m....Dafydd Williams conducts visuo-motor coordination experiments 11:25 a.m....Andy Thomas aboard Mir space station is interviewed by WESH-TV and WUSA-TV 12:19 p.m....Williams and James Pawelczyk pick up the rodent dissection procedures from Linnehan and Buckey 12:54 p.m....Hire conducts Bioreactor Demonstration System 01:49 a.m....Scott Altman conducts landing sims with the PILOT computer 02:24 p.m....Buckey conducts visuo-motor coordination experiments 02:39 p.m....Richard Searfoss uses the trash compactor to condense refuse on board Columbia 03:04 p.m....Searfoss conducts landing sims with the PILOT computer 03:45 p.m....European Space Agency Spacelab Farewell PAO Event with Searfoss and Linnehan (ZDF-TV) 04:30 p.m....Mission status briefing 05:00 p.m....Daily video highlights reel; repeated hourly through crew wakeup 05:54 p.m....Private medical conference 08:29 p.m....Crew sleep begins IF A MISSION EXT And here is today's morning status report from the Johnson Space Center in Houston: STS-90 Mission Control Center Status Report #27 Thursday, April 30, 1998 -- 7 a.m. EDT Mission Control awakened ColumbiaÕs seven astronauts at 5:09 a.m. EDT this morning to complete their second week of research into how the nervous system adapts to the weightless environment of space. Flight controllers worked overnight reviewing information and evaluating possible solutions to an apparent blockage in ColumbiaÕs waste water dump line. They believe the problem is most likely caused by a clogged filter, and commander Rick Searfoss and pilot Scott Altman have been asked to try an in-flight maintenance procedure to bypass the filter. The problem should have no impact on mission operations or duration. Members of the Mission Management Team are expected to meet later this morning and make a final decision about whether to extend the Neurolab mission by an additional day. Landing currently is set for 12:09 a.m. EDT on Sunday, May 3. Columbia has ample consumable supplies to support a mission extension. TodayÕs activities will focus on the efforts of NeurolabÕs Neuronal Plasticity Team to better understand how the adult nervous system adapts to the new environment of space. ColumbiaÕs science crew -- Mission Specialists Rick Linnehan and Dave Williams and Payload Specialists Jay Buckey and Jim Pawelczyk -Ð will perform the second and final in-flight dissections of the adult male rats on board. The crew is scheduled to euthanize and dissect nine rats and remove the vestibular or balance organs of the inner ear; the cerebellum, the part of the brain critical for maintaining balance and for processing information from the limbs so they can be moved smoothly; and the cerebrum, one part of which controls automatic functions such as body temperature regulation and the bodyÕs internal clock, and the cortical region that controls cognitive functions such as thinking. The first dissection, which was performed on the second day of the flight, went extremely well, according to Neurolab scientists. While the science crew works in the Spacelab module, Searfoss and Altman once again will use the Portable In-flight Landing Operations Trainer (PILOT) to help them maintain a high level of proficiency for the end-of-mission approach and landing tasks required to bring Columbia safely back to Earth after this long mission. PILOT consists of a laptop computer and joystick system that allows the flight crew to simulate approaches and landings to the Kennedy Space Center to maintain their piloting skills. Searfoss and Linnehan will take time from their schedule this afternoon for an interview with ZDF German Television. This event, which will air at 3:45 p.m. EDT, will be carried on NASA Television. Columbia remains in a 153 x 133 nautical mile orbit, circling the Earth every 90 minutes. =================================================================== Blood pressure experiment goes well (04/29/98) 3:30 p.m. Update: Researchers elated with blood pressure experiment In what one scientist described as "the most difficult human experiment that's ever been attempted in space," three of Columbia's Neurolab researchers have successfully inserted tiny needles directly into specific leg nerves to eavesdrop on signals from the brain that regulate blood pressure. Experiments with a fourth astronaut were underway this afternoon and researchers said they were confident the work would go smoothly. "With microneurography, we actually insert a tiny needle," said David Robertson, a principal investigator with the autonomic nervous system experiment. "This needle is smaller than an acupuncture needle and with it, we can actually go into the nerve and listen to what the brain is telling that nerve, listen to the electrical activity of that nerve." Signals from the brain causes muscles to contract or relax that, in turn, constrict or widen blood vessels in the lower body. This process is one way the body regulates blood pressure. But for a half-million Americans - mostly otherwise healthy younger women - the system does not work properly, an ailment known as orthostatic intolerance. Victims typically get lightheaded or dizzy when they stand up suddenly, experience headaches, chest pains and other symptoms. Many astronauts have similar symptoms after returning to Earth's gravity. By studying changes that occur in weightlessness, scientists hope to gain insights into what's going wrong with OI victims on Earth. "The astronauts represent a model of this disease that we can study before and after," Robertson said. "We are concentrating on the autonomic nervous system, particularly the sympathetic [system]. It could be there is a problem with OI because the sympathetic nervous system is too active. Or it could be a prolem because it's too inactive or it could be a problem with its regulation. Which of those three is operative is what we're going to find out on this mission." The astronauts participating in the microneurography experiment spent two months at Vanderbilt University training to carry out the delicate procedure. Robertson said of the three crew members who have completed the experiment to date, all managed to position the needle in the correct nerve within 40 minutes. "Finding a nerve is a lot more difficult than finding a vein," Robertson said. "This is a far more difficult task. We trained these people so that they could learn to do this within 40 minutes. And so far, every one of them has succeeded in doing it. ... This is a very, very difficult thing to do on Earth and the idea that it can be done in space is a little bit astounding to many people." For more details about the microneurography experiment, see the 7:20 a.m. update below. In other on-board research, six neonatal rats underwent surgery today so leg muscles could be exposed and injected with a chemical tracer. The rats will be dissected later in the mission to find out how nerves that control two specific muscles were affected by the absence of gravity. Researchers originally planned to use seven rats for this study, but a higher-than-expected death rate aboard the shuttle prompted the astronauts to hold one back today for use by another experiment. Of 96 neonates launched aboard Columbia, 51 have died, including one that passed away overnight. Researchers are not sure what is causing the high mortality, but they suspect it's due to maternal neglect or lactation problems with the nursing mothers. "The number [of surviving rats] we're at now is really down to the smallest number where each of the investigators can accomplish their primary objectives," said Joe Bielitzki, NASA's chief veterinarian. Hand-feeding by the astronauts, however, appears to be helping the survivors cope with the stresses of weightlessness and researchers are hopeful they will, in fact, be able to accomplish their primary scientific objectives. "The status of the animals continues to improve," Bielitzki said. "Yesterday, we had 40 live neonates in our youngest age group. We did lose one additional animal overnight. There were four we reported as sick yesterday, one of those is the one that died overnight and one has been returned to the healthy column. And two remain unstable and continue to receive treatment from the crew. "The other 37 animals are stable, they're looking like they're eating higher quantities of food on a daily basis, they're starting to access the water supply available in the cages and so they look like they're coming around. Over the next 36 hours, I anticipate their condition will continue to improve and that we're pretty much out of the trouble spot with this group of animals." Finally, the astronauts beamed down an amusing bit of video today in which all seven crew members, wearing dark glasses, sang a joke song about earlier problems with the shuttle's carbon dioxide removal system. Amusing, but definitely inside baseball for viewers who might not know what "LIOH" means. Readers of this page, of course, undoubtedly know LIOH stands for lithium hydroxide, a chemical used in Columbia's backup CO2 removal system. The crew video also featured a "you are there" view from inside a rotating chair being used for vestibular research. The chair spins at 45 rpm and the subject's view is quite lively. 7:20 a.m. Update: Microneurography sheds light on blood pressure The Columbia astronauts are pressing ahead with a battery of experiments today, including one that requires the subjects to insert a hair-thin needle directly into a nerve in the leg to monitor how the brain controls blood pressure. Mission managers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, meanwhile, likely will defer a decision on whether to extend Columbia's Neurolab flight by one day. A decision now is expected Thursday, after mission managers assess the long-range weather forecast and the scientific benefits of an additional day in orbit. In the meantime, landing remains scheduled for 12:09 p.m. Sunday, May 3. The blood pressure experiment on tap today is aimed in part at shedding light on what causes orthostatic intolerance, an inability to maintain proper blood pressure when standing for long periods. Astronauts experience a form of this ailment after returning to Earth, getting dizzy and even fainting because not enough blood is pumped to the brain. "A half-million Americans have a problem named orthostatic intolerance," payload specialist James Pawelczyk said at a news conference before launch. "This is a multi-faceted problem, but it shares many features similar to those experienced by astronauts after flight. The experiments we'll be conducting really focus at the crux of the matter, how it is that nerve signals travel from the brain to blood vessels and cause the process caused basal constriction. Basal constriction, the narrowing of blood vessels in the lower body has the effect of boosting pressure elsewhere in the system. "The way to think of this is like thinking of a garden hose," Pawelczyk said. "If you want to get more pressure out of a garden hose, you can do one of two things. You can either turn up the faucet and increase the flow, or you can put your thumb over the end of the hose and increase the pressure that way. "That process of putting your thumb over the end of the hose is just like the process of basal constriction that occurs in vasculature. All of our blood vessels are surrounded by muscle that's fed by what we call sympathetic nerves. What we'll actually be doing in flight is recording from those nerves in flight. This will be the first time we've ever done neural recording in humans in flight. To do so, the astronauts will insert a hair-thin electrode into a leg nerve that controls basal constriction. The procedure is called microneurography. "We'll be looking for specific fibers that feed blood vessels that travel to skeletal muscles," Pawelczyk said. "Skeletal muscle is about half our body mass. Changes that we can elicit there in skeletal muscle have a profound impact on blood pressure regulation. We'll be asking the questions whether or not the signals sent from the brain to blood vessels to cause basal constriction are appropriate for the kinds of stresses we'll be applying." In addition, experiment subjects will measure the production and removal of the neurotransmitter released by those nerve signals that actually causes the blood vessels to contract expand. "So we think this process will give us a good handle on what we see in astronaut crews after flight," Pawelczyk said. "Hopefully, we'll gain some insight into how the process can be fixed or made better and perhaps that'll lead us to some answers to some of these problems on Earth as well." Does the insertion of the electrode hurt? "These electrodes have a shaft diameter that's thinner than a human hair and they're sharpened at the tip," Pawelczyk said. "When they're inserted beneath the skin, most people hardly even notice that it occurs, they're that fine. So you can think of this as being something very similar to an acupuncture needle. "When it actually contacts the nerve there are some transient sensations. What kind of sensations people experience depends on what kind of fibers we contact. That could be anything to a tingling or an itching sensation to a modest degree of pain similar to a muscle cramp. But that in each case is transient and it lasts only when we're moving the needle so it's typically on the order of a few seconds. If you're putting it in the context of other life science experiements, I would say from a discomfort factor this one ranks pretty low on the pole." Here is today's timeline: 05:19 a.m....Crew wakeup 08:34 a.m....Richard Linnehan and James Pawelczyk resume autonomic experiments; Jay Buckey injects a neonate as part of the animal studies 11:34 a.m....Canadian VIP Opportunity with Scott Altman and Dafydd Williams 01:49 p.m....Altman or Kay Hire provide a Crew Choice TV downlink 02:19 p.m....Williams and Pawelczyk conduct autonomic experiments 02:30 p.m....Mission status/science briefing 03:34 p.m....Linnehan checks on the status of the animal enclosure modulese 05:04 p.m....Richard Searfoss monitors a simo supply and waste water dumps 06:00 p.m....Daily video highlights reel; repeated hourly until crew wakeup 07:29 p.m....Private family conference 08:59 p.m....Crew sleep begins And here is today's morning status report from the Johnson Space Center: STS-90 Mission Control Center Status Report #25 Wednesday, April 29, 1998 -- 7 a.m. EDT Columbia's seven astronauts began their thirteenth day of space-based research at 5:29 a.m. EDT this morning to the sound of "Take A Chance On Me" by the musical group Abba. The wake up call from Mission Control is a favorite song of Payload Specialist Jay Buckey. As the Neurolab mission enters its final few days, the four members of Columbia's payload crew -- Mission Specialists Rick Linnehan and Dave Williams and Payload Specialists Buckey and Jim Pawelczyk -- will continue their investigations into how the human nervous system adapts to the weightless environment of space. Williams, Buckey and Pawelczyk once again will take part in a variety of human autonomic experiments designed to examine blood pressure regulation in microgravity. Crew members will repeat an experiment in which they use an innovative technique called microneurography. This involves placing a very fine needle in a nerve just below the knee, allowing nerve signals traveling from the brain to the blood vessels to be measured directly while the cardiovascular system is challenged using the Lower Body Negative Pressure device. LBNP is a hi-tech canister that pulls bodily fluids into the lower extremities, simulating the effect of standing on Earth. As they did yesterday, the scientist-astronauts again will infuse radioactively-labeled norepinephrine into their blood streams and collect blood samples for later analysis. Norepinephrine is a chemical messenger that will allow investigators to measure how fast the substance is released into and removed from the blood's circulation and determine whether the blood pressure control system is underutilized in the absence of gravity. As part of the Neurolab Mammalian Development Team's research into gravity's role in stimulating the proper development of the nervous system, Buckey will anesthetize seven of the rat neonates and inject two of their hind leg muscles with fluorescent cell marker dyes. One muscle is used on Earth to support the animal's weight, while the other is a non-weight bearing muscle. The label dye will be transported from the muscles, along the nerve cells to the spinal cords of the animals. This research will help determine whether mammals that develop in microgravity will have normally developed muscles. Columbia remains in a 153 x 133 nautical mile orbit, circling the Earth every 90 minutes. All systems on board continue to operate in excellent fashion. =================================================================== More neonates die; others rally (04/28/98) 3:30 p.m. Update: NASA delays next shuttle flight five days NASA managers today decided to delay the next shuttle launch by five days, from May 28 to June 2, because of main engine repair work, payload software issues and trouble with ground processing equipment. The shuttle Discovery now is scheduled for takeoff to the Mir space station around 6:12 p.m. on June 2. If all goes well, Discovery will dock with the Russian outpost on June 4, undock on June 8 and land on June 12, bringing U.S. astronaut Andrew Thomas back to Earth after 141 days in space. For those of you scoring at home, a dress rehearsal countdown is now targeted for May 7; a fueling test for the shuttle's new lightweight external tank is on tap May 18; and a flight readiness review to clear the orbiter for flight is scheduled for May 20. 3:20 p.m. Update: Additional neonates die, others rally Four more baby rats died overnight, putting the death toll aboard shuttle Columbia at 50. But a veterinarian aboard the orbiter says the survivors appear to be doing much better today, thanks to additional fluids, food and a bit of tender loving care. "Last night, we took the animals out and provided general fluids to all the neonates that would, were able to [take it]," veterinarian-astronaut Richard Linnehan reported earlier today. "Jay [Pawelczyik] initially offered them water and followed that by a dilute mixture of Gatorade that we have on board, warmed it to body temperature and offered that orally. They seemed to take the food well. They all seemed to perk up quite a bit after the oral foods supplementation with water and Gatorade. And several animals that were deemed to be in poorer shape were given subcutaneous fluid administration in addition to that. "They all seemed to improve," Linnehan continued. "We're still seeing some instances of animals in some cases ... that are not being groomed. In most cases, it seems the [nursing mother] will just not groom any of the animals. Although some are starting to eat and [drink] by themselves." "Everybody here has every confidence in your judgment and will support whatevr decisions you make with respect to these animals," NASA's chief veterinarian, Joe Bielitzki replied. At a news briefing later in the day, Bielitzki was optimistic the astronauts have "turned the corner" with the neonates and that enough will remain healthy to support the primary objectives of experiments to learn how the nervous system develops in the absence of gravity. "We did lose four additional animals over the last 24 hours," he said. "Two were euthanized because of poor condition and two were found dead in their cages. We continue to have four animals that Dr. Linnehan lists as sick, which means they're currrent receiving subcutaneous fluids and antibiotics, and we have 36 he lists as healthy, five of which he lists as slightly dehydrated. He feels many of the animals that were in marginal condition yesterday are starting to eat and drink on their own, that we're seeing a marked improvement in the status of the animals as a group. Rick and I are both hopeful this has stabilized." 7:30 a.m. Update: Crew presses ahead with science The Columbia astronauts were awakened at 5:49 a.m. by a recording of the song "Turn, Turn, Turn" beamed up from mission control, an appropriate selection given the crew's vestibular research using a rotating chair. The astronauts will focus on experiments involving the human nervous system today, continuing work to chart how the autonomic and vestibular systems adapt to the absence of gravity. Commander Richard Searfoss and Canadian astronaut Dafydd Williams will take part in a news conference/interview with Canadian reporters at 4:19 p.m. while veterinarian-astronaut Richard Linnehan will discuss the flight with students at the North Carolina State College of Veterinary Medicins at 5:19 p.m. NASA's oldest space shuttle, meanwhile, continues to operate in near-perfect condition and barring a bad landing day weather forecast or a malfunction, NASA managers likely will extend the Neurolab mission by one day to let the crew collect additional science data. A decision is expected Wednesday. No word yet on whether NASA might send the crew back up in August for a reflight. Senior agency managers are assessing that possibility because of a gap in the shuttle launch schedule caused by space station delays. A reflight does not appear likely, sources say, but again, no final decision has been made. Here is today's flight plan: 08:39 a.m....Richard Linnehan and Dafydd Williams conduct vestibular experiments; Jay Buckey and James Pawelczyk conduct autonomic experiments 10:19 a.m....Richard Searfoss cleans orbiter filters 11:39 a.m....Pawelczyk conducts autonomic experiments involving the Lower Body Negative Pressure device 12:24 p.m....Kay Hire uses the Spacelab centrifuge to process blood samples 02:00 p.m....Mission status briefing 02:29 p.m....Altman conducts landing sims with the PILOT computer 02:34 p.m....Buckey and Pawelczyk continue autonomic experiments; Hire works with the Bioreactor Demonstration System 02:59 p.m....Searfoss conducts landing sims with the PILOT computer 04:19 p.m....Canadian Media Opportunity with Searfoss and Williams 05:19 p.m....Educational Event with Linnehan and the North Carolina State College of Veterinary Medicine 07:00 p.m....Daily video highlights reel (repeated hourly to crew wakeup) 07:34 p.m....Private medical conference 09:19 p.m....Crew sleep begins Here is today's morning status report from the Johnson Space Center: STS-90 Mission Control Center Status Report #23 Tuesday, April 28, 1998 -- 7 a.m. EDT Columbia's seven astronauts were awakened at 4:49 a.m. Central time this morning to begin another day of exploring how the nervous system adapts to the weightless environment of space. The crew was awakened to the sound of "Turn, Turn, Turn" by the Byrds, which was played in honor of the rotating chair experiment involved in studies of the human vestibular system. Columbia's science astronauts -- Mission Specialists Rick Linnehan and Dave Williams and Payload Specialists Jay Buckey and Jim Pawelczyk -- will continue their investigations into how the human nervous system adapts to the weightlessness of space. Buckey and Pawelczyk will take part in a variety of autonomic experiments designed to examine blood pressure regulation in microgravity. The test uses a special device resembling a hi-tech sack to place a stress on the cardiovascular system similar to that experienced when standing in Earth's gravity. The astronauts will also infuse radioactively-labeled neorepinephrine into the blood stream and will collect blood samples. Neorepinephrine is a chemical messenger that will allow investigators to measure how fast the substance is released into and removed from the blood's circulation and determines whether the blood pressure control system is underutilized in the absence of gravity. The payload specialists will conduct another experiment in which they use an innovative technique called microneurography. This involves placing a small needle in a nerve just below the knee, allowing nerve signals traveling from the brain to the blood vessels to be measured directly. Linnehan and Williams will participate as subjects and as operators in tests on the vestibular experiments, including additional runs in the rotating chair to measure the response of their eyes and inner ears in maintaining balance in a weightless environment. Mission Specialist Kay Hire again will work with the Bioreactor Demonstration System, which is designed to perform cell biology experiments under controlled conditions. Scientists are using the device to study the growth of human kidney and bone marrow cells in space. She also will be a subject in a test designed to detect functional abnormalities of the central nervous system. The test activates the blood pressure control system and raises blood pressure, but not by stimulating pressure receptors. Commander Rick Searfoss and Pilot Scott Altman will take turns operating the Portable In-Flight Landing Operations Trainer (PILOT), a laptop computer and joystick system that allows them to simulate approaches and landings to the Kennedy Space Center to maintain their piloting skills. Columbia remains in a 153 x 133 nautical mile orbit, circling the Earth every 90 minutes. All systems on board continue to operate in excellent fashion. NASA managers are expected to decide Wednesday whether to add an extension day to Columbia's flight in the name of science. Columbia currently is scheduled to return to Earth on Sunday. =================================================================== Higher-than-expected death rate for neonates (04/27/98) 3:30 p.m. Update: High infant mortality rates for neonatal rats Dissections aside, baby rats aboard the shuttle Columbia are dying off at a much higher rate than expected, researchers say, presumably because of parental neglect or dehydration. Of 110 neonatal rats launched aboard Columbia July 17, 49 have died unexpectedly, forcing researchers to develop plans for sharing brain and nerve tissue from the remaining animals to complete their planned experiments. In so doing, they should be able to accomplish all of their primary scientific objectives and most, if not all, of their secondary goals. The research is aimed at learning how the nervous system physically develops in the absence of gravity. "This really seems to have started somewhere around flight day eight," said Joe Bielitzki, NASA's chief veterinarian. "We had an indication some of the (nursing mothers) were having a lower than expected water consumption, which is often indicative that either lactation is starting to fall off or there may be a problem with maternal rejection. We had about 33 animals that had died, five others that were in bad enough shape that they required euthanasia. There were 17 that were determined to be in a questionable health status. Of those 17, six have been returned to healthy status, leaving a total of 56 animals in that neonatal pool." Bielitzki later corrected those numbers, saying 49 neonates had died to date. The normal mortality rate for neonatal rats in this sort of research is 5 to 10 percent and "this is certainly higher than what we expected," he said. But he would not speculate on what might be responsible for the high mortality rate. Kerry Walton, one of the mammalian science team members using the rats aboard Columbia, praised the astronauts for "staying up late and using their personal time to take care of our animals. In fact, I understand what they did was they actually fed these animals by hand, gave them water by hand, very much the way some of us have had to do with newborn kittens. They saved a lot of animals' lives by taking their personal time to do this and we appreciate it very much." Payload commander Richard Linnehan did not mention anything unusual during a crew news conference earlier today. One reporter asked how the animals had adapted to weightlessness and if the crew had noticed a higher than normal mortality rate. Linnehan did not address the latter question at all. "It's amazing to watch the animals behave in orbit because they act just like we do," he said. "They learn very fast in terms of how to maintain themselves in zero g(ravity), to ambulate, to move around in their cages and get to the food and water. Just last night we were checking on some of the neonatal rats and we were watching them eat. It was kind of akin to the way we eat on the middeck. We float around, we hold our food and we feed ourselves. One of the rats was holding on to a piece of food bar and just kind of floating around, holding it in his front paws, munching on it leisurely, letting the food go, going over to drink some water and coming back and grabbing the food again. So it's amazing. The mammalian nervous system, be it human, rodent or whatever, adapts very, very quickly to microgravity." The one that live long enough! Asked how the Spacelab systems were working, Linnehan said "Everythiung is working very well. There are always a few glitches ... we've worked through all those, we're getting good quality on the data. Neurolab is humming right along, everything is working well. We're getting everything we wanted to get." Indeed. 8:30 a.m. Update: Crew awake; posting daily timeline/NASA status report Sailing into the home stretch of a 16-day mission, the Columbia astronauts are working through another busy day of Neurolab science to probe the inner workings of the brain and nervous system. The astronauts were awakened shortly after 6 a.m. by a recording of the Penn State fight song beamed up for payload specialist James Pawelczyk, a 1985 graduate. All seven crew members plan to take part in a news conference starting at 10:09 a.m. that will be carried live on NASA television. Mission managers in Houston, meanwhile, are considering whether to extend Columbia's mission by one day to allow the crew to collect additional science data. No final decisions are expected until later in the week, based on a detailed analysis of Columbia's on-board supplies. At this point, however, an extension appears likely. Here's today's timeline: 09:44 a.m....The astronauts gather for a crew photo 10:09 a.m....CREW NEWS CONFERENCE WITH ALL CREWMEMBERS 10:39 a.m....Jay Buckey changes out water for the rodents 12:44 p.m....Educational Event with Dafydd Williams and York University 02:00 p.m....Mission status/science briefing 03:21 p.m....Rick Searfoss and Scott Altman conduct an orbital adjustment burn; Williams begins dexterity experiments with a neonate 03:39 p.m....Searfoss continues water changeout for the rodents 05:19 p.m....Educational Event with Jim Pawelczyk and Penn State University 07:00 p.m....Daily video highlights reel 07:34 p.m....Private medical conference 09:39 p.m....Crew sleep begins Here is today's morning status report from the Johnson Space Center in Houston: STS-90 Mission Control Center Status Report #21 Monday, April 27, 1998 -- 7 a.m. EDT To the sounds of "Fight On, State", Columbia' s astronauts were awakened at 6:09 a.m. EDT this morning to begin their eleventh day of neurological research work in the Spacelab science module. The wake up music, which is the fight song for Penn State University Nittany Lions, was played in honor of Payload Specialist Jim Pawelczyk, who earned a masters degree in physiology from Penn State in 1985. Before resuming science activities, Columbia' s astronauts will conduct a news conference from orbit, answering questions from reporters in the U.S. and Canada. The Crew News Conference will begin at 10:09 a.m. Eastern time and will be broadcast on NASA Television. After a relatively light day of scientific activity on board Columbia yesterday, the science crew -- Mission Specialists Rick Linnehan and Dave Williams and Payload Specialists Jay Buckey and Pawelczyk öwill resume a full day of investigations today into how the human nervous system adapts to the weightlessness of space. Williams and Linnehan will conduct dexterity experiments with young rats, designed to investigate how the young rats develop in microgravity. This includes animals launched into space that have never walked on Earth and those that have walked on Earth for a short period of time prior to launch. Buckey, Pawelczyk and Mission Specialist Kay Hire once again will take part in an experiment aimed at exploring the influence of gravity on blood pressure. The lower body negative pressure test places a stress on the cardiovascular system similar to that experienced when standing in Earth' s gravity. Pawelczyk also is scheduled to take part in the Valsalva test, which stimulates the pressure receptors in the neck and chest and measures those responses. Both Buckey and Pawelzyk will participate as subjects and as operators in tests of the autonomic nervous system. All four science crew members will conduct tests of their pulmonary systems as well as additional runs in a rotating chair to measure the response of their eyes and inner ears in maintaining balance in a weightless environment. This afternoon, Commander Rick Searfoss and Pilot Scott Altman will fire Columbia's reaction control system jets in a small orbital adjustment maneuver to maintain the proper landing opportunities for the end of the flight about a week from now. At 5:19 this afternoon, Pawelczyk will take a few minutes out of his research work to take part in a question and answer session with students at Penn State. Columbia remains in a 153 x 133 nautical mile orbit, circling the Earth every 90 minutes. All systems on board continue to operate in excellent fashion. =================================================================== Astronauts enjoy half-day off (04/26/98) The Columbia astronauts are working through a relatively light day of experiment activity, taking a half-day off later in the day to relax and enjoy the view. Commander Richard Searfoss and Dafydd Williams took time out to chat with a television reporter in Wales, U.K., to describe the crew's research and the overall progress of the mission. "We think the science aspects of this mission are very exciting," said Williams, a Canadian astronaut whose family originally came from Wales. "We're looking at blood pressure control and regulation, how we orient ourselves in microgravity and how important vision is in orienting ourselves. And we're also looking at how we perform motor acts, how our sensory systems change in orbit, and these are all things that may benefit patients on Earth who have disorders of their sensory motor systems or have Parkinson's disease." One of the experiments involves monitoring brain wave activity and other aspects of sleep in zero gravity. Many astronauts report problems getting a full night's sleep, but Williams said so far, he's not had any major problems. "The sleep experiments have been going very well for us," he said. "Sleep disorders are a problem that affect many people in the world and we're looking at how astronauts sleep in orbit to see whether we have disorders with our sleep. And so far, I've found that my sleep is reduced but I'm still able to sleep effectively. One of the things I find interesting is that even though I'm in zero G and there are no pressure points, I still turn over in my sleep. I don't know why I do this, but it still happens.: As for simply living and working in space, Williams, a first-time shuttle flier, described the experience as "really quite interesting. I find it very similar to being under water scuba diving except you don't have all the equipment you wear when you're scuba diving underwater. It's very easy to float around and orient yourself in any way you want. Eating a meal can be a real challenge." There are no mission status or science briefings scheduled today and no additional crew interviews. Barring unexpected problems, there should be little to report. Here is today's crew timeline: 09:19 a.m....Jay Buckey and James Pawelczyk begin vestibular experiments 10:49 a.m....Rick Searfoss conducts landing sims with the PILOT computer; Scott Altman and Richard Linnehan join Jim Pawelczyk for the vestibular experimentslar experiments; Searfoss monitors a waste water dump 11:04 a.m....Kay Hire, Linnehan, and Dafydd Williams conduct vestibular experiments; Searfoss monitors a waste water dump 01:29 p.m....Altman conducts landing sims with the PILOT computer 02:59 p.m....The astronauts begin four hours of off-duty time and private family conferences 07:00 p.m....Daily video highlights reel/crew activity report 07:34 p.m....Private medical conference 09:49 p.m....Crew sleep begins 06:09 a.m....Crew wakeup And here is the morning status report from the Johnson Space Center: STS-90 Mission Status Report #19 Sunday, April 26, 1998 - 7:00 a.m. EDT Columbia' s astronauts were awakened at 6:29 a.m. EDT this morning to the sound of "Every Breath You Take" by the Police to begin their tenth day of research work in the Spacelab science module. This will be a relatively light day of scientific activity on board Columbia. The science crew of Mission Specialists Rick Linnehan and Dave Williams, along with Payload Specialists Jay Buckey and Jim Pawelczyk, will continue investigations into how the human nervous system adapts to the weightlessness of space. All four will serve as subjects in a vestibular experiment that uses an on-board rotating chair. The Visual and Vestibular Integration System (VVIS) correlates eye movements with balance. Developed by the European Space Agency, the chair stimulates the human balance system with both spinning and tilting sensations. Infrared video cameras observe and capture the eye movements that accompany the exercise. Shuttle Commander Rick Searfoss and Pilot Scott Altman will take turns operating the Portable In-Flight Landing Operations Trainer (PILOT), a laptop computer and joystick system that allows them to simulate approaches and landings to the Kennedy Space Center to maintain their piloting skills. Mission Specialist Dave Williams will take time from his scientific work to chat with the British Broadcasting System' s Wales Network at 10:34 a.m. Central time The interview will focus on the progress of Williams' research in this, his first flight in space. Williams is of Welsh ancestry. About 3 p.m., the astronauts are scheduled to begin four hours of off-duty time to relax and enjoy the sights from orbit. They will begin their eight-hour sleep period at 10:09 tonight. Columbia remains in a 153 x 133 nautical mile orbit, circling the Earth every 90 minutes. The shuttle' s prime carbon dioxide cleansing system, known as the Regenerative Carbon Dioxide Removal System, or RCRS, is in perfect working order after being brought back on line late yesterday following the repair of a leaking valve. =================================================================== Astronauts repair CO2 removal system (04/25/98) 7:00 p.m. Update: Astronauts repair CO2 removal system Wielding a screwdriver and a flashlight, shuttle commander Richard Searfoss plugged a tube and bypassed a leaky valve in a critical air purifier today, restoring it to service and ending concern about an early end to Columbia's science mission. "We've got some good news for you, Rick," astronaut Mike Gernhardt radioed from mission control. "It seems to be working as expected. So it looks like we've headed off the possibility of a shortened mission." "From our perspective it was simple and straightforward to implement what you guys did," Searfoss replied. "But I know you worked hard all night to get the right answer for us. So great job." The carbon dioxide removal system broke down Friday night, forcing the crew to rely on a backup lithium hydroxide system (see the 9 a.m. status report below for additional details). After a lengthy analysis, engineers concluded a check valve was leaking, allowing cabin air to backflow into the system. That changed the internal pressure of the air scrubber and caused the unit's electronic controller to order a shut down. To fix the problem, Searfoss loosened a clamp, pulled a short hose off its nipple and put aluminum tape over the tube the hose had been attached to. He then reattached the hose. "It must be Saturday, time to work on our car like down on Earth," Searfoss radioed mission control before beginning the repair job. "So this is a good project for us today." By plugging the tube, Searfoss effectively isolated the leaking valve and an associated compresser. When the system was powered back up, it worked normally, although it will lose about four pounds of nitrogen a day with the compressor off line. Officials said that was no problem and that Columbia has more than enough nitrogen on board for a full-duration mission. "We're back to our normal plan," said Lee Briscoe, a mission operations representative at the Johnson Space Center. "This does look like it fixed it." Earlier in the day, the astronauts took time out to chat with Andrew Thomas, an Australian-born astronaut aboard the Russian Mir space station. Thomas was launched to Mir aboard a space shuttle in January and he's scheduled to return to Earth in early June. Here are excerpts from the conversation: THOMAS: Well this is great. You know I've talked to people on the ground but I never expected that I would talk to another orbiting spacecraft, particularly to friends and colleagues flying in space at the same time. I was very close to seeing your launch, missed it by just a couple of minutes. We didn't have a very good attitude at the time but we overflew florida but just missed. It would have been a great sight but I'm sorry I didn't get to see it. How's everything going for you guys. SEARFOSS: Pretty well. Seems like we've been up here a long time but I'm sure that pales in comparison to your experience. Been up here about a week now and really going at a fast and furious pace on the experiments. To bad you couldn't see our launch and guess since we're not in the same orbital plane we won't be able to join up for a little closer face to face, on this flight anyway. THOMAS: A week is nothing. A week is in the noise. That is hardly time to get accustomed to it. Believe me. I've completed 13. I never thought I would say that, but I have. Well, since you're up here, why don't you come over and drop by the house here and we'll have a bit of [food] and swap some stories. SEARFOSS: That sounds good maybe we can put a few shrimp on the barbie. THOMAS: I don't think we want to have a barbecue up here. Fire's not a popular word. Don't say that. How are your crewmates doing? There's a few of my colleagues up there. *** SEARFOSS: Sorry you're going to miss our post-flight party but I guess we'll be there for yours. THOMAS: Yeah. I'm really looking forward to my post-flight party in a big way. There's no doubt about that. How about putting on some other crew mates. SEARFOSS: Everyone's back in the lab... THOMAS: Okay. It's good to know that someone's working to keep the space program going right now. We've got a nice easy day up here being Saturday. I've been back in Priroda watching a movie and just taking it easy. It's been a pretty busy week for us. 12:45 p.m. Update: Shuttle astronauts discuss CO2 problem Flight controllers have asked shuttle Columbia's crew to remove four lockers on the shuttle's lower deck to enable direct inspection of the ship's regenerative carbon dioxide removal system. The system shut down late Friday, forcing the crew to rely on a backup lithium hydroxide system that can only be used for another five days (see the 9 a.m. status report below for details). Engineers suspect a leaky check valve caused the primary CO2 remover to shut down Friday night to prevent the system from losing pressure. If that turns out to be the case, the astronauts could bypass the valve, restart the system and press ahead with a full-duration 16-day mission. Bypassing the valve and an attached compressor would result in the crew using up more nitrogen than normal as part of the CO2 removal process, but engineers say there is plenty on board for a full-duration flight. "Things are looking better all the time," commander Richard Searfoss told a television interviewer shortly after 12:30 p.m. "We have two different types of systems on board the shuttle to remove carbon dioxide from the air. The long-duration system is the scrubber system, which had a malfunction. We're working up a maintenance procedure that Scott Altman and I will do in a couple of hours. That should keep us in business for the rest of the flight. Right now we're on the backup system, which uses lithium hydroxide to remove the carbon dioxide from the air. So we're in great shape and we're hoping to continue on to full mission duration." Will advise. 9:00 a.m. Update: Engineers continue CO2 system troubleshooting Engineers continue to assess what, if anything, can be done to fix the shuttle Columbia's primary carbon dioxide removal system, a critical piece of life support hardware that shut down late Friday. The crew switched to a backup system that uses lithium hydroxide to remove CO2 from the cabin air supply and the astronauts are in no immediate danger. But Columbia only has 28 lithium hydroxide canisters on board, enough for five more days of normal orbital operations and two days of reserve for landing weather problems. The bottom line: If the regenerative carbon dioxide removal system cannot be repaired, Columbia would have to return to Earth five days from now, about three days ahead of schedule. And that would have an impact on the crew's Neurolab science. Engineers plan to meet later this morning at the Johnson Space Center to discuss the CO2 removal system issue but no additional troubleshooting on the crew's part is expected until later this afternoon. After staying up well past their bedtime Friday to troubleshoot the CO2 problem, the astronauts were allowed to sleep an extra hour this morning. Appropriately enough, they were awakened at 7:39 a.m. today by a recording of "She Drives Me Crazy" by the Fine Young Cannibals. The shuttle originally was designed to remove CO2 by drawing cabin air through cannisters of lithium hydroxide. For a seven-member crew, two fresh canisters must be installed every 11 hours, or four per day. For long-duration shuttle flights, NASA developed a regenerative CO2 removal system that does not require bulky chemical canisters. But lithium hydroxide is still used to supplement the regenerative system and Columbia was launched with 50 of these chemical packages. Of that total, 28 remain and that's enough for about five days of normal operation. When the problem with the regenerative system first cropped up, engineers thought it involved an electronic controller, one of two that can operate the regenerative system. The crew was asked to switch to a secondary controller but after about 10 minutes, the system shut down again. Flight engineer Kay Hire reported that she heard an unusual noise on the shuttle's lower deck during the same period. Mission control replied that it probably was a compressor in the regenerative CO2 removal system, but Hire said she has been sleeping on the lower deck throughout the mission and "It was a noise I did not recognize." There has been no explanation of Hire's comments. Commander Richard Searfoss, meanwhile, asked flight controllers this morning to re-evaluate allowable CO2 concentrations, suggesting the crew could squeeze more time out of the lithium hydroxide system by re-using lithium hydroxide canisters used earlier in the mission. Flight controllers are evaluating that possibility. The only other problem in work today involves a suspect fan in one of the shuttle's rat cages. The astronauts plan to work an in-flight maintenance procedure later today to restore that system to normal operation. Here is today's status report from mission control: STS-90 Mission Control Center Status Report #17 Saturday, April 25, 1998 - 8:15 a.m. EDT The STS-90 astronauts will begin the start of their second week of on-orbit science operations today, and also will support some troubleshooting procedures following the shutdown of a carbon dioxide removal system last night. Flight controllers on the ground continue to review data associated with the Regenerative Carbon Dioxide Removal System (RCRS) unit aboard Columbia which shut down late last night. Engineering teams will meet this morning to consider what troubleshooting activities they may ask the crew to undertake later today to try to recover the RCRS system. With the regenerative system at least temporarily unavailable, the crew has installed the backup carbon dioxide-absorption canisters in the laboratory and crew cabin. A supply of 28 lithium hydroxide canisters is available aboard Columbia. The canisters are a passive and very reliable CO2 removal system. Should a decision be made that the RCRS system cannot be recovered, the 28 lithium hydroxide canisters available onboard Columbia would allow about five more days of science operations to be conducted before the mission would have to be concluded. Approximately four canisters are needed each day to support the removal of CO2 from the crew cabin and laboratory environments. Eight canisters would be held in reserve to support the two day landing wave-off reserve in case weather or technical problems delayed ColumbiaÕs return to Earth. Crew members also may work with an air circulation fan associated with the Rodent Animal Holding Facilty (RAHF) being carried in the Spacelab. Data indicate that a fan associated with RAHF unit #7 may no longer be working. These fans are important to the health of the animals being carried in the RAHF as they deliver fresh air into the RAHF and facilitate the removal of CO2. Current plans call for the crew to run a malfunction procedure to determine if the #7 unit fan has in fact failed. If it has, the crew will then perform an in-flight maintenance procedure to set up a bypass system that will allow the fan in RAHF unit #3 to support the #7 unit. Science operations for Flight Day Nine will include continued work with the ball catch experiment which is part of the Sensory Motor and Performance Team. The ball catch experiment utilizes an apparatus that propels a ball from above in a downward motion toward a seated astronaut. Investigators will monitor the astronauts performance to see if the crew uses visual cues to compensate for the cues missing in a microgravity environment. The crew also will perform more work with the Effects of Gravity on Postnatal Motor Development Experiment which is one of the Mammalian Development TeamÕs projects. Ground research has indicated that gravity plays a significant role in how rats learn basic motor skills such as swimming and walking. The rats being studied in this experiment were launched when they were only a few days old and scientists will be looking to see if motor skills develop normally in the weightless environment. The rats will be videotaped as they move around in a special walking apparatus that has various surfaces to allow them to walk and climb. Additional motor skill tests will be performed after the flight to see if the rats are able to readapt to the force of gravity. Columbia remains in a 153 x 133 nautical mile orbit, circling the Earth every 90 minutes. Here is the crew's schedule for today (subject to change for CO2 system troubleshooting): 09:39 a.m....Dafydd Williams begins work with the ball catch experiment; Jay Buckey transfers neonate tissue to the refrigerator-freezer 10:00 a.m....Andrew Thomas aboard the Mir space station answers questions from students in Australia 10:28 a.m....Thomas chats with the Columbia astronauts via ship-to-ship radio 10:34 a.m....Buckey and James Pawelczyk begin experiments involving the use of a rodent to climb stairs in weightlessness 12:39 p.m....WMUR/Christa McAuliffe Planetarium PAO Event 01:19 p.m....Richard Searfoss and Richard Linnehan changeout feeders in the rodent cages; Altman or Hire provide a Crew Choice TV downlink 03:00 p.m....Mission status briefing 03:19 p.m....Searfoss and Linnehan continue to changeout feeders in the rodent cages; Kay Hire works with the Bioreactor Demonstration Test experiment; Buckey continues experiments with rodents climbing a staricase device 04:39 p.m....Searfoss changes out water supplies in the rodent cages; Linnehan conducts the ball catch experiment 04:49 p.m....Educational Event with Buckey and Dartmouth College 06:19 p.m....Williams and Pawelczyk conduct the ball catch experiment 07:49 p.m....Private medical conference 10:19 p.m....Crew sleep begins =================================================================== Carbon dioxide removal system shuts down (04/24/98) 11:45 p.m. Update: Crew works CO2 removal problem The Columbia astronauts, already up past their bedtime after falling behind schedule earlier in the day, ran into problems with the shuttle's regenerative carbon dioxide removal system Saturday night. The trouble initially was thought to involve an electronic controller, one of two that can operate the shuttle's primary CO2 removal system. The crew was asked to switch to a secondary controller but after about 10 minutes, the system shut down again. The astronauts were in no immediate danger because the shuttle is equipped with a backup system that draws cabin air through canisters of lithium hydroxide, which removes CO2 in a passive chemical reaction. Two canisters were installed a few minutes after the regenerative system shut down, giving flight controllers plenty of time to troubleshoot the problem. "The crew was never in any danger," said James Hartsfield, a NASA spokesman in mission control. "Carbon dioxide levels remained normal the whole time. A rise in carbon dioxide occurs very slowly, the crew was never anywhere near having anything like that occur." But it's not clear just how much lithium hydroxide is on board Columbia, i.e., whether enough canisters are available to support a full-duration 16-day mission if the regenerative system is down for the count. One factor that makes this issue a bit more interesting than most is that flight engineer Kay Hire reported at one point that she heard an unusual noise on the shuttle's lower deck during the same period. Mission control replied that it probably was a compressor in the regenerative CO2 removal system, but Hire said she had not heard this sound before. In any case, no additional troubleshooting is planned until after the crew gets up Saturday morning. The astronauts asked for an additional hour's sleep to help make up lost time Saturday night. "I've polled the payload crew and it's pretty much unanimous that to take an extra hour in the morning would be a wise decision," commander Rick Searfoss radioed around 11:45 p.m. "Roger that, thanks for those words," replied Robert Curbeam in mission control. "We concur and we'll see if we can't accommodate that." Wakeup, originally scheduled for 6:39 a.m., is now scheduled for 7:39 a.m. This status report will be updated as events warrant. ------------------------------------ 8:30 p.m. Update: NASA status report STS-90 Mission Control Center Status Report #15 Friday, April 24, 1998 8 p.m. EDT Neurolab scientists today continued their search for an answer to the question "Can mammals develop normally in microgravity?" as Columbia's astronauts dissected eight newborn rats and watched others learn to walk for the first time - but without gravity. Commander Rick Searfoss, Pilot Scott Altman, Mission Specialists Rick Linnehan, Kay Hire and Dave Williams along with Payload Specialists Jay Buckey and Jim Pawelczyk neared the halfway mark of their neuroscience research mission, and served as subjects for the autonomic blood pressure regulation studies. Buckey and Williams euthanized and dissected eight rats that were nine days old at launch and had never learned to walk on Earth in an experiment to study critical periods in the development of the balance system. Part of the work being done by the Mammalian Development Team, the dissections will allow scientists on the ground to look at how the brainstem, hippocampus, cerebellum and vestibular organs develop without the influence of gravity. Veterinarian Linnehan and Williams placed several young rats whose eyes are not yet open on a small track to test their ability to learn to walk while on orbit. These studies will help scientists determine wither the rats will develop abnormal balance and swimming patterns that can persist into adulthood. What they learn may be useful in helping humans who are born and develop without the senses of, for example, sight or hearing, and later have those senses restored through medical treatment. Linnehan, Pawelczyk and Buckey monitored changes taking place in their autonomic nervous systems. This system automatically controls blood pressure. The astronauts served as subjects and operators of the Lower Body Negative Pressure device, which was used to place stress on the cardiovascular system as measurements of the nervous system's response were recorded through a variety of testing mechanisms. Searfoss, Altman and Hire continued to maintain Columbia's systems, performing routine housekeeping chores and assisting in science activities. Searfoss and Altman each took a turn operating the Portable In-Flight Landing Operations Trainer (PILOT), a laptop computer and joystick system that allows them to simulate approaches and landings to the Kennedy Space Center. Altman and Linnehan were interviewed by WGN Radio anchor Spike O'Dell of Chicago, who patched in a special guest from Phoenix, former all-star second baseman Ryne Sandberg of the Chicago Cubs. On behalf of the Cubs organization, O'Dell invited Altman, an Illinois native and longtime Cubs fan, to throw out the first pitch at a future game. Columbia remains in a 153 x 133 nautical mile orbit, with all its systems operating perfectly. The astronauts will go to sleep at 10:39 p.m. EDT and be awakened at 5:39 a.m. Saturday to begin the ninth day of their long research mission. The next STS-90 status report will be issued about 7 a.m. Saturday. ------------------------------------ 6 p.m. Update: One-day mission extension appears likely The Columbia astronauts are successfully conserving power while carrying out a full slate of scientific research and a one-day mission extension appears likely. Mission managers likely will not make an official decision until next week - possibly as late as Wednesday - but unless something changes dramatically, it would appear the extra day is in the bag. "Right now we have about a day and nine hours over our margin," said Lee Briscoe, a mission operations representative at the Johnson Space Center. The margin he was referring to is the two additional days that are always protected in case of bad weather or technical problems that might delay re-entry. "I suspect early next week sometime we'll have a set of better numbers and we'll ... be able to talk to the mission management team Monday or Wednesday," Briscoe said. Along with monitoring Columbia's current flight, mission managers also are considering the possibility of re-launching Columbia in August to collect additional Neurolab data. The re-flight option would take advantage of a gap in the shuttle launch schedule caused by delays in the space station program. Sources at the Johnson Space Center indicate a reflight is unlikely, but no final decisions have been made. "I really have no idea about how that's going," Briscoe said. "The mission ops people are one of the groups they asked to go off and look at that, but I really don't have any data on how that's going." 8:50 a.m. Update: Crew set for busy day in space The Columbia astronauts were awakened today at 6:59 a.m. by a recording of "This Land Is Your Land," beamed up for shuttle commander Richard Searfoss, an Eagle Scout and active scout master. The astronauts face another busy day of Neurolab science today, carrying out rat dissections, experiments on the human autonomic nervous system and working with the Lower Body Negative Pressure apparatus. NASA managers continue to discuss the possibility of reflying Columbia's Neurolab mission in August to collect additional data and to fill in an open slot in the shuttle launch schedule caused by delays in the space station program. At a pre-flight news conference April 15, shuttle program maanger Tommy Holloway said a decision would have to be made before Columbia returns to Earth on May 3 or 4. But shuttle processing engineers at the Kennedy Space Center say the decision could be deferred until a week or more after landing because of routine post-flight work required whether Columbia flies again in August or not. Sources at the Johnson Space Center say a reflight appears unlikely at this point, but no final decisions have been made. Will advise. Here's today's timeline: 10:19 a.m....Dafydd Williams and Jay Buckey begin the dissection of a neonate in the general purpose workstation; Richard Linnehan and James Pawelczyk conduct autonomic response experiments 01:19 p.m....Richard Searfoss conducts landing sims with the PILOT computer 01:49 p.m....Scott Altman conducts landing sims with the PILOT computer 02:00 p.m....Mission status/science briefing 03:59 p.m....Buckey and Pawelczyk begin autonomic response experiments 04:34 p.m....WGN interview with Altman and Linnehan 05:19 p.m....Searfoss cleans orbiter filters 06:49 p.m....Linnehan, Williams and Pawelczyk stow the Lower Body Negative Pressure equipment 06:59 p.m....Williams transfer mouse tissue to the refrigerator- freezer device for stowage 07:54 p.m....Private medical conference 08:00 p.m....Daily video highlights reel 10:39 p.m....Crew sleep begins Here's today's morning status report from the Johnson Space Center: ------------------------------------ STS-90 Mission Control Center Status Report # 14 Friday, April 24, 1998 - 8:00 a.m. EDT The seven astronauts aboard Columbia neared the halfway mark of their neuroscience research mission today, operating the 26 individual experiments designed to provide insight into the operation of the nervous system, the most complex and least well-known part of the human body. The STS-90 crew members have used themselves as test subjects in a variety of experiments associated with studying functions such as blood pressure regulation , balance, coordination and sleep patterns. They have also studied a variety of animals to gain additional insight into the effects the weightless environment of space has on the development and performance of the nervous system. Commander Rick Searfoss, Pilot Scott Altman, Mission Specialists Rick Linnehan, Kay Hire and Dave Williams along with Payload Specialists Jay Buckey and Jim Pawelczyk received a wake up call from Mission Control at 6:59 a.m. EDT to the sound of "This Land is Your Land." The song was selected to honor the work Searfoss has done with the Boy Scout organization. Today, Buckey and Williams will euthanize and dissect eight young rats which were nine days old at launch in an experiment to study critical periods in the development of the balance system which are a part of the work being done by the Mammalian Development Team. This particular experiment is looking at changes occurring in the vestibular receptors of the rats in different stages of growth. Without the presence of gravitational forces during development, receptors and neuronal circuits that process the information on balance and position may develop differently than those of animals developing on Earth. Searfoss, Altman and Hire will continue their monitoring of Columbia' s systems, perform routine orbiter housekeeping chores and assist in science activities in the Spacelab. Searfoss and Altman also will each take turns operating the Portable In-Flight Landing Operations Trainer (PILOT), a laptop computer and joystick system that allows them to simulate approaches and landings to the Kennedy Space Center to maintain their piloting skills. Hire will continue her monitoring of the the aquarium being carried in the Spacelab known as the Vestibular Function Experiment Unit which houses the oyster toadfish used as research subjects for the Neurolab aquatic experiments. Linnehan, Pawelczyk and Buckey will spend part of their day studying the autonomic nervous system ö the part of the nervous system that automatically controls functions such as blood pressure. They are monitoring changes taking place in blood pressure control during the flight and will again use the Lower Body Negative Pressure (LBNP) device as part of their data collection. The LBNP is designed to place stress on the cardiovascular system similar to what is experienced when standing in Earth' s gravity environment. Just after 4:30 p.m. EDT this afternoon, Altman and Linnehan will be interviewed by newstalk anchor Spike O' Dell of WGN Radio in Chicago. Altman, who is an Illinois native, and Linnehan, will talk about the various Neurolab research activities being conducted in the Spacelab module and Altman' s first flight in space. Columbia is flying in a 153 x 133 nautical mile orbit, circling the Earth once every 90 minutes with all its systems operating perfectly. The astronauts will go to sleep at 10:39 p.m. EDT tonight and will be awakened at 6:39 Saturday morning to begin the ninth day of their long research mission. =================================================================== Vanna White calls shuttle crew (04/23/98) 2:15 p.m. Update: Vanna White chats with shuttle commander Famed letter turner Vanna White paid a surprise visit to mission control today and spent a few minutes chatting with Columbia commander Richard Searfoss. Figuring out which one was star struck is left as an exercise for the reader. "How are you?" the "Wheel of Fortune" star asked over air-to-ground radio. "Just fine, Vanna, how are you? This is Rick Searfoss, the commander." "Hi, Rick, it is such a pleasure to talk to you. This is the biggest thrill I've ever had!" "It's a real pleasure and honor to talk to you. Are you enjoying your visit in Houston?" "Having a great time! And you all are doing such a great job, congratulations on everything." "Thanks a lot. I do have one request, one thing I'd like to say to you. You know, we're on our 97th orbit up here and we definitely want to spin again." "Well you can spin with me anytime!" "All right, thanks a lot." It seems Columbia's Neurolab mission is generating interest across the spectrum of Hollywood entertainment. Consider the following from a recent issue of ShopTalk, an internet newsletter for broadcast professionals: Space Food: The space shuttle Columbia took off from Florida last week with a cargo of 18 mice, 152 rats and 1,500 crickets. "It's an experiment to see if a Los Angeles restaurant can survive in outer space." (Argus Hamilton) 8:30 a.m. Update: Crew faces busy day of research The Columbia astronauts were awakened today at 7:19 a.m. by a recording of James Brown belting out "I've Got You." The tune, with its familiar refrain "I feel good," was requested by the family of shuttle researcher Jay Clark Buckey, one of four crew members charged with carrying out the bulk of the mission's medical research. Today's Neurolab experiments are focused on research to learn more about how the human nervous system adapts to weightlessness. Here's the schedule: 07:19 a.m....Crew wakeup 10:34 a.m....Richard Linnehan, Dafydd Williams, Jay Buckey and James Pawelczyk begin vestibular and autonomic response experiments 12:15 p.m....Mir astronaut Andy Thomas is interviewed on NASA television by CNN and Florida Today newspaper; Thomas also will downlink video of his experiment activities 03:00 p.m....Mission status/science briefing 03:59 p.m....Richard Searfoss initiates a waste and supply water dump 04:49 p.m....Pawelczyk, Linnehan, Buckey and Williams begin a series of visual-motor coordination experiments 06:09 p.m....Pilot Scott Altman and Pawelczyk are interviewed by KTVT television 06:34 p.m....Williams sets up the general purpose workstation for tomorrow's animal procedures 07:59 p.m....Private medical conference 08:00 p.m....Daily video highlights reel; replayed every hour until crew wakeup 10:59 p.m....Crew sleep begins And here is NASA's latest mission status report: STS-90, Mission Control Center Status Report # 12 Thursday, April 23, 1998 - 7:30 a.m. EDT Almost one week into their flight, Columbia's crew is continuing their efforts with the 26 different experiments that comprise the STS-90 Neurolab mission. The experiments which include studies of blood pressure, balance, coordination and sleep patterns and are designed to provide valuable insight into the basic operation of the nervous system, the most complex and least well-known part of the human body. Commander Rick Searfoss, Pilot Scott Altman, Mission Specialists Rick Linnehan, Kay Hire and Dave Williams along with Payload Specialists Jay Buckey and Jim Pawelczyk received a wake up call from Mission Control at 7:19 a.m. EDT with the James Brown song "I Got You (I Feel Good)." Science activities on Thursday will include the continuation of the experiments looking at the autonomic nervous system - the part of the nervous system that automatically controls blood pressure. These investigations are designed to uncover what changes take place in blood pressure control during space flight. Crewmembers will use the Lower Body Negative Pressure (LBNP) device which places a stress on the cardiovascular system similar to what is experienced when standing in Earth's gravity environment. More work with the Visual and Vestibular Integration System (VVIS), the rotating chair being used to stimulate the balance organ in the ear known as the vestibular system, also will be a part of Flight Day Seven activities. Crewmembers again will be rotated at 45 rpm to stimulate the vestibular system with both spinning and tilting sensations while the infrared video camera system which covers the test subject's head records the eye movements. Investigators hope that results from this experiment will help them understand why astronauts experience balance problems after they return home from a space flight and may also contribute to the design of more effective rehabilitation procedures for patients with severe inner ear diseases. The Sensory Motor and Performance Team will collect more data as the crew uses the Visuo-Motor Coordination Facility (VCF). The VCF projects visual targets onto a screen. As the targets appear, the astronaut will point at them as they move from place to place, grasp at them as they change size and track them as they move in a circle. During the test, the astronaut will wear a specially designed glove that allows precise tracking of hand movements and response times. The motor skills test associated with the VCF will be done several times over the course of the flight to detect any changes in the performance and chronicle the adaptation of the nervous system as the astronaut adjusts to space flight. One additional item added to the crew's activities today will be some additional troubleshooting with the aquarium being carried in the Spacelab known as the Vestibular Function Experiment Unit (VFEU). The air pump for fish pack number two has begun to show the same failure signature as was seen on the number three unit earlier in the flight. Altman and Hire will set up a similar bypass setup to the one they did on Flight Day 3. The reconfiguration will allow the air pump from fish pack number one to support the two units. The VFEU's four aquariums are used to house the oyster toadfish being carried as research subjects for the Neurolab aquatic experiments. Late this afternoon Pawelczyk and Altman will talk with a medical correspondent for KTVT-TV in Dallas. The interview which is scheduled for 6:09 p.m. EDT is expected to focus on Pawelczyk's research on neuroscience and cardiovascular issues at the University of Texas Southern Medical Center. Columbia and all of its systems continue to operate without problems as the Shuttle continues to orbit the Earth once every 90 minutes. =================================================================== Perchance to dream: Sleep research in space (04/22/98) 4 p.m. Update: Sleep experiments test melatonin Four of Columbia's astronauts are swallowing tiny radio transmitters, donning electrode headsets, recording their snores, breathing and brain wave activity as part of a complex set of experiments to shed light on why many astronauts have trouble sleeping in space. At the same time, they are evaluating the effectiveness of the hormone melatonin as a sleep aid, which could benefit millions of Earth-bound insomniacs. "Twenty percent of the crews on single-shift missions like this one take some sort of sleeping pill while they're in the space environment and 50 percent of those on dual-shift missions report taking some type of sleeping pills," said Charles Czeisler (prono SIZE'-ler), a sleep expert and principal investigator for the Columbia experiments. "So they do have a problem. That's three to eight times the ... rate of the general population." The shuttle research could prove especially valuable for future space travelers living aboard space stations for long periods or making multi-year flights to Mars or beyond. "Over four or five days if you lose two or three hours of sleep per night it's the equivalent of losing a full night of sleep, and that causes a lot of detriments in our ability to perform effectively," said Czeisler. "It impairs the ability to consolidate short-term memory, it causes a slowing of reaction time and it increases the probability of lapses of attention that may occur when you're carrying out a routine, highly over-learned task, such as on Earth driving a car, a truck or some other vehicle. So NASA is concerned about the potential impact of this cumulative sleep deprivation on mission safety and mission success." Czeisler listed five factors that appear to affect an astronaut's sleep: 1. The brain expects a sunrise or sunset every 12 hours. In space, the sun rises every 90 minutes "and that sends a signal to the brain, which is difficult for our biological clock or circadian pacemaker to interpret," he said. This pacemaker is a structure in the brain the size of a pin head that is made up of 10,000 neurons that are directly connected to retinal cells in the eyes. "There's a hot line that goes directly from the retina in the eye to this pacemaker in the brain, conveying whether or not it's light or dark," said Czeisler. Unlike cells used in conscious vision, the cells tied to the pacemaker act "more like a photometer in that they send out a constant signal of a certain light intensity. If you increase the intensity, the signal from those cells increases. It's always sending a signal to this pacemaker in the brain as to what the intensity of the light is in our external environment." (Interestingly, these cells even work in many people who are otherwise blind). In space, the 90-minute sunrise cycle in low-Earth orbit "reduces the strength of the normal 24-hour cycle that keeps our internal clock in synch with the external day/night cycle." 2. Astronauts tend to vary their sleep cycles based on the mechanics of the shuttle's orbit. Columbia's crew, for example, goes to bed about a half-hour earlier each night to ensure daylight landing opportunities at the end of the 16-day flight. They started the mission waking up around 9 a.m. each day. At the end of the flight, they'll be getting up around 4 a.m., which is the equivalent of the jet lag experienced flying from New York to London. 3. Body position: Astronauts float in orbit and are not able to position themselves for maximum comfort. For example, they frequently use velcro to keep their arms from floating up in front of their bodies and this isn't always comfortable. 4. The shuttle crew cabin is cramped and noisy with fans and other equipment running around the clock. 5. The crew has a high workload compared to normal activity on Earth. Virtually every minute of an astronaut's work day is planned in detail and the work shift typically run 12 hours or longer. "The goals of our experiment are, first of all, to do a comprehensive assessment of sleep, circadian rhythms and performance in the space environment," Czeisler said. "Secondly, to record sleep and respiration in space. That's never been done simultaneously before and we're able for the first time to look at both of those factors at once. The third purpose of the experiment is to carry out a double blind placebo controlled trial of the effectiveness of the hormone melatonin as a potential means of treating this difficulty of sleeping in space." Columbia's four payload astronauts - Richard Linnehan, Dafydd Williams, James Pawelczyk and Jay Buckey - are taking turns, working two at a time, spending the night wired up to what amounts to a sophisticated sleep laboratory. First, they don an electrode headset similar to a rubber swimmer's hat equipped with sensors that monitor brain wave activity and eye movement. The data are fed into a small $20,000 data recorder and later downlinked to Earth. Other sensors monitor lung activity and respiration and a microphone is attached to record snoring and other breathing sounds. To record body temperature, they swallow pills equipped with tiny radio transmitters. The European-built recorder was developed for Columbia's mission and represents a breakthrough of sorts that could help people on Earth who otherwise would have to visit a sleep laboratory for help with serious disorders. "We're flying the equivalent of a whole hospital sleep laboratory," said Canadian astronaut Dafydd Williams. "It was developed especially for the space program to look at the issues of sleeping in the astronaut population. But one of the spinoffs from this mission is being able to take technology like this and have patients do sleep studies at home instead of being admitted to the hospital." The equipment is working flawlessly. So far during Columbia's mission, Czeisler said, "we've gotten the equivalent of more than 6,000 pages of recordings of this brain wave activity from the space environment." The astronauts also swallow a second pill each night, either a placebo or melatonin. To rule out subjective analysis, the astronauts and researchers will not find out which pill an astronaut actually took until after the flight. "There has been an inadequate amount of research on melatonin," Czeisler said. "It was released by the Food and Drug Administration because it is considered a food supplement because all the animals that are used in food also produce melatonin. ... In fact, the large-scale clinical trials needed to establish whether or not melatonin is an effective sleep promoter on the ground have not been carried out." The astronaut dosage is 0.3 milligrams, which raises the blood level of melatonin to about what a normal human would produce during the night. Melatonin sold in health food stores typically is 10 to 20 times more concentrated. "We do expect this experiment to have significant spinoffs for people on Earth because we will be able to characterize more fully the dose of melatonin that may be an effective sleep promoting agent and how its effectiveness may vary when it's taken at different times of day," Czeisler said. 8 a.m. Update: Crew awake; updating daily timeline The Columbia astronauts began their sixth day in space today with a wakeup call from Houston at 7:39 a.m. Today's music was Robert Palmer's "Bad Case of Loving You." After enjoying a half-day off Tuesday, the six-man one-woman crew faces a busy day of research activity today, carrying out another round of rat dissections and tests to find out if neonatal rats can develop normal motor skills in weightlessness. Commander Rick Searfoss and pilot Scott Altman will adjust the shuttle's orbit this afternoon to ensure a second end-of-mission daylight landing opportunity at the Kennedy Space Center. Kay Hire and Canadian astronaut Dafydd (Dave) Williams will take part in an interview by Discovery News. Here's today's schedule: 09:49 a.m....Rick Linnehan and Dave Williams set up the general purpose workstation in the Spacelab for animal procedures 10:44 a.m....Working with Linnehan, Williams begins another mouse dissection procedure; Hire begins work with the Bioreactor Demonstration System 11:34 a.m....Altman or Hire provide a Crew Choice TV downlink 02:00 p.m....Mission/Science status briefing on NASA TV 02:09 p.m....Linnehan and Williams wrap up the dissection work and stow the general purpose workstation 04:14 p.m....Searfoss and Altman conduct an orbital adjustment burn 03:54 p.m....Searfoss conducts landing sims with the PILOT; Jay Buckey studies the dexterity of neonates in the glovebox 03:59 p.m....U.S. Discovery Channel PAO Event with Hire and Williams 04:44 p.m....Altman conducts landing sims with the PILOT 06:59 p.m....Private medical conference 10:19 p.m....Crew sleep begins =================================================================== Ball catch experiment provides clues to nervous system (04/21/98) 3 p.m. Update: Ball catch experiment illustrates mental horsepower Imagine training a robot to catch a ball. The robot would need stereo vision and a powerful computer to calculate the ball's flight path, determine its velocity, infer its mass and compute its time to arrival. The robot then would have to position itself to actually intercept the ball, figuring out its own physical location relative to the moving target and then the location of its mechanical arm and hand. Once it figured out where to put its hand to catch the ball, the robot would have to somehow figure out what force to apply to avoid crushing it. A fairly complicated task. But a small child is able to do the very same thing without conscious thought, automatically anticipating the ball's arrival with a cascade of nerve impulses and barely perceptible muscle movements. "During the few hundred milliseconds when the ball first appears in the field of view of the subject, the brain apparently computes the velocity and acceleration of the ball and also, from its surface appearance and texture and volume, it infers a mass," said A. Berthoz, a researcher with the shuttle Columbia's Neurolab mission. "The third thing the brain does, which is what is of interest to us here, is that it applies an internal representation of the effect of gravity on such a mass and therefore predicts the effect of gravity." One of the more interesting aspects of all this is how the brain computes the distance to the ball. In fact, it might not do that at all. Some psychologists believe what the brain is actually doing is calculating time to impact based on how fast the image of the ball on the retina changes as the ball gets closer and closer. In any case, the brain learns how to do all this at a very early age. "Probably during the first year of life, the brain constructs these internal representations of the laws of mechanics, of Newtonian mechanics," Berthoz said in an interview. "And this is done not only for our limbs. The brain has to know not only the impact of the ball but also it has to somehow know in advance the properties of our limbs. This apparently is done in the first year of life." To better understand the motor-sensory processes that govern such seemingly simple actions, Berthoz and a team of researchers designed an experiment aboard the shuttle Columbia that requires the astronauts to catch a spring-propelled ball. Sensors record the electrical activity of their arm muscles and photograph how the head and body move in anticipation of the catch. The first experiment runs were carried out Sunday by four shuttle crew members and additional runs are planned later in the mission. No results are expected until data is analyzed after the mission. "The ball will go with a constant velocity, it will not be accelerated (as it is on Earth)," Berthoz said. "So the muscular contractions which the brain of the astronaut will produce, if they use the internal model of gravity, will be non functional. So therefore, in flight the brain has to reorganize this very basic, fundamental prediction and organization. That's the idea." The experiment is one of 26 aboard Columbia making up the Neurolab payload. All of the integrated animal and human research is focused on how the brain and nervous system develop and adapt to weightlessness. Along with helping future astronauts, the research may pay dividends on Earth in the treatment of a variety of neurologic ailments. Along with providing insights into how the brain uses internal models like the one for gravity, the ball catch experiment also should shed light on what the brain uses as its internal reference frame. "When you want to point to a point in space - to the telephone with your hand, or if you want to catch a ball - the brain has to solve a very complicated problem because the arm is a multi-degree-of-freedom (device)," Berthoz said. "You have to coordinate these muscles. One way is to take as a reference for the movements the head, for instance. It becomes very complicated. You have to reconstruct the position of the ball with respect to space and the feet and then the head and then the arms. It seems the brain is able to simplify the problem. "For instance, when you want to grasp an object or point at something or maybe catch a ball, the brain is using a shoulder-centered reference. Or eventually it can work without a static reference frame just by calculating the relation between the object and the hand. ... So this type of problem, of coordinate information, is of interest to us." It's not at all clear just how the brain actually computes the neurological answers to what amount to Newtonian equations of motion. But the computations appear to be carried out primarily in the superior colliculus, a structure in the mid brain that serves as a visual reflex center. "The problem of catching a prey is a very old problem," Berthoz said. "The frog, for instance, has to catch a fly or the salamander has to throw her tongue to the flying fly and it does this fantastically precisely. These beasts do not have a cortex. But they have a superior colliculus. And part of the process of the evaluation of the velocity of the ball in the first 50 milliseconds is probably done by the superior colliculus, which is this structure between the cortex and the brain stem. It exists in all species that deal with movement. "We do not know at all how the prediction of the target is done," Berthoz said. "The colliculus is probably involved in the detection of visual motion, the cerebellum is probably involved in containing at least part of the internal models. But it may also include the basal ganglia. Parkinson's patients have deficits in this kind of anticipation." 9:00 a.m. Update: Columbia astronauts get time off The Columbia astronauts were awakened today by the gentle tones of George Thorogood and the Destroyers singing "Bad to the Bone," yet another wakeup tune with a tongue-in-cheek medical theme. Other selections so far during Columbia's ongoing Neurolab mission include Aretha Franklin's "Think" and Jackson Browne's "Doctor, My Eyes." The crew faces a relatively light schedule today, with all seven fliers enjoying a half-day off to relax, chat with family members and enjoy the view from 167 miles up. Columbia, NASA's oldest space shuttle, continues to perform in fine fashion with no technical problems of any significance. Here's today's schedule of orbital activity: 11:44 a.m....Searfoss cleans orbiter filters; Buckey and Pawelczyk begin vestibular experiments 12:34 p.m....Hire resupplies water for the rodents; Williams and Altman join in on the vestibular experiments 02:19 p.m....Searfoss checks out the rodent cages; Hire and Williams begin off-duty time 04:19 p.m....The rest of the crew begins off-duty time and private family conferences 09:34 p.m....Private medical conference 11:39 p.m....Crew sleep beings =================================================================== Rats shed light on neural mapping (04/20/98) 4 p.m. Update: Researchers probe neural mapping Four male rats with microscopic electrodes implanted in their brains, scurried around a zero-gravity version of M.C. Escher's otherwise impossible "Ascending" staircase today in an experiment to pinpoint how the brain keeps track of where it is. The research is part of an ongoing series of human and animal experiments being carried about aboard the shuttle Columbia as part of the Neurolab mission. The rat experiment, called the Ensemble Neural Coding of Place and Direction in Zero G, is focused on what goes on at the cellular level in the hippocampus region of the brain, a structure where high-level association and long-term memory takes place. "We're trying to reverse engineer the most complex structure in the known universe," said principal investigator Bruce McNaughton. "And this structure we're looking at is actually the highest level-of-association cortex in our brains and it's the first thing that goes wrong during the breakdown that begins to occur in early Alzheimer's disease. By understanding the basic biology of hos this system works, it will give us the understanding we need to be able to tell what is going wrong in this system when it breaks down. "These experiments are contributing to a growing understanding of the mechanisms by which this structure works," he said. "Having that knowledge is a critical prerequisite to any kind of interventions that would be helpful." The experiment utilizes adult male rats, each with 48 hair-thin electrodes implanted in the hippocampus region of the brain. The rats are then allowed to run about a so-called Escher staircase, a track made up of three two-foot sections covered in velcro to give the animals traction in the microgravity environment aboard the shuttle. The idea is to monitor the firing of neurons in the hippocampus as the rats negotiate the track to find out whether the absence of gravity disrupts normal mapping activity. McNaughton's team is interested "in the mechanisms by which the brain generates mental maps of the world. A lot of studies have been done that suggests the primary mechanism used by the central nervous system to generate an internal map is to integrate one's motion in space as one moves about the environment. That is to say, one takes a reference point, such as a home base of some sort - animals typically use the nesting area - and keep track of that position, or at least the neuro circuitry keeps track of that position, as we move away from that point. With time, this circuitry then generates a wiring that's an internal representation of the environment. We're studying the neurophysiological basis of how this internal mapping system operates in zero G." The black-and-white striped rat track is similar in concept to the staircase in Escher's drawing "Ascending," which features stairsteps that appear to go up with each twist and turn yet return to their starting point. To visualize the mouse track, imagine setting one two-foot length of track down on a table and then bending the far end toward you until it is vertical. Glue a second piece to that vertical end at right angles so that it extends two feet to the right horizontally. Again, bend the far end of the second piece back toward you until it's parallel to the first track. Then glue the third piece between the start of the first and the end of the second. You end up with a track that would be impossible to follow in Earth's gravity field but one that works in weightlessness. "One thing you'll notice about this track is it's got three 90-degree turns," McNaughton said. "If on a terrestrial apparatus you make three 90-degree turns, you do not get back to your origin. And so we're making use of the fact that they can run in three orthogonol planes to find out what happens in the mental mapping system when there's a disconnect between the external features of the world that the animal sees and what its internal system for tracking its self motion in space tells it. So there's a disconnect here because the animal will get back to the origin after only making three right turns." In the hippocampus, neurons encode the location of the animal in space and a given cell is active when the animal is at a specific location. Rats on the Escher staircase likely will become disoriented because the internal mapping system "will tell it it's at one location when it gets back to the origin while its eyes will tell it something different," McNaughton said. "By recording from a group of these cells, it's actually possible for us to read the neural code that's expressed in this structure and tell you where the animal is," he said. "So we can tell when the animal is disoriented when the firings of these cells get out of alignment with where they normally fire in that environment. That's quite interesting, because we see exactly that process in aged rats, very often they'll construct an internal neural map for an environment and if you bring the animal back in after an hour's absence, it fails to retrieve the right map. You get a different map each time." At one level, the experiment will test current thinking about how the hippocampus carries out its internal mapping. "The second reason why we're interested in this is the same region of the brain that generates mental maps is also the gateway to long-term memory in humans and is the part of the brain that fails in normal aging and particularly in Alzheimer's disease," McNaughton said. "And by kind of reverse engineering this neural system, which actually is the highest level-of-association cortex in the brain, we hope to be able to gain insights into the mechanisms by which it breaks down by understanding its normal function." 1 p.m. Update: Mission control morning status report STS-90 Report #06 Monday, April 20, 1998 - 8 a.m. EDT Science research activities into how the human nervous system operates continue to go smoothly as STS-90 crew members flying aboard Shuttle Columbia proceed through the first week of their two-week-plus stay in Earth orbit. Commander Rick Searfoss along with Pilot Scott Altman, Mission Specialists Rick Linnehan, Kay Hire and Dave Williams and Payload Specialists Jay Buckey and Jim Pawelczyk were awakened at 8:19 a.m. Eastern time with the song "Doctor, My Eyes" by Jackson Browne to begin Flight Day 4 activities. Monday activities for the STS-90 payload crew - Linnehan, Williams, Buckey and Pawelczyk will include work with the Escher Staircase Behavior Testing of Adult Rats experiment. This will be the first of two behavior testing sessions with adult rats being used for this experiment. The rats will have a "hyper drive" unit placed on their head which has recording electrodes made of microscopic wires that are positioned in the brain to record activity in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is that portion of the brain used to develop spatial maps to help us navigate from one place to the other. With the "hyper drive" units in place, the rats will then be put through a maze or on a track. While the rat is maneuvering on the maze or track, the cell activity of the hippocampus will be measured and recorded. All four members of the payload crew will continue their work with the virtual reality headgear called the Virtual Environment Generator (VEG). The VEG evaluates visual and inner ear cues help the astronauts determine body orientation changes in the absence of gravity. This experiment could have important applications for people on Earth who suffer from balance and orientation difficulties. Searfoss, Altman and Hire who make up the Shuttle support crew, continue to monitor and maintain various Shuttle systems. Searfoss and Altman will also take turns operating the Portable In-Flight Landing Operations Trainer, a laptop computer and joy stick system that allows them to perform simulated approaches to the KSC landing site to help maintain their Shuttle piloting skills. Following yesterdays in-flight maintenance procedure by Altman and Hire, the Vestibular Function Experiment Unit (VFEU) that serves as home to four oyster toadfish continues to operate in good condition. Hire will spend part of today recording VFEU operations and imparting some accelerations to the fish pack units to keep the fish active and help with data sensor collection. Late this afternoon, at 5:44 p.m. EDT, CNN anchor John Holliman will conduct an interview with Linnehan to discuss the interdependency of oceanic research and space-based research. Also participating in the event will be Jean-Michel Cousteau, the son of the late ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau. Columbia remains in a 154 x 137 n.m. elliptical orbit, circling the Earth once every 90 minutes. The crew will go to sleep at 11:59 p.m. EDT this evening and receive a wake up call from Mission Control on Tuesday morning at 7:59 a.m. 8:30 a.m. Update: Astroanuts awake; updating timeline The Columbia astronauts were awakened by a recording of Jackson Brown's "Doctor, My Eyes," a particularly appropriate tune given the neurological nature of the crew's research. The shuttle Columbia continues to operate in near-perfect fashion with no technical problems of any significance. The only crew interview on tap today is a CNN event at 5:44 p.m. This status report will be updated after today's mission status briefing at 2 p.m. Until then, here's the crew's work schedule for today: 08:19 a.m....Crew Wakeup 11:34 a.m....Williams and Pawelczyk set up the general purpose workstation 12:09 a.m....Hire provides water and food for the rodent cages; Williams and Pawelczyk conduct rodent "staircase" experiments to test the animals' motor skills; Buckey conducts room awareness experiments 01:19 p.m....Searfoss brushes up on landing skills with the PILOT computer program 02:19 p.m....Williams begins room awareness experiment work 04:29 p.m....Linnehan conducts room awareness experiment work 05:04 p.m....Williams and Buckey conduct roden motor skills experiments 05:44 p.m....PAO Event with Linnehan 05:49 p.m....Searfoss checks out the rodent cages 07:04 p.m....Searfoss initiates a waste water dump; Linnehan transfers rodents back to their cages and conducts cognitive experiments with Williams; Buckey stows the GPWS; Pawelczyk conducts room awareness work 09:44 p.m....Private medical conference 11:59 p.m....Crew sleep begins =================================================================== Astronauts work through second day of space science (04/19/98) 9:00 a.m. Update: Crew awake; updating daily schedule The Columbia astronauts were awakened at 8:39 a.m. today by a recording of the late Chicago Cubs broadcaster Harry Carey singing "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" for Illinois-native Scott Altman, the shuttle's pilot. The crew sounds in good spirits and after breakfast and a daily planning session, science operations will begin around 1 p.m. The highlight of today's Neurolab activity will be another round of dissections, this time involving nine pregnant mice. Another nine will be injected with chemical tracers and dissected after Columbia's return to Earth. The goal is to measure how developing nerve cells in the mice embryos have been affected by the absence of gravity. Other research on tap today includes work with the ball catch experiment. In this exercise, Richard Linnehan, Dafydd Williams and James Pawelczyk will take turns catching a small spring-propelled ball to measure how their eye-hand coordination works in weightlessness. The electrical activity in their arm muscles will be measured as will their movements. The shuttle continues to operate in fine fashion with no technical problems of any significance and no mission or science briefings are planned today. This status report will be updated later today as events warrant. In the meantime, here's the timeline for today's activity: 11:39 a.m....The astronauts conduct a daily planning session 11:54 a.m....Linnehan transfers a mouse from the animal enclosure module; Buckey and Pawelczyk set up the general purpose workstation in the Spacelab; Williams begins the ball catch experiment to test motor skills 12:34 p.m....Pawelczyk begins mouse injection experiments 12:49 p.m....Linnehan joins Williams in the ball catch experiment 01:59 p.m....PAO Event with Searfoss and Altman 02:34 p.m....Altman conducts fuel cell monitoring activity; Buckey beginsmouse dissections 05:34 p.m....Linnehan and Pawelczyk conduct ball catch experiments 05:49 p.m....Linnehan and Williams stow the general purpose workstation; Buckey and others conducts object recognition experiments 06:14 p.m....Williams conducts mouse dissections 09:34 p.m....Private medical conference 12:19 p.m.... Crew sleep begins =================================================================== Shuttle crew kicks off science operations (04/18/98) 6 p.m. Update: Scientists pleased with start of Neurolab mission The Columbia astronauts put in their first full day of orbital research today, dissecting four rats, troubleshooting a balky pump in the shuttle's space aquarium and serving as subjects for a variety of neurological experiments. Scientists said they were pleased with the running start made by the astronauts and the quality of the data being returned about how their nervous systems are adapting to weightlessness. "From payloads perspective, the mission has gotten off to a great start," said Mike Richardson, a Neurolab mission manager. "We could not be happier. All the Spacelab subsystems required to support the Neurolab activities are functioning nominally. All the experiment activities that were planned for flight day one were completed without a problem. ... Flight day two has also gotten off to a great start." The only problem of any significance was the apparent failure of a pump in the aquarium housing four oyster toadfish. Four pumps are used by the system to provide oxygen to the fish and while one is not working, principal investigator Steve Highstein said the astronauts could use one pump to service two fish. The toadfish are wired with tiny transmitters in their heads to relay information about how specific nerves fire during movement. So far, data from the fish has been intermittent, but Highstein said that was not a major problem. He said the fish have to be relatively close to the centers of their tanks to generate a strong signal. The intermittent data appears to be the result of the fish moving to regions of the tank that is not conducive to clean communications. Even so, scientists are getting enough data to satisfy the goals of the experiment. "All the indications are our fish are healthy," Highstein said. "We're getting transmission of data from all four fish packages, albeit intermittently, but I think we can safely achieve 100 percent of our science goals even with intermittent data." The first in a wave of rodent dissections was carried out by Canadian astronaut Dafydd Williams and guest astronaut Jay Clark Buckey. Four adult male rats were beheaded to recover brain and inner ear tissue needed by four researchers looking into the process of neuronal plasticity, how nerve cells rewire themselves under the stress of a new environment. The research may one day help astronauts better adapt to weightlessness while providing insights into a variety of neurologic ailments here on Earth. "There are a number of different kinds of neurologic assaults - stroke, Parkinson's disease, some kinds of balance disorders - that trigger the brain to reorganize in these ways," said Gay Holstein, a researcher with the rat experiment. "So we can use this microgravity experiment to gain some more insight into what's the best way to treat these neurologic patients." Guest astronaut James Pawelczyk said today's dissections "went very smoothly." "The most important thing is that in order for us to return to the researchers the quality of tissues they would like, we have to be extremely quick about it," he said. "So these are actually timed dissections. If we wait too long, there begins to be certain degradation in certain nerve fibers and we want to avoid that." On Sunday, the astronauts plan to dissect nine pregnant mice so their embryos can be recovered and preserved to find out how their brains and nervous systems actually developed in the absence of gravity. Nine other pregnant mice will be injected with chemical tracers that will help researchers chart the migration of nerve cells in the developing embryos. Those mice will be sacrificed after Columbia returns to Earth. Otherwise, the shuttle continues to operate in near flawless fashion and there are no technical problems of any significance to report. Mission operations representative Jeff Bantle said Columbia has enough power and supplies for a full 16-day mission and, if the crew can conserve enough power, a 17th day. While that appears likely at this point, no decision on a mission extension will be made until much later in the flight. 9:15 a.m. Update: Crew awake and eager for work The Columbia astronauts were awakened at 8:59 a.m. today by a recording of Aretha Franklin's hit "Think," an appropriate tune given the neurological focus of the 90th shuttle flight. "Good morning, Columbia, time to get those neurons into action," astronaut Chris Hadfield radioed from mission control. "Good morning, Chris, how are you doing?" commander Rick Searfoss replied. "Everyone's just rousing themselves, getting ready to do a fine Neurolab day of work here." This status report will be updated after today's crew interview by Florida Today and The Orlando Sentinel newspapers (earlier if events warrant). In the meantime, here's the timeline of science activity for today: 08:59 a.m....Crew wakeup 12:19 p.m....Searfoss deploys the port radiator for the mission for debris protection capability; Altman and Linnehan check the rodent cages; Williams and Buckey set up the general purpose work station in the Spacelab; Pawelczyk conducts autonomic response experiments 12:34 p.m....Williams and Buckey begin the dissection of the first rodent subject; Searfoss and Altman setup the bicycle ergometer in Columbia's middeck 01:34 p.m....Searfoss cleans orbiter filters 02:29 p.m....Searfoss checks out the rodent cages 03:19 p.m....Altman activates sequential still video for use for investigators on the ground 03:44 p.m....PAO Event with Hire and Pawelczyk 06:04 p.m....Linnehan and Pawelczyk conduct vestibular experiments 07:34 p.m....Altman brushes up on landing skills with the Portable In-Flight Laptop Operations Trainer (PILOT) 08:04 p.m....Searfoss conducts landing sims with the PILOT 08:39 p.m....Altman services the on-board refrigerator-freezer for storage of biological samples 09:39 p.m....Private medical conference 12:39 a.m....Crew sleep begins =================================================================== Shuttle Columbia rockets into orbit (04/17/98) 4:10 p.m. Update: Bats in the belfry The shuttle Columbia performed virtually flawlessly during its thundering climb to space today, NASA officials say. But it's not yet known whether a wayward bat that attached itself to the shuttle's external tank before launch took wing before Columbia's fiery liftoff. "We did have a bat that attached itself to the backside of the tank today, which gave us something to talk about for a little while," said launch director David King. "We did take his body temperature (with an infrared camera), he was 68 degrees, the tank surface was 62 degrees so we've decided he was just trying to cool off. Some have said he may have heard the crickets in the Neurolab." King said "it was his choice whether to hang around when we started the engines or not." Donald McMonagle, chairman of NASA's mission management team, said Columbia "performed beautifully" during ascent. "We got a 102-second OMS burn off during the ascent, which was part of a test during this mission to get a little more performance for missions planned for space station assembly. We couldn't have asked for a better launch." For the men and women who prepared Columbia's scientific payload for flight, liftoff marked the end of a long, difficult road. "To say the payload team is ecstatic would probably be an understatement," said payload operations manager Scott Higginbotham. "Some of us have been working on this mission for years and to finally see it take flight is a feeling that's awfully hard to describe. ... We're looking forward to watching the crew perform 16 days of magnificent science on board this last planned Spacelab mission." After circularizing Columbia's orbit, the astronauts opened the shuttle's's cargo bay doors 90 minutes after launch and flight director John Shannon gave them formal permission to press on with orbital operations. "It was a great ride uphill and we're ready to start a great mission," commander Rick Searfoss radioed. The astronauts are in the process of activating their Spacelab research module and if all goes well, they'll open hatches and float into the laboratory shortly before 5:30 p.m. Shortly thereafter, they are expected to make a brief report on the health of their animal research subjects. Will advise. 2:30 p.m. Update: Shuttle Columbia launched on science mission Carrying a crew of seven and a small zoo of rats, fish, snails and crickets, the space shuttle Columbia blasted off and rocketed into orbit today, kicking of an ambitious 16-day flight to probe the inner workings of the brain and nervous system. With its three hydrogen-fueled main engines roaring at full power, Columbia's twin solid-fuel boosters ignited with a ground-shaking roar at 2:19 p.m., instanty pushing the 4.5-million-pound vehicle away from Earth. Liftoff came one day behind schedule because of work to replace a faulty data relay unit. The replacement work took a bit longer than expected, but Columbia's terminal countdown was uneventful and the ship got off on time at the opening of its two-and-a-half-hour launch window. The initial moments of flight appeared normal as the spacecraft wheeled about and lined up on a trajectory that will carry it 39 degrees to either side of the equator. Columbia's solid rocket boosters burned out and cleanly fell away about two minutes after launch. Ten seconds later, the shuttle's two orbital maneuvering engines fired up as planned for a one-minute 42-second engineering test. Normally, the OMS engines are used only in space, for major trajectory changes and to drop the shuttle out of orbit. By firing them during ascent, however, the shuttle possibly could carry additional cargo into space during the space station era. That's what today's test firing was designed to determine. "The goal is to help increase the shuttle's performance margin, to get more mass to orbit by using some of that performance of the OMS engines," said pilot Scott Altman. "We'll be ... burning about 4,000 pounds of propellant." The test appeared to go smoothly and about six minutes into flight, the shuttle rolled about its long axis to put the crew in a heads-up orientation, a relatively new maneuver intended to improve communications. Two-and-a-half minutes later, the main engines shut down and Columbia slipped into its planned preliminary orbit. The goal of the 90th shuttle mission is to carry out 26 experiments to learn more about how the brain and nervous system function together and adapt to weightlessness. Five of the astronauts will serve as experiment subjects as will the animals, most of which will be killed at various stages in their development to shed light on how the absence of gravity affects the formation and function of the nervous system. "We're going into outer space to study inner space, the innermost workings of the human nervous system, to understand the fine detail of how we're able to perform complex motor tasks and understand how we interact with our environment," said Canadian astronaut Dafydd Williams. "There's something in this mission for everyone." The crew's research will be carried out inside a European-built Spacelab research module mounted in Columbia's cargo bay and connected to the shuttle's crew cabin by a 19-foot-long tunnel. This is the 16th and final flight of the Spacelab module since its debut launch in 1983. "We're reaching a new level of detail and sophistication in what we're able to do on orbit to address some very fundamental how-and-why aspects of the scientific questions we're asking," said commander Rick Searfoss. "We're much more on the leading edge of science in the kind of work we do up in orbit these days." Joining Searfoss, Altman and Williams aboard Columbia are flight engineer Kay Hire, veterinarian Richard Linnehan and guest researchers Jay Clark Buckey and James Pawelczyk. All but Searfoss and Linnehan are shuttle rookies. "This mission focuses on the most complex and least understood part of the human body, the brain," said Arnold Nicogossian, director of life sciences at NASA. "The goals of this mission are threefold: To understand how the nervous system interprets stores and processes information; how gravity - or the absence thereof - influences the development and function of the nervous system. And how we can take that information and apply it for the NASA purposes of exploration, to develop countermeasures for the people who will explore space, and also how we can take that information and apply it to the benefit of people here on Earth." 7 a.m. Update: Shuttle 'go' for second launch try Running slightly behind schedule, engineers successfully installed and tested a replacement network signal processor aboard the shuttle Columbia and geared up for a second attempt to launch the shuttle today on a 16-day science mission. Liftoff remains targeted for 2:19 p.m. and forecasters predict a 90 percent chance of acceptable weather during Columbia's two-and-a-half-hour launch window. Work to load a half-million gallons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen rocket fuel aboard the shuttle's external tank, however, began about one hour behind schedule because of the avionics replacement work. But NASA engineers say the time can be made up during an upcoming "hold" in the countdown. There are no other technicalk problems of any significance to report. Here is a schedule of upcoming events: 07:00 a.m....Crew wakeup 08:00 a.m....NASA TV begins 09:54 a.m....Crew breakfast/photo op 11:04 a.m....The astronauts depart for the launch pad 11:34 a.m....The crew begins boarding Columbia 12:49 p.m....The shuttle's hatch is closed 01:39 p.m....A 10-minute hold at the T-minus 20-minute point begins 01:49 p.m....Countdown resumes 02:00 p.m....A 10-minute hold at the T-minus nine-minute point begins 02:10 p.m....Countdown resumes 02:19 p.m....STS-90 launch 03:02 p.m....Rocket firing to circularize orbit 03:49 p.m....The shuttle's cargo bay doors are opened 04:04 p.m....Spacelab activation 05:24 p.m....The astronauts enter the Spacelab module =================================================================== Shuttle launch delayed 24 hours (04/16/98) 11:30 a.m. Update: Random hardware failure blamed for shuttle delay The failure of a solid state data relay unit aboard the shuttle Columbia early today was a random event and not indicative of any widespread problem across the shuttle fleet, NASA engineers say. Bob Sieck, shuttle integration manager at the Kennedy Space Center, said the network signal processor in question was 10 to 20 years old and representative of 1970s era technology. The device, one of two on board Columbia, is used to relay and format commands, telemetry and voice communications to and from the shuttle. NSP No. 2 failed during startup around 4 a.m. this morning and after extensive troubleshooting, NASA managers decided to delay Columbia's launch for 24 hours, to 2:19 p.m. Friday, and to install a replacement. "Although the other unit on board was functioning fine, should it fail your only ability to communicate with the vehicle would be via UHF radio and you would not have any ability to uplink or update the computers on the orbiter from the ground," Sieck said. In other words, the shuttle could fly safely without an operational network signal processor, but the crew would not be able to carry out its planned 16-day science mission. "So we went by our launch commit criteria, our rules, that say this redundancy has to be in place prior to the mission," Sieck said. "And when we tried every capability of this box to restore this uplink capability and all those failed, we had no choice but to delay the launch and change out this hardware." The shoebox-size replacement unit, borrowed from the shuttle Endeavour, was expected to be installed aboard Columbia by 5 p.m. "That work will take the better part of the day," Sieck said. "We should have the new unit installed and retested some time this evening and have no issue with picking up our normal launch count, tanking and terminal countdown tomorrow morning." Otherwise, he said, "we don't have any other issues associated with the flight hardware or the ground. This is a fairly routine thing. It's unfortunate that the hardware picked this time to fail. Solid state hardware does this when you turn it on sometimes. The history of these boxes is they are very reliable. Obviously, we'll do a failure analysis on this box to see what lessons can be learned. But for the time being, it's your typical, technical problem. We found it, we're going to fix it and we're going to get on with this mission." As for the age of the broken hardware, Sieck said "I wouldn't say it indicates it's wearing out. We all know solid stat hardware usually fails when you turn it on or the previous time when you turn it off and that looks to be the case here." 8:30 a.m. Update: Shuttle launch delayed 24 hours Launch of the shuttle Columbia on a 16-day science mission has been delayed 24 hours, to 2:19 p.m. Friday, because of problems with an avionics system used to receive and process computer commands from the ground. This is the first time NASA has been forced to order a one-day launch delay since the flight of mission STS-83 in April 1997. There are no other technical problems with Colum bia and the forecast for Friday calls for a zero percent chance of bad weather. Columbia's countdown was proceeding smoothly toward fueling early today when engineers ran into problems with network signal processor No. 2, one of two avionics systems used to format voice and telemetry data sent to and from the shuttle. The devices are located in an avionics bay behind lockers on the crew cabin's lower deck. Each one can operate at two speeds, or data rates, and processor No. 2 was locked up in a mode that prevented it from receiving high data rate commands from the ground or from NASA's communications satellite system. Engineers briefly discussed the possibility of launching a spare aboard Columbia and replacing the faulty unit in orbit, but that option was never seriously considered. While the shuttle can safely fly with just one network signal processor, NASA's flight rules require both units to be operational before a shuttle can be cleared for launch. If they launched with just one operational processor and if it failed in orbit, the shuttle would be left with nothing but UHF voice communications. And so, NASA launch director David King called off today's launch attempt before fueling began. If Columbia is not off the ground by Friday, the flight will be delayed at least 96 hours, to April 21, to replace research animals and to top off internal fuel supplies. The flight could be delayed even longer, however - to April 25 - because of launch activity already scheduled at the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Station. Mission managers originally hoped to extend Columbia's mission from 16 to 17 days once the shuttle was in orbit, but the one day delay could scotch those plans because the liquid oxygen/hydrogen fuel for the ship's electrical generators is constantly boiling off. Will advise. This status report will be updated after a news briefing currently scheduled for 10:30 a.m. =================================================================== Animals loaded aboard shuttle for research flight (04/15/98) The shuttle Columbia's countdown continues to tick smoothly toward liftoff Thursday at 2:19 p.m. on a 16-day neuroscience mission. NASA test director Debra Frostrom said NASA's oldest shuttle was in good shape and "we're tracking no concerns or issues." "The team is ready and we're looking forward to a successful launch tomorrow afternoon," she told reporters at a morning status briefing. With no problems at launch pad 39B, forecasters continue to predict a zero percent chance of bad weather that would delay liftoff during Columbia's two-and-a-half-hour launch window. The forecast for Friday, which originally called for a 40 percent chance of high winds and clouds, has been upgraded to 100 percent "go." As shuttle launch campaigns go, it doesn't get much better than this. Columbia's mission is devoted to learning more about how the human neurological system - the brain, spinal cord and sensory organs - responds to the absence of gravity. In so doing, researchers expect to gain insights into neurological problems that develop on Earth. The shuttle's seven-member crew will serve as subjects for a battery of experiments, as will a menagerie of rats, mice, fish and insects. Overnight, a team of technicians loaded 132 rats into animal enclosures inside the shuttle's Spacelab research module, along with four fish wired with tiny transmitters in their heads. Telemetry from one fish was normal, but the signal was spotty from two others and non-existent with the fourth. Researchers believe the systems are working properly, however, and that the intermittent telemetry "is due to the fish not cooperating," said payload operations manager Scott Higginbotham. When a fish "hides" in a corner of its tank, for example, the antenna system used to collect the telemetry may not work properly. It is believed that once Columbia reaches orbit, telemetry from all four fish will be available. The Spacelab module has been closed for launch. This afternoon, technicians will last-minute experiment items inside Columbia's crew module, including: 18 mice 20 rats 204 swordtail fish 30 snails 75 snail spawn packs 824 crickets 690 cricket eggs Engineers also plan to activate the shuttle's communications system and to retract a protective gantry that protects the orbiter from rain and wind-blown debris. Retraction is scheduled for 8 p.m. and if all goes well, engineers will begin loading the shuttle's external tank with rocket fuel at 5:59 p.m. Thursday. Here's the timeline of launch-day events: 05:59 a.m....Fueling begins 07:00 a.m....Crew wakeup 08:00 a.m....NASA TV begins 08:59 a.m....Fueling complete 09:54 a.m....Crew breakfast/photo op 11:04 a.m....The astronauts depart for the launch pad 11:34 a.m....The crew begins boarding Columbia 12:49 p.m....The shuttle's hatch is closed 01:39 p.m....A 10-minute hold at the T-minus 20-minute point begins 01:49 p.m....Countdown resumes 02:00 p.m....A 10-minute hold at the T-minus nine-minute point begins 02:10 p.m....Countdown resumes 02:19 p.m....STS-90 launch =================================================================== Countdown ticks smoothly toward shuttle launch (04/14/98) 3 p.m. Update: President Clinton chats with Columbia astronauts President Bill Clinton, touring the Johnson Space Center in Houston, took time out this afternoon to wish Columbia's crew bon voyage as the astronauts gear up for launch Thursday on a grueling medical research mission. Speaking to the crew through a video hookup, Clinton said he was particularly interested in the Neurolab mission. "I hope you find out a lot of things about the human neurological system to help me," Clinton said. "Because I'm moving into those years where I'm getting dizzy and I'm having all these problems and I expect you to come back with all the answers." "Well thank you, Mr. President, we'll take that on board as one of the challenges we'll try to meet," commander Rick Searfoss joked. The president was visiting the Johnson Space Center to get a first-hand look at how John Glenn's training is going leading up to launch Oct. 29 aboard the shuttle Discovery. Glenn gave Clinton a personal tour of a shuttle mockup in Building 9 and even offered him a taste of the same space food the crew will eat in orbit. Clinton then addressed JSC workers before leaving the center. Glenn has adamantly denied that his support of Clinton influenced, either directly or indirectly, NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin's decision to approve Glenn's request for a shuttle flight. But the president's remarks will no doubt fuel additional speculation along those lines in the weeks ahead. "I have loved working with him in Washington," Clinton said. "I frankly was heartsick when he said he wasn't going to run again for the Senate. He said, 'Well I'm too old.' Then he said, 'Oh by the way, can you get me into space?' I said, 'Now wait a minute, John. You're too old to do six more years in the Senate but you're plenty young enough to go into space?' "The truth is this man has done 149 combat missions in World War 2 and Korea, four hours 55 minutes and 23 history making seconds aboard Friendship 7 and four terms in the United States Senate," Clinton said. "In today's atmosphere, perhaps that latter accomplishment was his most hazardous duty. Maybe it is safer for him to go into space." The president said the decision to fly John Glenn "was made by Dan Goldin ... because we thought it would be good for the space program, good for science, good for the American people, good for our future." 11 a.m. Update: Weather outlook improves for Thursday launch The shuttle Columbia's countdown continues to tick smoothly toward liftoff Thursday at 2:19 p.m. Forecasters now predict a zero percent (!) chance of bad weather during Columbia's two-and-a-half-hour launch window that would delay the 90th shuttle mission. The forecast calls for a 60 percent chance of acceptable weather Friday. After that, all bets are off. The next open slot on the Air Force launch schedule is April 25, although Columbia would be ready for another attempt on April 21. Given today's forecast, such options appear to be moot. At launch pad 39B, engineers have loaded Columbia's internal tanks with liquid hydrogen and oxygen to power the ship's three electrical generators, clearing the way for a small team of technicians to begin loading final experiments, animals and other material into the shuttle's Spacelab research module. This flight is devoted to neurological research and animal subjects must be loaded as late as possible, a fairly complex task given Columbia's vertical orientation at the pad. Working from the lower deck of Columbia's crew cabin, two technicians will be lowered one at a time in sling-like seats down the 19-foot tunnel that runs between the cabin's aft hatch and the Spacelab module in the orbiter's cargo bay. One technician will be positioned on a shelf-like bend in the tunnel near the forward hatch of the module while the other will be lowered into the module itself. Experiments, research animals and equipment then will be carefully lowered down the tunnel for installation in Spacelab experiment racks. "The late stow is a 13-hour activity that will conclude about 3:30 a.m.," said payload operations manager Scott Higginbotham. "The stow itself is made up of three waves of activity. The first wave ... we will install some passive items into the Spacelab, we'll activate the life science labroatory equipment refrigerator and once it's chilled down, we'll install a number of chemical sets into it. And then we will activate the research animal holding facilities in racks three and seven." Starting around 7:45 p.m., the technicians will begin the second stage in the stowage process. "Wave two is basically devoted to rack 10, the vestibular function experiment unit," Higginbotham said. "We will activate that unit and install four fish packages. Each of these fish packets contains one single oyster toad fish." The final step in the stowage process is to load 24 cages containing 132 mice (otherwise known as rats to most reporters). "Then we'll begin four hours of module closeout activities," Higginbotham said. Otherwise, there is little to report this morning. Engineers plan to test Columbia's three main engines today, check out its communications systems and press ahead with work to ready the pad for launch. A protective gantry will be retracted from around the orbiter around 8 p.m. Wednesday night to set the stage for fueling early Thursday. "Currently, we have no technical issues or concerns, the team is ready and we're looking forward to a successful launch Thursday afternoon," said NASA test director Debra Frostrom. =================================================================== Countdown begins for Neurolab mission (04/13/98) After a two-and-a-half-month hiatus, countdown clocks began ticking today for launch of the shuttle Columbia Thursday afternoon on a 16-day life science mission to learn more about the inner workings of the numan nervous system. The countdown began on time at 2 a.m. and if all goes well, Columbia will thunder aloft on the 90th shuttle mission - the first since a flight to the Mir space station in January - at 2:19 p.m. Thursday. While the flight is officially scheduled to last 15 days 21 hours and 50 minutes (setting up a landing at 12:09 p.m. May 2),the mission may be extended one day if Columbia gets off on time and if no major problems develop in orbit. "The STS-90 countdown is proceeding nicely," said NASA test director Doug Lyons. "We're not tracking any problems or concerns with our ground or our flight systems and we're right on schedule at the moment." Columbia's six-man one-woman crew arrived at the Kennedy Space Center around 4 p.m. to begin final preparations for launch. "A beautiful day in Florida," commander Rick Searfoss told reporters at the shuttle runway. "Hopefully we'll have some good weather coming up on Thurdsay. From what I understand, Columbia's doing great as we start the countdown. The vehicle's in great shape, we're all rested and ready to go. It's good to be finished with the training and ready to start." The STS-90 countdown is a bit more challenging than most because of last-minute work required to stow animal subjects and other experiments in the shuttle's Spacelab research module as late as possible before launch. That work requires technicians to be lowered through a long tunnel into the module from the shuttle's crew cabin much like cavers lowering themselves down a vertical shaft. The actual installation process will take 13 hours starting at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. With no technical problems at pad 39B, forecasters are predicting an 80 percent chance of acceptable weather during Columbia's 2.5-hour launch window. The forecast for Friday calls for a 60 percent chance of good weather. The launch time will remain the same if the flight is delayed 24 hours. If Columbia isn't off the ground by Friday, however, launch will be delayed at least four days, to April 21, to replace or refurbish experiments and to load fresh animal subjects as well as to top off the shuttle's on-board power system. As of this morning, Air Force launch activity at the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Station would preclude another attempt to launch Columbia until April 25. That schedule could change, however, and a launch attempt on April 21 might be possible if the Air Force plans can be modified. On board will be Searfoss, pilot Scott Altman, Richard Linnehan, Kay Hire and Canadian astronaut Dafydd Williams, along with guest researchers Jay Buckey and James Pawelczyk (prono: pah-WALL'-sick). All but Searfoss, a two-flight veteran, and Linnehan, who flew once previously, are space rookies. Joining the astronauts will be a menagerie of animals and insects, including mice, fish, snails and crickets, many of which will be dissected during the flight. The goal of the year's second shuttle flight is to carry out a battery of experiments to learn more about the human nervous system by studying how the system's components are affected by the absence of gravity. The research will be carried out inside a roomy Spacelab module mounted in Columbia's cargo bay. Here's a bit of background from NASA's press kit: The prime mission objective for the STS-90 Neurolab mission is to conduct research that will contribute to a better understanding of the human nervous system. Made up of the brain, spinal cord, nerves, and sensory organs, this system faces major challenges in microgravity. The nervous system controls blood pressure, maintains balance, coordinates movements, and regulates sleep -- areas that are all affected by space flight. Since this flight focuses on basic research questions in neuroscience, the mission will provide a unique contribution to the study and treatment of neurological diseases and disorders. While the foremost goal of Neurolab is to expand our understanding of how the nervous system develops and functions in space, the research will also increase our knowledge of how this system develops and functions on Earth. International agencies, including the Canadian Space Agency, French Space Agency, German Space Agency, European Space Agency and Japanese Space Agency, are partners with NASA for the Neurolab mission. They have provided flight and ground hardware for various research experiments and will support investigations from their respective countries. On the flight, the crew will serve as both experiment subjects and operators. STS-90 crewmembers will work with a wide array of biomedical instrumentation, including some instruments and devices developed especially for the mission. The crew will not be the only living things on board; Neurolab will also carry rats, mice, two kinds of fish, snails, and crickets into space. Neurolab has a significant place in NASA’s long-range plans. Long-duration space flights will become common as the International Space Station is built and occupied. This makes an understanding of how the human body functions in microgravity essential. Neurolab is expected to contribute key answers, clarifying the requirements for our future residency on the International Space Station and for aiding research on Earth.