STS-95 MISSION ARCHIVE (complete) Updated: 11/08/98 Shuttle Discovery: John Glenn's Return to Space 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 -John Glenn set for historic return to space (01/16/98) -Glenn defends research program (02/20/98) -STS-95 crew flies to KSC for countdown rehearsal (10/06/98) -Glenn defends medical research - again (10/08/98) -Glenn removed from melatonin experiment (10/21/98) -Engineers work around main engine actuator glitch (10/25/98) -Shuttle countdown begins; crew arrival on tap (10/26/98) -Carpenter set for 'God speed, John Glenn' (10/26/98) -Astronauts arrive for Thursday launch (10/26/98) -GOES-8 Weather satellite on the blink (10/27/98) -Forecast improves to 100 percent 'go' for shuttle launch (10/27/98) -Shuttle ready for flight; weather forecast holds (10/28/98) -Apollo 11 launch outshines Discovery mission - barely (10/28/98) -Pressure to launch will not affect decision (10/28/98) -Shuttle Discovery rockets into orbit (10/29/98) -Glenn feels fit; describes life aboard shuttle (10/30/98) -Glenn fields questions from kids (10/31/98) -Medical community impressed by Glenn's performance (10/31/98) -Astronauts gear up for Spartan deploy (11/01/98) -Spartan satellite launched (11/01/98) -Spaceflight renews Glenn's faith in God (11/01/98) -Shuttle astronauts enjoy time off (11/02/98) -Glenn renews 'get out the vote' effort (11/02/98) -Shuttle crew closes in on satellite (11/03/98) -Spartan solar satellite retrieved (11/03/98) -Spartan satellite captures billion-ton solar flare (11/03/98) -Astronauts test space station guidance system (11/04/98) -Glenn fields questions from Cronkite, Leno (11/04/98) -Shuttle crew in home stretch of historic mission (11/05/98) -Glenn pleased with flight; commander downplays drag chute concern (11/05/98) -Discovery astronauts pack for Saturday landing (11/06/98) -Shuttle Discovery rigged for landing (11/07/98) -Shuttle Discovery glides to sunny touchdown (11/07/98) -Glenn able to walk around shuttle; NASA pleased with flight (11/07/98) -Crew news conference postponed (11/07/98) -Fit-looking Glenn elated by space voyage (11/08/98) =================================================================== John Glenn set for historic return to space (01/16/98) After months of speculation, Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) has won a seat on a space shuttle 36 years after becoming the first American in orbit. NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin said Glenn, whose only flight spanned just three orbits, will be assigned to shuttle mission STS-95 as a payload specialist. The 10-day mission aboard the shuttle Discovery is scheduled for launch Oct. 29. In a related development, Goldin confirmed that NASA has invited Barbara Morgan, an Idaha school teacher who served as Christa McAuliffe's backup in the now-defunct Teacher in Space program, to join the astronaut corps as a full-fledged mission specialist. "We are not reviving the civilian in space program," Goldin insisted. "We are expanding the reach of the astronaut program. We are asking people to go through the formal process. In the case of Barbara Morgan, she will be entering the next NASA mission specialist class. She's going to go through the full training. As we're trying to get get biologists and geologists because of the tremendous findings we're having in planetary science, education is a prime mission of NASA. We want scientifically developed educators to also participate. Any future astronauts will go through the full training program at NASA." By inviting Morgan to become an astronaut, Goldin removed one obvious objection to Glenn's flight, i.e., the possible perception that NASA caved in to the demands of a powerful senator and ignored Morgan, who already is trained as a payload specialist and has lobbied for more than 10 years for a chance to complete McAuliffe's mission. Morgan instead will serve in a dual capacity when she finally flies: Providing a sort of astronaut outreach and education function while handling all the responsibilities of any other mission specialist. Other educators also would be allowed to apply to the astronaut corps, a job that in the past required a college degree in a technical subject and three years of real-world experience in a technical field. But NASA does not intend to fly any so-called "civilians" and both the Teacher-in-Space program and a pre-Challenger project to fly a journalist are quite dead. "One of the issues I personally had with the civilian-in-space program was the lack of full training," Goldin said. "That is why Barbara Morgan is going to become a mission specialist, a fully trained mission specialist. We're not looking for educators only. They must be scientists and do science and then education as part of the process." Morgan does not yet have a flight assignment. She will have to complete additional training before becoming qualified to operate shuttle systems as a mission specialist. As such, a flight assignment is a year or more away. Glenn, on the other had, will take off aboard the shuttle Discovery at 2 p.m. on Oct. 29. The goals of the 10-day flight include the launch and retrieval of the Spartan-201 solar physics satellite and a variety of on-board experiments. The Spartan satellite was launched during a shuttle flight in late 1997, but it failed to work properly because of mistakes by the crew and ground controllers. The spacecraft was reassigned to mission STS-95 in a bid to complete its research objectives. At a heavily attended news conference reminiscent of one on April 9, 1959, to introduce the Mercury Seven astronauts to America, Glenn said he planned to conduct scientific research into the process of aging during Discovery's flight. He strongly denied he had any political help from the Clinton administration in convincing Goldin to approve the flight. "I'm very proud to have been part of the beginnings of America's space program and needless to say I'm excited to be back," Glenn said. "More than that, it's not important how I feel standing here. The important thing is the opportunity that this gives to take us in some new directions with research." Glenn said he first made a formal proposal to Goldin two years ago, suggesting that NASA should look into the similarities between normal aging and the effects of spaceflight to find out if there are any lessons to be learned that could be applied back on Earth. "The first time I brought this up, the first thing Dan Goldin wanted to stress was nobody was going anywhere just for a free ride. If it had a good basis in science, and be peer reviewed and put through all the hoops NASA puts its experiments through, if it survived that and then if I could pass the physical, then they would consider this." And so they did. Glenn took a complete NASA flight physical in 1996 and has participated in numerous followup studies, making him one of the most studied astronauts in history. He passed with flying colors, saying today he does not expect any health-related problems or trouble with emergency procedures. Glenn said the cardiovascular changes, muscle deconditioning, bone loss and other effects of prolonged exposure to weightlessness are similar to problems experienced due to aging. "We know the whats of aging," Glenn said. "But I want to try to contribute more to learning about the whys of aging. Hopefully we can lessen the frailties of old age that plague so many people. And we can learn something maybe at the same time that can help the younger astronauts going up there for extended flights also. One way we might be able to get at those whys is through studying similarities between the aging process and what occurs to astronauts while they're in space. "What if we studied the effects of space travel and weightlessness on somebody who's already gone through much of the aging process. Would we see the same kind of changes, would you be immune to them, will we be able to find out what turns the aging processes on and off eventually? it's these kinds of questions that led me to be here today. So I see this as another adventure into the unknown." For readers interested in how NASA normally selects astronauts, here's a bit of background from a story I wrote for Ciel et Espace, the French astronomy magazine: Between 2,000 and 3,000 pilots, scientists and engineers apply for each class. All applicants must be U.S. citizens with a college degree in engineering or a science. Pilots must have at least 1,000 hours flying time in jet aircraft. Test pilot experience is "highly desirable." Candidates vying to become mission specialists, the astronauts who carry out research aboard the space shuttle, must have at least three years of professional experience in a technical field. Unlike the early days of the U.S. space program, NASA no longer requires perfect physical specimens. Aside from being in generally good health, pilot candidates must stand between 163 and 193 centimeters tall and have vision correctable to 20-20 in each eye. Mission specialists can be a bit shorter. "There's nothing bizarre in the medical evaluation we do on these folks," said Duane Ross, a NASA manager at the Johnson Space Center who helps oversee crew selection and training. "But it is very, very thorough." Between 10 percent and 15 percent of the initial applications are rejected right away because the applicants in some way failed to meet the basic requirements. "But that still leaves you with more than 2,000 qualified applicants to look at," Ross said. A NASA Rating Panel made up of astronauts, scientists and engineers then narrows the number down to around 350 candidates based almost solely on their professional experience. At that point, an Astronaut Selection Board made up of 10 to 12 veteran astronauts and NASA managers is established. After further evaluation, just 100 to 120 or so men and women are invited to the Johnson Space Center for a week of medical tests, interviews and general orientation. Ross said the final selection is especially difficult because all of the applicants who make it that far have exceptional records. "It's kind of the proverbial good news, bad news thing," he told Ciel et Espace. "The good news is, we have more highly qualified folks than we can ever take. The bad news is, we have more highly qualified folks than we can ever take." =================================================================== Glenn defends research program (02/20/98) Thirty-six years to the day after becoming the first American in orbit, John Glenn today met with reporters and defended his planned medical research aboard the shuttle Discovery, dismissing criticism that any results will not be statistically significant. Glenn and his six crewmates held their first news conference today since training began and the Ohio senator said so far, he's had no problems. He has had training in the shuttle's bulky pressure suit and undergone a centrifuge run to simulate the accelerations he can expect during Discovery's climb to space. "It's been a rigorous week, but it's been exhilarating, too, and I've loved every minute of it," Glenn said. "To have a chance to get back in a suit again, to learn about a new suit and all the controls and so on, I even enjoyed the centrifuge run yesterday. So it's been exhilarating this week to get back into things.? Glenn was approved to fly on the shuttle after he proposed a research program to explore similarities between aging and the effects of weightlessness. Two of Glenn's crewmates, Scott Parazynski and Japanese guest astronaut Chiaki Mukai, are medical doctors, but Glenn said they were not added to the roster for his benefit. "No, we didn't need two doctors for me, that's for sure," Glenn said. "There were some questions in the press about that a few days ago. If I'm not mistaken, Chiaki was assigned to this flight just about a year ago. It's normal on a life sciences flight to have a doctor along. So I don't think anything should be read into that whatsoever. There were no doctors assigned to this just because I was on the flight. It's not that tenuous a thing. I've passed all the physicals in good shape and I was told I've passed more physical exams than any astronaut who's ever been selected." Parazynski said no special medical equipment will be taken into orbit because of Glenn's presence on the crew. "We're treating this as a regular shuttle flight and we'll have the same medical kit as any other flight," he said. NASA expects more reporters to cover Glenn's mission than any shuttle flight since the shuttle Discovery took off on the first post-Challenger mission. Glenn said today he hoped reporters will focus on the goals of the flight and not his presence on the crew. "It is not going to be 'The John Glenn Flight,'" he said. "I'm here to be a member of this crew and work with everybody else. I'll be doing some of the experiments myself, I'll be backing up some of the other people. I'm here as a working crew member and that's it. I hope everybody concentrates on the science of this thing. ... Obviously, I have a personal interest in going back up again, a personal interest and I don't deny that. But the basic purpose of why I'm going is not to go sightseeing. It's to do basic research in this area and I'm going to do the very best job I know how to do." Glenn's research program, that is, the specific experiments he will conduct, has not yet been finalized. But he said the work will involve "blood samples, urine, saliva, some of the tests they normally do on a lot of the flights." "We'll also have some injections of certain medicines, maybe pills of certain types, trace medicines that can then be analyzed in urine or blood samples to know what effect it had on the body, where the protein loss, say, came from, things like this," he added. Glenn said he has heard critics question the validity of sending "one person up and getting one datapoint. That doesn't make a database." "You've got to start somewhere is my view of that one," he said. "I realize that, but where do you start? I hope eventually we have a very large database out of all this. You have to start somewhere and if I'm fortunate to be the one to start, I'm honored to be the first datapoint on the new chart." This reporter then questioned whether Glenn's research would have any statistical significance given that only one test subject will be involved. "Would you not agree that the overall significance of that research, based on how John Glenn's body reacts, really has no statistical significance that can be applied to any population at all?" he was asked. "Well it might or might not, I don't know," Glenn replied. "What if we find a broad parameter that goes off the scale in a particular direction? That may give you clue then as to how you want to design future experiments. You could say the same thing about space in general. My flight back in '62 was one flight. Was it statistically significant or not, should we have gone ahead? It was only one flight, it didn't prove anything except just that we could do it, and yet here we are 36 years later and we've learned a tremendous amount. "I wish we could send up 150 77-year olds all at one time and get a database. We'll, we can't do that. ... I think of this as a starting point and look forward to it as expanding from here on. I don't look at this as a one-shot deal." Maybe not. But NASA has no current plans to launch any other 77-year-old shuttle crew members, at least not in the next several years. So for the near term, Glenn's presence on the crew appears to be just that, a "one-shot deal." =================================================================== STS-95 crew flies to KSC for countdown rehearsal (10/06/98) Sen. John Glenn and his six shuttle crewmates flew to the Kennedy Space Center today for four days of launch site training and a dress rehearsal countdown Friday that sets the stage for blastoff Oct. 29 aboard the shuttle Discovery. Running several hours behind schedule because of bad weather between Houston and Florida, Glenn, commander Curt Brown, pilot Steven Lindsey, Scott Parazynski, Stephen Robinson, Japanese astronaut Chiaki Mukai and Pedro Dugue of Spain arrived in T-38 jet trainers around 7:30 p.m. Several dozen reporters and photographers stood by all day to hear a few words from Glenn and company, far more than usually attend the arrival of a crew for an otherwise routine terminal countdown demonstration test, or TCDT. While NASA normally welcomes such interest in a shuttle flight, Brown refused to let his crewmates say a few words, citing their late arrival and the necessity to press on with training later in the evening. "I'm very honored that everyone waited out here for our arrival," he said. "We must apologize, the weather in Houston was not really great today and we had to delay. So we sure do appreciate you all staying out and feeding the mosquitos because there seem to be a lot of them out here tonight. But we're very happy to be down in Florida, we've been training very hard for the last seven-and-a-half months and the practice countdown always marks a big milestone in our training. We get to come down and see all the folks here at Kennedy Space Center, get in the real vehicle, see the real equipment again. So we're very excited about that. "We're going to do some additional training tomorrow ... and then Friday we'll be strapping into Discovery and practicing what we're going to do Oct. 29. The folks down here have done a fantastic job getting Discovery ready to go. We've had a pretty short timeline and hopefully with all the hurricanes we've had in the Atlantic these days they'll leave us alone and we'll be ready to go here at the end of October. Since we arrived tonight a little bit later than planned, we're on kind of a tight schedule so we must apologize for our quick getaway here. But we're going to have to say goodbye and go back and do some more training tonight. Again, thank you very, very much for coming out and we'll see you again here in the next few days during some of our training." The TCDT is a standard part of a shuttle crew's training, intended to familiarize the astronauts with launch site activities. A major element of the training is a review of emergency escape procedures that would be used in the event of a major malfunction prior to launch. While it's difficult to imagine a failure scenario that would give a crew enough time to get away from a fully fueled space shuttle, such training certainly doesn't hurt and could prove critical in the unlikely event of such a malfunction. In any case, on Wednesday the astronauts will train in an M113 armored personnel carrier that would be used to leave the launch pad area after an emergency egress. On Thursday, they will review emergency egress procedures and field questions from reporters at the base of pad 39B. On Friday, all seven crew members will don their bright orange pressure suits and strap in aboard Discovery for a full-up practice countdown with the rest of NASA's shuttle launch team. The exercise will end with the simulated ignition and shutdown of Discovery's three main engines. =================================================================== Glenn defends medical research - again (10/08/98) With blastoff just three weeks away, Sen. John Glenn vigorously defended his role aboard the shuttle Discovery, scolding reporters and critics for not taking the time to properly assess - or report - the value of the medical research he will carry out in orbit. Glenn and six crewmates, including a Japanese flier and Spain's first astronaut, are scheduled to take off aboard Discovery on Oct. 29. Glenn was added to the crew in January by Administrator Daniel Goldin to carry out a battery of experiments to learn more about aging and the possible treatment of various ailments affecting the elderly. In 1962, Glenn became the first American in orbit. At the end of the month, he will become the oldest person to fly in space when he makes his second flight in 36 years. While public support for Glenn's mission appears high, several former astronauts have criticized the assignment, saying the 77-year-old senator is not physically up to the challenge of certain emergency scenarios and thus poses a threat to his crewmates. They also have questioned the statistical significance of Glenn's research, saying data collected on a single subject cannot be applied to a broad population. Writing in the Sept. 21 edition of Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine, former astronaut Michael Mullane, veteran of three shuttle missions, said "the shuttle is not an airliner. The threat of various, severe emergencies is very real." "Visualize a launch pad emergency, in-flight bailout or a crash landing," he said. "Trying to escape from a shuttle in a time-critical situation with 83 pounds of equipment strapped to your body requires muscle and lightning fast reactions. I am particularly concerned about a ground egress that would require Glenn (sitting downstairs) to negotiate (in a full pressure suit) the narrow, seven-foot ladder up to the cockpit, then climb onto the shuttle roof and rappel over the side of the orbiter." As for Glenn's research agenda, Mullane wrote "if such research is needed, you would think NASA would have selected more senior citizens or a doctor of geriatric studies from the latest astronaut class. A 'one data point' Glenn mission doesn't sound like good science." Former astronaut Story Musgrave, who set the current age record when he blasted off on his sixth flight at age 61, said Glenn's mission makes sense from a historical perspective, "but we need to be honest about it," he told The Lexington Herald-Leader. "We are flying a legislative passenger, as we have in the past. It's John Glenn. Marvelous. But it is a legislative passenger." As such, Musgrave said, Glenn's Senate duties prevented him from focusing solely on crew training. "I am bothered by the fact that Senator Glenn is not giving it all he's got, that he's taking a part-time approach to it," Musgrave said. "It should've been put off until he was done with his Senate duties." Glenn, of course, disagreed. During a news conference at launch pad 39B today, the senator told a throng of reporters that his critics are off base, saying "I've been adequately trained for this mission as any payload specialist is." "I'm not back as a legislative passenger," he said. "I'm back as a science passenger. And that was the basis on which I was selected, the basis on which I have trained. And that's what my objective is on my flight. If there are others who have a different view of that, well I'd just ask them to look at what we've been doing, look at the training, look at the experiments in detail and then make their judgments, not make it on some preconceived idea they may have had earlier. I just disagree entirely with that statement." As for the value of the research program, Glenn said "the people that have said there wasn't any science on this, when I have talked to them or sent them material to review about the science we're doing on this ... they have changed their minds. I wish all the people had looked at some of these things before they made some of their public statements." Glenn said "any normally healthy person could do the kind of training we've been doing." But he said space travel should not be opened up to civilians "unless there's a scientific reason for them going." "When I talked to [NASA Administrator] Dan Goldin originally, when he was thinking about my going up, it was on the basis of we're going to have a good science base for this thing that the National Institute of Aging was behind and NASA was behind. That was the basis for it. I didn't look at myself as just the average civilian coming back in. I had had experience, albeit a long time ago. I was coming back in for a very specific purpose. "I know it's easy to report the 'oh, gee whiz' of the personal aspects of this thing, but this is science at its very best, out there on the cutting edge, and I'd sure invite you to get in there and report that." Glenn and his six crewmates - commander Curt Brown, pilot Steven Lindsey, Scott Parazynski, Stephen Robinson, Spaniard Pedro Duque and Japanese flier Chiaki Mukai - flew to Florida Tuesday to participate in a terminal countdown demonstration test, or TCDT. The crew practiced emergency procedures Wednesday and Thursday in case of pre-launch problems that could force them to attempt an emergency evacuation at the launch pad. Early Friday, all seven astronauts plan to strap in aboard Discovery for the final hours of a dress-rehearsal countdown. =================================================================== Glenn removed from melatonin experiment (10/21/98) John Glenn will not participate in an experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of the hormone melatonin during his upcoming shuttle flight. In July, Glenn participated in diagnostic trials in Boston to determine his eligibility for experiments proposed for shuttle mission STS-95. One suite of experiments is devoted to learning more about sleeping disorders by measuring brain wave activity, eye movement, respiration and the effectiveness of melatonin, a hormone that appears to aid sleep and reduce fatigue. In August, after data collected during the Boston trials were evaluated, Glenn was deemed ineligible for the melatonin portion of the shuttle experiment, according to Peggy Wilhide, associate administrator for public affairs at NASA headquarters. In keeping with a long-standing medical privacy policy, NASA will not discuss the reasons behind the decision other than to say it has nothing to do with Glenn's ability to withstand the rigors of a shuttle flight. "The [melatonin] investigator has very stringent exclusionary requirements, which means it's fairly easy to get excluded [from the clinical trial]," Wilhide told CBS News. Glenn will continue to participate in other aspects of the sleep experiments. =================================================================== Engineers work around main engine actuator glitch (10/25/98) Engineers at the Kennedy Space Center are gearing up to start the shuttle Discovery's countdown at 8 a.m. Monday for a launch attempt at 2 p.m. Thursday. The shuttle's seven-member crew - commander Curt Brown, pilot Steven Lindsey, flight engineer Scott Parazynski, Stephen Robinson, Pedro Duque, Chiaki Mukai and Sen. John Glenn - is scheduled to arrive at the Kennedy Space Center at 2:05 p.m. Monday to begin final preparations. Work at pad 39B to ready Discovery for blastoff is proceeding smoothly. The only problem of any note - and it's considered more of a minor glitch than a real problem - involves trouble with an indicator used during ground tests to confirm the position of main engine No. 2. Each of the shuttle's three main engines is steered, or gimbaled, during flight by hydraulic actuators that push or pull on a nozzle to reposition it as commanded by the orbiter's computers. At about three-and-a-half minutes prior to launch, the actuators are used to move the engines to their start positions. Last month, engineers noticed that an indicator in the pitch actuator used by main engine No. 2 was providing erratic data. Additional testing confirmed the actuator itself was performing properly. To prevent the bad indicator from interrupting Discovery's countdown Thursday, engineers devised a different way to confirm the position of the engine prior to launch. This should be accomplished by T-minus two minutes. At that time, a precautionary "hold" in the countdown at the T-minus 31-second mark will be removed. Bottom line: The countdown is expected to proceed to launch without interruption. Again, this is considered a minor issue. It is mentioned here primarily because of the attention focused on John Glenn's return to space and because it will be discussed on the launch control audio loop during the countdown Thursday. =================================================================== Shuttle countdown begins; crew arrival on tap (10/26/98) The shuttle Discovery's countdown to blastoff Thursday began on time today at 8 a.m., setting the stage for John Glenn's historic - and heavily hyped - return to space. Glenn and his crewmates are scheduled to fly to the Kennedy Space Center this afternoon, arriving at the shuttle landing facility around 2:05 p.m. to begin final preparations. Crew arrival will be carried live on NASA television, including possible comments by Glenn. NASA Test Director Doug Lyons said work at pad 39B to ready Discovery for blastoff is proceeding smoothly with no major technical problems. The only issue of any note involves a faulty indicator in the shuttle's main engine steering system that was discussed on this page yesterday. See the 10/25/98 update below for details. All in all, Lyons said, "I'm pleased to report the flight and ground systems are all in great shape, we're not working any issues or concerns and we're right on schedule. ... The launch team is looking forward to a successful launch and mission." While Discovery appears ready to go, forecasters say the weather outlook is a bit more iffy. With the Florida spaceport sandwiched between Hurricane Mitch to the south and a strong high pressure system to the north, forecasters say there's a 40 percent chance of high winds Thursday that could cause a launch delay. The odds remain the same for a Friday launch attempt. Lyons said NASA will attempt two back-to-back launch tries Thursday and Friday. At that point, the launch team would stand down for 96 hours to top off on-board fuel supplies and to load fresh experiment samples into the space shuttle. Two more attempts would be made next Wednesday and Thursday (Nov. 4 and 5). If Discovery isn't off the ground by then, the flight will be delayed to Nov. 17 to avoid having the shuttle in orbit during the Leonids meteor storm. "The most likely option is we would make two consecutive attempts and stand down for a 96-hour period in which we would refurbish the Spacehab and middeck experiments and top off our fuel cell tanks, and then we would try two consecutive attempts," Lyons said. "We've really got between the 29th and the 5th to make our attempts. Most of our scenarios say we can get four attempts in that timeframe. Then from the 6th through the 17th, we would stand down because of the Leonids meteor event. We don't want to be in orbit during the intense portion of that meteor shower." Glenn's flight is generating enormous interest, with President Clinton and more than 3,500 journalists expected to be on hand. But Lyons said the launch team will not cut any corners because of any perceived pressure to get Discovery off the ground on time. "The pressure, the hype and all associated with this mission is felt in the planning stages and in the days leading up to the countdown," he said. "Once you're in the firing room, all that seems to go away and you're focused on the procedures and the tasks at hand. Everyone is well trained and familiar with the procedures. As for his personal interest in participating in Glenn's return to space, Lyons said "it is very exciting. From a personal point of view, I'm very honored to be part of the launch team that's going to launch him back into orbit." =================================================================== 'God speed, John Glenn' (10/26/98) NASA has arranged for Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter to repeat his famous "God speed, John Glenn" call a few minutes prior to Glenn's return to space Thursday aboard the shuttle Discovery. This time around, sources say, Carpenter's farewell will not be heard by Glenn and company. Instead, it will go out on the NASA television circuit during a 10-minute hold at the T-minus nine-minute mark in the countdown. The shuttle astronauts will not hear it until their return to Earth. Sources said the agency decided to let Carpenter repeat his famous line (and not to ask a member of the shuttle launch team to step in) to provide a symbolic link to Glenn's first flight 36 years ago. While it probably will appear to many listeners that Carpenter is actually addressing the shuttle's crew, NASA apparently has no plans to point out he will be on a different circuit, one not monitored by the Discovery astronauts. =================================================================== Astronauts arrive for Thursday launch (10/26/98) With countdown clocks ticking toward launch, six of the shuttle Discovery's seven astronauts arrived at the Kennedy Space Center today to prepare for blastoff Thursday on a long-awaited research mission featuring Sen. John Glenn's return to space. Commander Curt Brown, pilot Steven Lindsey, Stephen Robinson, Spaniard Pedro Duque, Japanese researcher Chiaki Mukai and Glenn arrived at the shuttle landing strip shortly after 3 p.m. Shuttle flight engineer Scott Parazynski was scheduled to arrive later in the day. He was delayed by minor problems with his T-38 jet trainer during a fueling stop and had to wait for another ride. Brown and company each said a few words after arriving in Florida, and Glenn took a moment to reflect on the intense public interest in his return to space. "I'm very glad to be here," he said, addressing a throng of reporters and photographers. "I have been pleasantly surprised at the outpouring of interest in this flight. It's really gratifying to see people get so fired up about the space program again and about their interest in it. And this is going to be a very research-rich flight. We've got about 83 different projects on this and if I'd had my own pick of people, I don't think I could have picked better than the people I'm going to be flying with. So we're just looking forward very, very much to Thursday and getting off on time, we hope, if we can keep that weather out of here that's down south. This is just a great group of people, I'm honored to be with them. Thank you." Payload Commander Robinson turned 43 today, prompting Brown to lead an impromptu chorus of "Happy Birthday" at the shuttle runway before the crew departed. "I hope these guys fly better than they sing," Robinson joked. "Thank you very much." =================================================================== GOES-8 Weather satellite on the blink (10/27/98) NOAA's GOES-8 weather satellite suffered a major malfunction early today, knocking the spacecraft out of action and sharply curtailing space-based photographs of Hurricane Mitch as it slowly tracks across the Gulf of Mexico. Shuttle forecaster Ed Priselac characterized the failure as "very serious bad news." While the GOES-10 satellite has been pressed into service to photograph the Gulf region, it is stationed over the equator at 135 degrees west longitude and its shallow look angle to the east reduces the accuracy of the resulting imagery. In addition, "we're only going to get an image every hour," Priselac said. "In normal GOES operations, we get an image every 15 minutes. As you know in the weather business, especially with a hurricane out there, you want as much data as you can possibly get. The second thing that happens, because of the very hard angle from the west, the accuracy of the satellite is a little bit off. It's not a real serious matter, but it's somewhat off because of the extreme angle." Here is the text of a status report provided by NOAA's Office of Satellite Operations: OCC MORNING REPORT - October 27, 1998 (Revised) GOES-8 was commanded into safe hold mode at approximately 3 AM EST on Tuesday, October 27, in response to a large attitude disturbance. Preliminary engineering analysis indicates that an anomaly condition in the controlling earth sensor or the attitude control electronics is responsible for the loss of attitude control. Telemetry data is currently being gathered for a NASA/NOAA anomaly meeting at 10 AM this morning. GOES-8 imagery and sounding data will not be available until further notice. GOES-10 was placed into a full disk imaging mode beginning at approximately 7 AM this morning to cover for the GOES-8 outage. Pending the recommendations from the 10 AM meeting, the first available recovery time for GOES-8 will be 6 PMÊEST this evening. =================================================================== Forecast improves to 100 percent 'go' for shuttle launch (10/27/98) The shuttle Discovery's countdown continues to tick smoothly toward blastoff Thursday, with forecasters now predicting a zero percent chance of bad weather during the shuttle's two-and-a-half-hour launch window. The outlook is the same for Friday, should a mechanical problem of some sort cause a delay. NASA Test Director Doug Lyons said engineers spent the day troubleshooting a handful of minor technical glitches while pressing ahead with work to load liquid hydrogen and oxygen aboard the orbiter to power the ship's three electricity producing fuel cells. While the launch team lost a few hours in troubleshooting, "we expect to be back on schedule here shortly," Lyons said. "We're not working any major issues or concerns, all the flight systems are go and we're looking forward to a launch on Thursday." At 4 p.m. today, technicians began work to power up Discovery's Spacehab research module, the small pressurized laboratory in the shuttle's cargo bay where many of the crew's medical experiments will be carried out. At 8 p.m., a small team of technicians will begin loading 10 experiments into the Spacehab, including a pair of oyster toadfish wired with electrodes to record nervous system activity during weightlessness. Spacehab should be loaded and closed for flight by 7 a.m. Wednesday. Another 13 experiments will be loaded aboard Discovery's crew module Wednesday afternoon. Shuttle forecaster Ed Priselac said the latest computer models show a 100 percent chance of good weather for launch Thursday, thanks to a high pressure system over the southeast United States and a more westerly track by Hurricane Mitch. He told reporters to expect a clear, blue sky Thursday with light winds, ideal conditions for a shuttle launch. For shuttle weather trivia buffs, this is the third mission in a row to enjoy such an optimistic forecast. Discovery's crew - commander Curt Brown, pilot Steven Lindsey, Stephen Robinson, Scott Parazynski, Spaniard Pedro Duque, Japanese surgeon Chiaki Mukai and Sen. John Glenn - underwent medical exams early Tuesday and checked their flight equipment to make sure everything is shipshape for launch. Glenn and Mukai practiced experiment procedures Monday and again today while Brown and Lindsey practiced shuttle landing procedures in a NASA business jet modified to handle like a space shuttle on final approach. "This is a very intense mission with a lot of science payloads and they did have a couple of last-minute training exercises," said veteran astronaut James Wetherbee, director of flight crew operations at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. As for the crew equipment fit checks, in which the astronauts donned their launch-day pressure suits, "everybody does fit," Wetherbee said. "The equipment looks like it's ready to go," he added. "We try to do that a couple of days in advance, in case there are any problems, so we can sort it out before the launch. Everything looks good." Brown and Lindsey "have one more shuttle training aircraft flight tonight without suits to keep their skills sharp in preparation for hopefully the launch on Thursday," Wetherbee said. "The crew pretty much will relax the rest of the day." Wetherbee said Glenn is in good spirits and clearly excited about the prospect of launch Thursday on his first spaceflight in 36 years. "John has an awful lot of drive and determination," he said. "I wish all folks had his drive and determination. He has the excitement of someone about half his age, I think. And he's a real pleasure to be around." This evening, Glenn and his crewmates will host a private family cookout at a Cape Canaveral Air Station beach house used by astronauts when they visit Florida. They'll see their wives and husbands again on Wednesday when the crew makes a twilight visit to launch pad 39B. =================================================================== Shuttle ready for flight; weather forecast holds (10/28/98) The shuttle Discovery's countdown continues to tick smoothly toward liftoff Thursday on a nine-day science mission featuring Sen. John Glenn's return to space. Overnight, technicians loaded 10 experiments aboard a pressurized laboratory module mounted in the shuttle's cargo bay and later today, they plan to install another 13 in the orbiter's crew cabin. Forecasters continue to predict a zero percent chance of bad weather Thursday or Friday that might delay liftoff. "Looking at the latest data, satellite and so-on, we see no reason to change our forecast from what we gave you yesterday," said shuttle weather officer Ed Priselac. "So we're still really optimistic that weather looks excellent for tomorrow. One little bit of good news, we did get [the GOES-8 weather satellite] back last night. They just cycled it back on and so far, it's working again. We'll keep our fingers crossed." Discovery's crew, meanwhile, faces a relatively light day today. After a morning visit to pad 39B, the astronauts planned to take a relaxing spin in their T-38 jet trainers before receiving orbiter, payload and weather briefings. Glenn, who is not certified to pilot T-38s, will fly in the back seat of his plane. Commander Curt Brown and pilot Steven Lindsey will practice landing procedures late today in a business jet modified to handle like a space shuttle on final approach. At 8 p.m., a rotating gantry will be pulled away from Discovery, exposing the shuttle to view and setting the stage for fuel loading early Thursday. The astronauts and their families are scheduled to make a 9 p.m. visit to pad 39B to enjoy the view with the shuttle lighted by powerful xenon spotlights. The crew will go to bed at 11:30 p.m. Assuming no problems crop up, engineers will begin loading a half-million gallons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen rocket fuel into Discovery's external tank starting at 5:40 a.m. The process should be complete by 8:40 a.m. See the countdown timeline below for complete details. =================================================================== Apollo 11 launch outshines Discovery mission - barely (10/28/98) The shuttle Discovery 's launch will be one of the most heavily attended flights in space history, with up to 3,500 journalists expected. But the Apollo 11 mission drew more VIPs, dignitaries and members of the public, and possibly more journalists. NASA historian Glen Swanson provides the following statistics for a welcome bit of perspective (edited for space). A total of 3,497 reporters and photographers were at the Kennedy Space Center for the launch of Apollo 11, including more than 800 from other countries. ABC TV brought 254 commentators, engineers and technicians to handle its operations, CBS had 244 personnel and NBC brought along 147 personnel. At least 445 people represented magazines as writers and photographers. Eighty-five NASA public affairs officers stood by to assist the media, along with 18 others from the Air Force and civilian ranks. Public Affairs also: --Supplied 15 telephones with 40 call directors at the KSC newscenter and installed 15 more pay phones there; --Installed more than 206 phone circuits at the press site while the media leased 1,000 more from Southern Bell; --Provided recorded status reports that were accessed more than 2,400 times during the final four days; After the launch, the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism computed figures for press attendance at the Cape on the day of the launching. Only the opening of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1946 and in New York City in 1947 had more journalists attending them than were at the Cape for Apollo 11. Among the visitors in the VIP stands at the Cape were former President and Mrs. Johnson, Vice President Agnew and the representatives of the Poor People's March. Television's Jack Benny and Johnny Carson stood there too. In all, there were 56 ambassadors, two foreign ministers, 33 senators, 206 congressmen, the Secretaries of HEW, Commerce, Transportation and Interior, 19 governors, 225 French industrialists and 129 Korean, Parliamentarians. At another site, reserved exclusively for astronauts and their guests, Charies Lindbergh stood with the new breed of pilots; he was there at the invitation of Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins. Just less than a million people surrounded the launch region in the morning heat awaiting the launch. CBS Walter Cronkite and Wally Schirra overflew the area in a helicopter to their press building. Schirra remembers that the roads were packed with traffic. NASA had once expected two million spectators to show for the launch but some sources say only 750,000 people were there that morning. John Glenn was present during the launch of Apollo 11 in Mission Control in Houston. =================================================================== Pressure to launch will not affect decision (10/28/98) Despite the presence of President Clinton, hundreds of VIPs, lawmakers and more than 3,500 journalists, NASA officials say the space shuttle launch team will not be influenced by any perceived pressure to launch John Glenn aboard the shuttle Discovery Thursday. "I firmly believe that if and when crunch time comes, the people in the launch control center will not know there are 200 politicians, the president and 3,700 media people on this site," said shuttle program manager Tommy Holloway. "They'll do the same job they do every day and make the same kind of decision they make every day." Robert Sieck, shuttle integration manager at the Kennedy Space Center, agreed, saying "The rules are the same regardless of how high profile the launch is." "They're time tested, so to speak, our launch commit criteria," he said. "Either it's good enough to fly safely or it's not good enough to fly safely. Our experience, regardless of the amount of attention external that goes with a launch, our experience is the launch team is able to focus on their procedures, they kind of tune out the distractions. They understand the rules and requirements and that's where the decisions are made." Discovery is scheduled for blastoff on the 92nd shuttle mission at 2 p.m. Thursday. Sieck said the countdown continues to tick smoothly toward launch with no major technical problems." "We're really comfortable with the quality of the work as well as the hardware we're getting ready to put into space," Sieck said. "The team is certainly ready, just like the flight crew, they're looking forward to this and the weather almost speaks for itself. This is an exciting time. We're in launch count, that always quickens the pulse a little bit. And there's the added interest in this, obviously, from the nation and the whole world." Forecasters continue to predict a zero percent chance of bad weather that could force a launch delay during Discovery's two-and-a-half-hour launch window. The forecast remains the same for Friday. "Basically, we can't ask for better weather," said Air Force meteorologist Capt. Clif Stargardt. "It looks like mother nature wants to see John Glenn return to space just as much as the rest of us." This morning, Glenn, shuttle commander Curt Brown, pilot Steven Lindsey, flight engineer Scott Parazynski, Stephen Robinson, Spaniard Pedro Duque and Japanese heart surgeon Chiaki Mukai visited launch pad 39B and visited briefly - and at a distance - with extended family members. Planned flights in T-38 jet trainers were rescheduled for the afternoon. The crew also received a series of briefings, including on covering "the details about what they'll do as they get into the vehicle tomorrow, who goes in in what order, how they're going to go through the strap-in procedures, the communications checks, all of the various camera equipment and other crew equipment that goes into the vehicle with them," explained veteran shuttle skipper Charles Precourt. "The process is choreographed, so we do that efficiently and safely. Later today, they'll go out and do some flying. After they fly, they'll come back for dinner and then they have free time to visit with spouses. They'll be in bed by 11:30 p.m." Precourt said the astronaut corps has been impressed with Glenn's performance, adding "it's been a pleasure to have him around to share in his experience from his time in the program." "I think his attitude is infectuous," Precourt said. "He's very eager and very willing to do the work and very fun to be around and he's a good additional member of the crew. When you look at flying in space, one of the more important things is to have a crew that's compatible and gets along well. He is a significant part of this crew and it's been a lot of fun to see t his evolve." =================================================================== Shuttle Discovery rockets into orbit (10/29/98) The space shuttle Discovery rocketed into orbit today, carrying 77-year-old John Glenn back into the heavens 36 years after he blazed a trail on the high frontier as the first American in orbit. This time around, the right stuff senator from Ohio - the oldest person to fly in space - will serve as a guinea pig for a battery of medical experiments to shed light on the physiology of aging and on what might be done to counteract a variety of elderly ailments. Three hours after reaching orbit, Glenn dispelled any notions that he might not be up to enduring the rigors of spaceflight, marvelling at his view of Hawaii from 345 miles up and describing the islands as "absolutely gorgeous." "Roger that, glad you're enjoying the show," astronaut Robert Curbeam replied from mission control. "Enjoying the show is right," Glenn said. "This is beautiful. The best part is - and it's still a trite old statement - 'zero G and I feel fine!'" "Roger that. We had a bunch of friends asking about you today and wondering how you're feeling and I'm sure they're glad to hear that." "First report is great," Glenn replied. "I don't know what happens on down the line, but today is beautiful and great and Hawaii is just, I just can't even describe it." "You'll see that view a couple of more times before you come back," Curbeam said. Commander Curt Brown then chimed in: "Let the record show that John has a smile on his face that goes from one ear to the other one and we haven't been able to remove it yet." With President Bill Clinton, and a throng of lawmakers, VIPs and journalists looking on, Glenn's historic mission began with a ground-shaking roar at 2:19:34 p.m., thrilling an estimated 250,000 well wishers packing area roads and beaches. "Liftoff of Discovery with a crew of six astronaut heroes and one American legend," said NASA launch commentator Lisa Malone as Discovery streaked away. Launch originally was scheduled for 2 p.m., but the flight was delayed by a minor technical problem and then twice by aircraft flying in restricted airspace near the Kennedy Space Center. While Discovery's thundering climb into orbit was without incident, a large panel under the shuttle's vertical tail fin fell off as the orbiter's three main engines were firing up prior to liftoff. The white rectangular panel hit the nozzle of engine No. 1 before disappearing from view. The panel was, in fact, the aluminum door on the housing of the shuttle's braking parachute. While the failure was unexpected, NASA does not believe it will have any impact on the mission. But it will require additional analysis to determine if the braking parachute can be used during landing. "Just prior to liftoff after main engine start, what appears to be a panel in the vicinity of the drag chute door came off the vehicle and came in contact with the center main engine bell," astronaut Susan Still radioed from Houston. "We're evaluating at this time. We do not expect this to impact your mission. If it was the drag chute door, this is not a hazardous condition and we expect the mission to proceed as scheduled." "OK, Susan, we copy all of that. Thank you very much," replied commander Curt Brown. Joining Brown and Glenn for the nine-day mission will be commander Curt Brown, pilot Steven Lindsey, flight engineer and medical doctor Scott Parazynski, Stephen Robinson, Japanese physician Chiaki Mukai and Pedro Duque, a European Space Agency astronaut and the first Spaniard to fly in space. His crewmates jokingly refer to Duque as "Juan Glenn." During Discovery's second orbit, the shuttle passed almost directly over Hurricane Mitch, prompting Brown to say "it doesn't look to be very well organized, it looks like a lot of bloom off from upper level winds, maybe, but no real pattern of circulation and really not much to shoot with the camera." The major goals of the 92nd shuttle mission are to launch and retrieve a small solar physics satellite called Spartan-201, to test new equipment that will be installed on the Hubble Space Telescope during a servicing mission in May 2000, to conduct atmospheric research and to carry out a battery of medical and materials science experiments. "It is not going to be 'The John Glenn Flight,'" Glenn insisted before launch. "I'm here to be a member of this crew and work with everybody else. I'll be doing some of the experiments myself, I'll be backing up some of the other people. I'm here as a working crew member and that's it. I hope everybody concentrates on the science of this thing." Not likely. Even his crewmates are a bit awed at flying with the famous astronaut. "My initial response was this is too good to be true, this is science fiction," said Parazynski, who was seven months old when Glenn first blasted off in 1962. "To put it in perspective, this would be like a physicist having the opportunity to make a great discovery with Albert Einstein, or a mountaineer to summit a Himalayan mountain with Sir Edmund Hillary. This, for an astronaut, is about as exciting as it gets." Unlike his first flight in 1962, Glenn made the climb to orbit aboard Discovery today strapped into a seat on the shuttle's lower deck. He was scheduled to don medical instrumentation shortly after reaching orbit and to begin his research activities right away (for details about Glenn's Mercury flight, a historical backgrounder is available from the CBS News ftp site). Video showing all seven astronauts during the eight-and-a-half-minute climb to space was expected to be downlinked late this evening. But it is not yet known when the public might get its first glimpse of Glenn floating about in the shuttle's crew cabin. About half the men and women who fly in space experience motion sickness during the first two days aloft and shuttle crews typically do not participate in media interviews or events until the second day of a mission. For Discovery's flight, the first such formally scheduled event is planned for 6:45 p.m. on Oct. 30, when Glenn, Brown and Lindsey will deliver a mission status report over NASA television. A news conference with Glenn and Brown is scheduled for Sunday at 5:15 p.m. Glenn was added to the already scheduled mission last January after he waged a relentless, two-year campaign to win a second space flight. NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin said he finally agreed after a detailed review of the proposed research and after Glenn passed a rigorous NASA medical exam. At a news conference to announce Glenn's assignment, Goldin said: "When someone who has risked their life countless times for our space program and out country comes to you and asks: I'm willing to take the risk of space flight and serve my country again because I think we could do more to benefit the lives of older Americans. Can I go? If that person proves they have a unique blend of experience, expertise and excellent health, the answer is certainly yes. "What a great day for America," Goldin added. "Because the man who, almost 36 years ago, climbed into the Friendship 7 [Mercury capsule] and showed the boundless promise for a new generation is now poised to show the world that senior citizens have the right stuff." Glenn is on board to participate in about a dozen peer-reviewed, around-the-clock experiments to study similarities between the physiological changes induced by weightlessness and similar changes that occur naturally as people age. Even brief exposure to weightlessness causes astronauts to lose bone and muscle mass and on return to Earth, many experience temporary blood pressure-related balance disorders. They also have problems sleeping in orbit and experience decreased cardiovascular and immune system performance. By studying how the 77-year-old Glenn responds to the absence of gravity, researchers hope to gain insights that could be applied to millions of the elderly on Earth. "We know the whats of aging," Glenn said at a news conference. "But I want to try to contribute more to learning about the whys of aging. Hopefully we can lessen the frailties of old age that plague so many people. And we can learn something maybe at the same time that can help the younger astronauts going up there for extended flights also. One way we might be able to get at those whys is through studying similarities between the aging process and what occurs to astronauts while they're in space." Glenn's idea was to study "the effects of space travel and weightlessness on somebody who's already gone through much of the aging process. Would we see the same kind of changes, would you be immune to them, will we be able to find out what turns the aging processes on and off eventually? it's these kinds of questions that led me to be here today. So I see this as another adventure into the unknown." Glenn first began thinking about similarities between aging and the effects of weightlessness in 1995. After researching the topic in detail and discussing possible experiments with scientists at the National Institutes of Health and Aging, he made a formal proposal to Goldin, asking for a chance to carry out experiments in space aboard the shuttle. But Goldin was reluctant to give Glenn permission. In the wake of the 1986 Challenger disaster, NASA was roundly criticized for giving a shuttle seat to a private citizen, school teacher Christa McAuliffe. The Teacher in Space program was put on indefinite hold after the accident, plans to fly a journalist were canceled and Goldin made no secret of the fact that he did not plan to reinstitute either program. But Glenn was not your average private citizen. A popular senator and a bona fide American hero, he waged a determined campaign and in the end, apparently without White House prodding, Goldin gave in. "There was no intervention that caused it to happen," said space analyst John Logsdon of President Bill Clinton's administration. "More to the point, I think the one thing the White House could have done was veto it and they obviously did not do that. So it became Goldin's decision." As for his health, Glenn took a complete NASA flight physical in 1996 and has participated in numerous followup studies, making him one of the most studied astronauts in history. But he was rejected as unsuitable to participate in a clinical trial of melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate the body's internal clock. NASA officials would not discuss what prompted Glenn's rejection, but they insisted it had nothing to do with his fitness for flight. =================================================================== Glenn feels fit; describes life aboard shuttle (10/30/98) John Glenn, feeling fit and in good spirits, said he did not experience the nausea and space motion sickness that affects about half the men and women who fly in space during their initial hours in orbit. "We had a wonderful ride up," Glenn told flight controllers Friday, the day after his launch aboard shuttle Discovery, in a televised status report. "I was keyed into every little noise and quiver that we made on the way up and it was quite different from the ride I got before, of course, back a long, long time ago." Glenn said there were two aspects to flying in a space shuttle that took a bit of getting used to: The personal experience of floating in weightlessness and the busy schedule of research activity typical of all short-duration shuttle missions. "Just on the personal side of it, to be able to float around like this in zero G, I just wish everyone could experience this," he said. "There's been a track record in the past of a high percentage of the people getting sick sometime within the first day or two. But fortunately, the crew has felt fine up here this time, we've been doing real well. I had my own concerns about that because when I went up before I was strapped to the spacecraft so I didn't really get this free floating feeling like you have here. "But you have a lot of problems, like eating food that has to be controlled," he continued. "If it gets away from you it gets on everybody. This morning, I had some oatmeal with raisins that I had fixed up. One little speck wound up on my glasses. I guess with old folks, you normally think it goes down on an old man's necktie but on this one, it wound up on my glasses. So you have to think of things like that." Even moving around takes a bit of practice. Glenn said "you have to make sure your inputs you make to moving around are very small or you wind up just rotating yourself. It's very easy spin yourself completely out of control up here." The 77-year-old senator said his initial research activity was going well and while he did not feel ill, "one thing you might notice, which is still fairly evident, is the fluid shift that occurs early in flight. Yesterday, everyone was puff-faced around here, we looked like the popping fresh doughboy or something like that. My face is still swelled up some. ... That comes from the fluid shift that occurs [in weightlessness]. That's something I understand goes away in a couple of days." Learning how to live and work aboard the shuttle "is something to get used to," Glenn added, but "it's been a great first day. We're up into our second day in space and I think almost everything is right on time so far. We just want to keep it that way to make sure we get back all the good results we possibly can on all the research experiments that are on board because that's the main reason we're up here. "It's good to let people vicariously experience what it might be like to be up here by showing some of the things [we do in space]," Glenn said. "But the main benefit to people right there on the ground, as we all know, are the experiments that benefit everyone right at home, every man, woman and child in the United States. I know there's been a lot of personal attention [on me] on this flight, but the only reason we do these flights is the science that benefits everybody right there in their own homes right there on Earth. So it's been a great start." Earlier in the day, citizens in Perth, Australia, turned on home and city lights as Discovery passed overhead, repeating a tribute they paid to Glenn during his Mercury mission in 1962. Despite cloud cover over western Australia, Glenn had no problems sighting Perth this time around. "We've got a real good view, there's a little break in the clouds right there," Glenn said. "We got a good view of Perth, a nice glow, spread out. It's been a long time ago I looked at the same thing from a little lower altitude. It looks beautiful up here, you can pass that along to the people of Perth. We send our best regards." "We copy, John, that sounds great," astronaut Michael Gernhardt replied from Houston. "Glad you're having a chance to take advantage of that sight again after all these years and I'm sure the people in Perth will be glad to hear that." "I think it looks brighter now than it did back then," Glenn said. "They've really got it lit up tonight here. I hope we can get this thing photographed so we can send them a picture of it." Commander Curt Brown described Thursday launching as "fantastic ride into orbit." "That was quite exciting," he said Friday. "Then shortly after that, we jumped right to work [changing] the orbiter from a rocket to basically an orbiting laboratory. That took us basically all afternoon and into the night our time. That went very, very smoothly." Astronauts Stephen Robinson and Spaniard Pedro Duque opened the shuttle's Spacehab research module shortly after reaching orbit and, along with Japanese surgeon Chiaki Mukai, activated its systems and experiments as required. "The next priority in the big scheme was to activate all the payloads on board," Brown said. "That took us most of the rest of the day." The crew tested the shuttle's 50-foot-long robot arm Friday and launched a small experimental communications satellite called Pansat while pressing ahead with a full slate of medical experiments. =================================================================== Glenn fields questions from kids (10/31/98) Shuttle astronaut John Glenn and Discovery commander Curt Brown fielded questions from students today, discussing everything from how food tastes to whether NASA should one day send kids into orbit. Here are a few highlights from Glenn's comments (questions are paraphrased; answers are direct quotes): Q: Were you more nervous for your first flight or your shuttle mission? A: "I think I was probably more nervous back in those days because we didn't know much about space flight back in those days, we were sort of feeling our way and finding out what would happen to the human body in space and now we're putting the whole thing to work for everybody up here. So I think I was a little more nervous the first time." A: Do you feel younger in space? Q: "I guess I feel young all the time, that's the reason I volunteered to come up here. But it's a great place up here and I'm having a great time. Of course, I'm the oldest on the trip here but we're getting along fine. I guess it's an advantage up here for older folks because in zero G you can move around much more easily. I've been bumping my head a lot on things as I float around here, but that's par for the course up here. It's a great thing. We just came over Florida just a few minutes ago and looking down on that, and all the Bahama Islands just laid out like on a map, it was just absolutely beautiful. So that's enough to keep you young up here if you weren't when you got here." Q: Is it difficult to eat in weightlessness? A: "No. In fact, back in 1962 that's one of the things the people thought might be very difficult and I was to eat some food on that flight just to see if I could swallow. Now, we have all kinds of food, I think there's 42 different kinds of food and drinks that we have here, each person can pick their own menu up here. It's quite easy to swallow. But you have to be very careful you don't let the food get loose or it floats all over the place. Yesterday, I was eating a little bit of oatmeal for breakfast and some of it got loose and instead of falling down on my chest like it would have on the earth, it came up and stuck right in the middle of my glasses. So you have to learn how to eat and drink a little bit up here and don't let things get loose or they'll float all over the place." Q: Does food taste different in space? A: "It has not tasted differently to me. Some of the people have talked about after you're in space for a while your body tends to adapt somewhat and food tastes much more bland. So there's a tendency to spice it up a little bit up here in space. But I haven't run into that yet. We've had a number of meals since we came up here and everything has tasted very good to me so far and I don't think I've had any weakening of my taste buds at all." Q: Should kids be launched into space? A: "You have to be careful. Because we're talking about, for younger people, really young people, we'd be talking about their bones being formed and their bodies changing very rapidly as part of the growth process. And up here, that might be interfered with rather drastically. So I think we have to be rather careful on that. But perhaps that'll be looked into sometime in the future. That's not an easy area to get into. I'm at the other end of the spectrum here where bones and things like that are breaking down and we're trying to find out why things like that occur." Q: Should more older people be launched into space? A: "I think eventually we'll probably send more older folks up to continue this so there's a real database, my being just a dat of one. We need to, I think, look more into this in the future. My main task here is to make sure we get back good information so we can see the benefit, or the value of it, so we can make the decision to send more older folks up and get a real database that could then lead on to more medical studies that could be of benefit to everyone." Q: Was it worth the 36-year wait to return to space? A: "Yes! It was indeed. You know, I wanted to go up again and wasn't permitted to do go back in the old days. I always hoped to go again and as I got older, I thought that would lessen my chances. But about four years ago we got into the possibility of doing some aging studies here and the National Institutes of Aging got behind it, as well as NASA. I was able to qualify physically for this so I feel very fortunate to be able to come up again. Things are so different now than they were back then, but it's a very worthwhile experience." Q: How do you sleep in space? A: "I was pleasantly surprised. The first night up here, I probably got five or six hours, five-and-a-half or something like that, of sleep. You're floating, but you're in a sleep station and you're in something like when you go camping and you have a sleeping bag except it's tied down. You sort of float there in your sleeping bag and it's very comfortable. Any pressure points you have, you move away from it, obviously, so sleep went very well. Last night I had about the same amount of sleep.It's a little shorter than occurs on Earth but I don't know you need quite the same amount of sleep up here. You're floating around and maybe aren't quite as tired." =================================================================== Medical community impressed by Glenn's performance (10/31/98) About half the men and women who fly in space get sick during the first few days of weightlessness as their bodies, which evolved to cope with Earth's gravity, adjust to an environment that has no up or down. Fluids shift to the upper body, faces get puffy, noses run and nausea frequently sets in as the vestibular system recalibrates itself. The latter ailment typically lasts for two days or so and there is no way to predict who might fall victim: Veteran test pilots are just as susceptible as non-pilot scientists. Before John Glenn's return to space aboard the shuttle Discovery Thursday, many observers wondered whether the 77-year old senator would fall victim to space motion sickness or not. After all, during his Mercury flight back in 1962 he was strapped into a very cramped capsule and was unable to experience the sort of free fall that's routine aboard the much roomier space shuttle. Wonder no more. The right stuff senator says he's feeling great and John Charles, medical mission scientist at the Johnson Space Center, could not help but marvel. "The stories that I've always heard were that the Mercury guys and most of the Gemini crew members didn't get motion sick," he said. "We always assumed that was because the vehicles were very confined, they couldn't move around, there was no free motion. But one always wondered if that was really the case or if there was perhaps something about those individuals physiologically. "I think it might be interesting to find out if that kind of environment really makes a difference, if being constrained really makes a difference versus being in a wide-open vehicle," he added. "So I think it's an interesting data point of one that suggests that maybe there's something about this particular person's vestibular system's susceptibility to motion sickness." There has been little video of the crew from Discovery today because the shuttle's KU-band antenna has been used primarily to downlink data from the many experiments on board. But shortly after 4 p.m., the crew downlinked a live imaging showing Glenn and other astronauts working in the shuttle's middeck area and in the Spacehab research module. All looked fit and in good spirits. Jeff Bantle, a mission operations manager at JSC, said there are no significant problems with the shuttle or its payload and that all systems are performing smoothly as the flight moved into its third day. =================================================================== Astronauts gear up for Spartan deploy (11/01/98) The Discovery astronauts kicked off another day of orbital research this morning and geared up to launch a small solar physics satellite this afternoon that was derailed last year by of a botched deployment. If all goes well this time around, the reusable Spartan-201 satellite will be released from Discovery's 50-foot-long robot arm at 2:03 p.m. The shuttle then will pull away, leaving Spartan on its own for two days of autonomous solar observations. If all goes well, the spacecraft will be hauled back aboard at 3:45 p.m. Tuesday. "We're very confident of a successful deployment," said Craig Tooley, mission manager of the Spartan-201 satellite. "We have almost no concerns about that part of this mission." Later today, at 5:35 p.m., shuttle commander Curt Brown and Ohio Sen. John Glenn will hold a news conference, answering questions from reporters at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Re-flying Spartan-201 is a high-priority objective for NASA in part because data from the mission will be used to help recalibrate instruments aboard the Solar and Heleospheric Observatory - SOHO - satellite. The $1 billion SOHO project almost ended in disaster earlier this year when improper ground commands sent it spinning out of control. Engineers have since reactivated the satellite and Tooley said data from Spartan's freshly calibrated telescopes will allow engineers to fine-tune SOHO's instruments. NASA attempted the same Spartan mission in November 1997, launching Spartan-201 aboard the shuttle Columbia during mission STS-87 (CBS News Mission Archive). But the satellite failed to activate after release from the orbiter's robot arm. Attempting to recapture the apparently dead satellite, arm operator Kalpana Chawla accidentally nudged it, knocking it into a 1.9-degree tumble. The spacecraft ultimately was recovered during an already planned spacewalk, but no science data was collected. A NASA review blamed the botched deployment on a combination of factors, including crew error and computer software that left little margin for error. As it turned out, nothing was wrong with the satellite. It was launched in idle mode because Chawla failed to send a critical command shortly before release from the robot arm that would have activated its on-board systems. The missed command was not noticed by Chawla's crewmates. Compounding the problem, the laptop computer software used to check out and activate the Spartan satellite was not designed to confirm whether such commands actually reached the satellite. To ensure success during Discovery's flight, NASA managers left no stone unturned, modifying the software, the satellite and improving crew training to make sure the astronauts check each other's work. Tooley said the laptop computer software now will tell the astronauts if the proper commands were sent and alert them if mistakes are made. "The software the crew uses to initialize and checkout the Spartan now includes talkbacks which verify command issuance," he said during an Oct. 15 briefing. "The software performs a final check on the spacecraft to verify our configuration is proper for deployment." Lead flight director Phil Engelauf said NASA had "basically just done a top down review of all our techniques and procedures." "I don't think there's anything you could point to and say this is a major shift in policy or philosophy," he said at the same briefing. "Just a lot of little improvements over the whole operation." Along with improving the pre-launch checkout and activation procedures, NASA engineers also modified the Spartan-201 satellite itself, equipping it with a backup data recorder and less reflective outer insulation. The latter improvement will make the satellite easier to see in different lighting conditions during recovery operations. "We worked out an arrangement to have that material replaced with something that had slightly better optical qualities to make it mesh better with our cameras," Engelauf said. The Spartan-201 satellite was developed at a cost of $6 million. The spacecraft, equipped with the solar physics instruments, has been launched aboard the shuttle four times at a cost between $1 million and $1.5 million per flight. The reflight aboard Discovery is the fifth and final mission in the Spartan solar physics program. Astronaut Stephen Robinson, responsible for launching the satellite with the shuttle's robot arm, said he expects today's Spartan deployment to go smoothly. "We'll lift it high above the payload bay into what we call the deploy position and then we will turn the satellite on and test it," Robinson said in a pre-flight NASA interview. "If it checks out OK, then we will hit the release button on the robot arm, back the arm away from the satellite and leave it hanging there with zero relative motion between the satellite and Discovery. "Then Curt will fly the shuttle away. The whole crew, or at least four of us in the cockpit, are very, very involved in this deploy sequence. It's rather delicate, it's carefully choreographed. Curt will be in charge of flying the Discovery, moving it around relative to the satellite; Steve Lindsey will be backing him, him up and be watching shuttle systems and making sure that everything that we need both for the arm, the satellite and the shuttle are all in good shape. He'll also be helping us out with some of the data on the robot arm. Scott [Parazynski] and I will be in charge of actually deploying the satellite. Scott's primarily responsible for the health of the satellite itself. I'm primarily responsible for the operations of the arm and we back each other up. "I'll have my hands on two controllers, I've got one in each hand," Robinson said. "It's kind of like flying an airplane only you've got a stick in each hand. So I will be operating and moving the arm, Scott will be following everything I do, he'll be reading me the numbers that I need, he'll be giving me camera commands and inputs and also watching for any kinds of malfunctions or problems and be ready for what to do next." Here is NASA's morning status report from the Johnson Space Center: Tom Chapin's "This Pretty Planet" awakened Discovery's seven astronauts at 6:35 a.m. Central time today to begin their fourth day of science activities. The song was requested by pilot Steve Lindsey's wife, Diane. Today's primary activity will be deployment at 1:03 p.m. CST this afternoon of the Spartan solar physics satellite, which will fly free of Discovery for two days studying the outer layers of the sun's atmosphere. Mission Specialist Steve Robinson will use Discovery's robot arm to grapple Spartan from its berth in the payload bay and prepare it for its release. Once it is deployed, Spartan will conduct a programmed pirouette maneuver that will confirm that all of its systems are working normally. Commander Curt Brown then will maneuver Discovery away from the satellite, first to a short distance for a test of a communications link that will permit Spartan ground controllers to make fine pointing adjustments to one of the satellite's science instruments. Brown then will increase Discovery's separation to a distance of about 40 miles in front of Spartan. The satellite will be retrieved by Robinson using the robot arm on Tuesday. Spartan was unable to perform solar science studies last November following problems with its deployment during the STS-87 mission aboard Columbia. Spartan's two main instruments – the Ultraviolet Coronal Spectrometer and the White Light Coronagraph, will measure atomic temperatures and densities, as well as solar wind velocities in the sun's corona so scientists can better understand the forces that create solar wind, and the impact it has on the electromagnetic environment around the Earth. Solar wind can have major impacts on communications technology on Earth. Discovery's astronauts also will continue a battery of medical studies as they explore how the human body adapts to the weightless environment of space and how those changes compare with those seen as part of the aging process on Earth. As part of the Canadian OSTEO experiment, Payload Specialist John Glenn will feed bone cell cultures as part of an evaluation of bone cell activity under microgravity conditions. Glenn will again provide blood samples as part of the Protein Turnover Experiment, which is looking at the balance between the building and breakdown of muscle. He also will work with the Advanced Organic Separations (ADSEP) experiment, which provides the capability to separate and purify biological materials in microgravity; and with the Microencapsulation Electrostatic Processing System (MEPS), which studies the formation of anti-tumor capsules containing two kinds of drugs. Other research today will include use of the Advanced Gradient Heating Facility (AGHF) for directional solidification and crystal growth, and the Microgravity Glovebox (MGBX) for investigations of colloids, or systems of fine particles suspended in fluid.. At 4:35 p.m. Central time, Brown and Glenn will take part in a news conference with reporters at the Johnson Space Center. Discovery is orbiting the Earth every 95 minutes at an altitude of about 340 statute miles with all systems operating in excellent condition. =================================================================== Spartan satellite launched (11/01/98) Astronaut Stephen Robinson, operating the shuttle Discovery's 50-foot-long robot arm, released a small solar physics satellite into open space today for two days of high-priority scientific observations. A few moments later, the satellite performed a pre-programmed pirouette, demonstrating it was in good health and operating properly. "And Houston, Discovery, Spartan is in the maneuver," Brown radioed as the small satellite slowly wheeled about. A few moments later, the shuttle pulled away, leaving Spartan on its own for 48 hours to study the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona. The spacecraft is scheduled to be hauled back aboard Discvovery on Tuesday. See the previous update below for background on the Spartan program. =================================================================== Spaceflight renews Glenn's faith in God (11/01/98) In his first orbital news conference, 77-year-old astronaut John Glenn said he was overwhelmed by emotion when he first looked out the cockpit windows after reaching orbit Thursday, a heavenly view that renewed his faith in God. He also admitted to sneaking up to the shuttle Discovery's flight deck on occasion to sit in the commander's seat and fantasize a bit. "I've snuck up there and sat down a couple of times just to see what it feels like, I must admit," he said. "But you know ... they go to school and train for years and years and years on this. Would I like to do that to have a chance of being in command of a flight sometime? Yes, I think I am a little old for that, I guess." Glenn fielded a variety of questions from reporters at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, saying he's been having a wonderful time in weightlessness. Asked how the trip has affected his religious beliefs, Glenn said "I don't think you can be up here and look out the window as I did the first day and look out at the Earth at this vantage point - and we're not so high compared to people who went to the moon and back - but to look out at this kind of creation out here and not believe in God is, to me, impossible." "It just strengthens my faith," he said, floating in front of a large American flag with shuttle commander Curt Brown. "I wish there were words to describe what it's like to look out the window up here and see ... I guess a 4,000-mile swath of Earth go by under us. ... To see the Earth from this vantage point only strengthens my belief." His first view of Earth from 345 miles up came shortly after Discovery reached orbit Thursday. The vista from the shuttle's panoramic cockpit windows "was not only a thrill, but an emotional experience also," Glenn said. "To look out and see that once again sort of overwhelmed me. I know the word awesome gets overused these days but if anything is really awesome it's looking out from up here and seeing that for the first time on a flight. It is truly awesome." As for his physical state, Glenn removed any doubts about whether or not he felt ill during his initial adaptation to weightlessness. "I guess I came up expecting to be a little nauseous, I think there's something like 65 or 70 percent of the people who come up have some sort of problems with stomach awareness, if we want to call it that, or worse," he said. "I haven't had any of that so far. It's been great, I've been quite comfortable and haven't had any of that. I've been sleeping pretty well and everything's been going along fine." Before his launch, Glenn implied he would not violate standard astronaut practice regarding medical privacy, prompting some reporters to worry about whether he would release any of the medical data collected during his orbital research. The senator dispelled those notions today. "Any of the scientific material that's going to benefit anybody will be let out," he said. "This came up before the flight as to whether I was going to release all of my medical records going way back as I understood it. No one wants to see that done because that just sets a bad precedent for other astronauts. But as far as the information that is gained by my being up here, there won't be any doubt that that will be given to scientists, it will e open and available to everybody. If that requires a waiver, why we'll look into it and see. But so far, I know of nothing that would prevent the release of that kind of information. Obviously, the reason I'm up here is not to keep everything secret. The reason I'm here, hopefully, is to hopefully make it beneficial to everybody on Earth." Earlier in the day, NASA released dramatic videotape shot by a camera mounted in the nose cone of Discovery's left-side solid-fuel booster. The camera was installed to photograph the shuttle's external tank in a bid to find out why chunks of insulation break off during flight. But the camera captured spectacular footage when the booster was jettisoned, including a brief glimpse of the orbiter's belly as Discovery continued soaring toward orbit under the power of its three hydrogen-fueled main engines. As the booster tumbled back to Earth, the camera captured shots of the shuttle's right-side booster and even the launch contrail in the sky below. Neat stuff. =================================================================== Shuttle astronauts enjoy time off (11/02/98) The Discovery astronauts face a light schedule today, enjoying a half-day off to catch their collective breaths before pressing on with a full slate of research activity. At 10:55 a.m., commander Curt Brown, John Glenn and Pedro Duque, the first Spaniard in space, will chat with Esperanza Aguirre, Spain's education minister, and take questions from school kids across Spain. Later today, at 5 p.m., Glenn and Brown will participate in U.S. television network interviews. This status report will be updated after today's mission status briefing at 2 p.m.. Here is NASA's morning status report from the Johnson Space Center in Houston: STS-95 Report #09 Monday, November 2, 1998 7:30 a.m. EST Discovery's astronauts were awakened at 7 a.m. Eastern time this morning by Andy Williams' rendition of the 1962 Academy Award winning song, "Moon River." Annie Glenn requested the song as a tribute to the longstanding friendship between Williams and her husband, Payload Specialist John Glenn. The seven crew members are looking forward to some free time today, following yesterday's successful deployment of the Spartan solar physics satellite, which will study the outer layers of the sun's atmosphere until it is retrieved by Discovery tomorrow. Work will continue today with a wide variety of science experiments on board, although at a somewhat slower pace. Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai and Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski - both physicians - will draw blood from Glenn and Mission Specialist Pedro Duque of Spain as part of the Protein Turnover Experiment, which assesses the body's breakdown and metabolism of protein before, during and after space flight. Mukai and Glenn, each of whom wore an electrode net on their heads, as well as other measuring devices, during last night's sleep period, will complete some cognitive performance tests as part of their participation in the sleep study. The cognitive tests will include measurements of how quickly they respond to light cues on a lap-top computer. Glenn and Mukai will don the electrode net again before turning in this evening. The electrodes are connected to a digital sleep recorder that monitors brain waves, eye movements, muscle tension, body movements and respiration. Mukai will swallow a capsule containing either melatonin or a placebo as part of the study before going to sleep. Parazynski will check the status of components of the Hubble Space Telescope Orbital Systems Test (HOST) payload, which provides an on-orbit test bed for hardware that will be used during the third Hubble servicing mission. Parazynski and Pilot Steve Lindsey also will set up some of the tools that will be used during Tuesday's rendezvous and subsequent capture and reberthing of the Spartan satellite. Steve Robinson will use the Shuttle's robot arm to grapple Spartan tomorrow afternoon after Discovery completes its rendezvous with the sun-watching probe. Other science activities today will include the collection of video data from the Advanced Gradient Heating Facility (AGHF) used for directional solidification and crystal growth, and from the Microgravity Glovebox (MGBX), which is used for investigations of colloids, or systems of fine particles suspended in fluid. Parazynski also will complete the 5th feeding of the bone cell culture that is part of the OSTEO experiment, an evaluation of bone cell activity under microgravity conditions. Commander Curt Brown will spend some time this morning working with the Electronic Nose device, which was developed to detect, identify and quantify a wide range of organic and inorganic molecules and provide a comprehensive measurement of on-board air quality. Mukai will be busy checking on the Vestibular Function Experiment Unit (VFEU), which holds two toadfish. The fish are electronically monitored to determine the effect of gravitational changes on the balance system in the inner ear. She also will monitor the Astroculture-8 facility that is designed to provide a controlled environment in which to grow plants in the weightlessness of space. At 10:55 a.m. Eastern time, Brown, Duque and Glenn will receive a congratulatory call from Esperanza Aguirre, the Education Minister of Spain. Duque, the first Spaniard to fly in space, also will take questions from school children representing 17 regions of Spain. At 5:00 p.m. Eastern time, Brown and Glenn will take part in unilateral interviews with the five major U.S. television networks. Discovery is orbiting the Earth every 95 minutes at an altitude of about 349 statute miles with all systems operating in excellent condition. =================================================================== Glenn renews 'get out the vote' effort (11/02/98) In an interview with CBS News anchorman Dan Rather today, aging astronaut and retiring Sen. John Glenn said his 77-year-old body "seems to be holding up pretty good" to the rigors of spaceflight, "at least as far as I can tell." "I'm doing great," he said. "I went through some testing a little while ago here on some, oh, reaction times, things like that, 'cognition testing' they call it, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well I did compared to tests on the ground. So I think things are working out very well." Glenn said he's been sleeping soundly in orbit, without dreams, and that his medical research into the similarities between aging and the effects of weightlessness on younger astronauts is going smoothly. He also reiterated a plea for Americans to vote in Tuesday's general elections. "I just hope everybody gets out and votes," Glenn said. "We all voted absentee before we left. If we can take time to do that, Dan, why I think everybody can get out and vote. The people who don't vote just turn their franchise for helping run this democracy of ours over to fewer and fewer people and that's not good for the country. So I just hope that maybe we can encourage more people to get out and vote. ... That's critical in a democracy or the democracy goes down hill." Flight director Paul Hill said the shuttle and its systems continue to perform well as Discovery's mission moves toward the halfway point. "The orbiter systems are performing very well," he said at a news briefing. "The crew, for the fifth day in a row, is either on timeline or way ahead of the timeline. So we're extremely happy. ... Across the board, the orbiter, Spacehab, the experiments, the crew, everything is performing very well." The astronauts plan to complete one of the major objectives of the 92nd shuttle mission Tuesday when a small solar physics satellite called Spartan-201 is hauled back aboard by Discovery's robot arm. The satellite was released Sunday for two days of research to learn more about the physics at work in the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona. Mission manager Craig Tooley said today the spacecraft's performance has exceeded expectations. "We have a healthy spacecraft, we can see that our deployment attitude was perfect, all of our spacecraft systems are operating nominally and our spacecraft as it's flying as a solar observatory is pointing itself at the sun on a par or better than it has on any previous mission. So we're extremely happy," he said. Tooley then showed off several images from Spartan's white light coronograph showing tenuous streamers from the sun's outer atmosphere extending off into space. "This is just a sample of the over 300 images we've taken," he said. "I think the mission has gone extremely well from the Spartan standpoint." If all continues to go well, Spartan-201 will be hauled back aboard Discovery around 3:45 p.m. Tuesday. Glenn and his crewmates, meanwhile, enjoyed a half-day off Monday to relax and enjoy the view from 345 miles up. Astronaut Dave Williams said getting time off is a welcome break in a mission as busy as Discovery's, but not as much as some might think. "The payload crew members don't have a lot of time to look out the window on any other occasion," he said. "In addition to that, we've got a number of other activities the crew has to participate in. Some of these are very simple, like taking the crew photograph in orbit. You've got to get all the crew members together, you've got to be wearing your matching shirts, you've got to pose for it. ... The amount of time that takes probably accounts for about half of your afternoon off." Having a few hours off "also gives you a chance to just get things organized a little bit more and get a bit of a breather in the timeline of the mission, to get caught up in some areas," Williams said. "A lot of folks use it as a chance to write emails home and be able to communication with their loved ones on the ground. So it's an opportunity for a little bit of a break in an otherwise very, very tight timeline." =================================================================== Shuttle crew closes in on satellite (11/03/98) The shuttle Discovery closed in on the Spartan-201 solar physics satellite today, on schedule to retrieve the small spacecraft around 3:45 p.m. to accomplish one of the primary goals of the 92nd shuttle mission. Spartan was released into open space Sunday by robot arm operator Stephen Robinson for two days of autonomous observations of the sun's outer atmosphere, or cornoa. While most of the data is stored on board, researchers have been able to downlink and sample some 500 photographs, including shots showing a solar flare. See the 11/01/98 update in the CBS News Reporter's Notebook below for background on the Spartan program. Shuttle commander Curt Brown and pilot Steven Lindsey will approach Spartan using the same procedures that will be used by future shuttle crews to dock with the international space station. For readers unfamiliar with the details of orbital mechanics, a spacecraft's velocity depends only on its altitude: The higher the spacecraft, the slower its orbital velocity. Discovery has been in front of the Spartan-201 satellite since its launch Sunday. The first step in today's rendezvous called for the shuttle to move into a slightly higher orbit, which would allow Spartan to catch up and then move ahead of Discovery. "When it comes time to retrieve, and that'll be about forty-two hours or so after we deploy it, we'll do a what's called a posigrade burn," Lindsey said in a NASA interview. "We're going be in front of the satellite. The posigrade burn actually takes us higher and slows us down so we can get behind the satellite. When we get behind the satellite we'll do another burn, which is called the retrograde burn, which actually lowers us, which will cause us to accelerate ahead of the satellite. We'll actually come up to a point right underneath the satellite and drive straight up." Before retrieving Spartan, the astronaut plan to test an experimental Video Guidance Sensor, using the satellite as a target for an automated space station docking system. "We fire lasers at some reflectors at the satellite," Lindsey said. "It provides us precise measurements of how far away we are how fast we're closing or opening from the satellite and some other information. So we'll go to about 300 feet or so underneath the satellite, we'll hold there and then we'll do a series of roll maneuvers and yaw maneuvers. We're going to see how well that sensor can maintain lock as we roll the orbiter and see how narrow the field of view is of the sensor." The shuttle then will back away from the satellite to test the sensor's maximum range. Once the sensor finally breaks lock at about 600 feet, "we'll close in for the final rendezvous," Lindsey said. Robinson, once again operating Discovery's robot arm, will pluck the satellite out of open space around 3:45 p.m. This status report will be updated after today's retrieval or as conditions warrant. In the meantime, here is NASA's morning status report from the Johnson Space Center in Houston: STS-95 Report #11 Tuesday, November 3, 1998 - 7:30 a.m. EST Discovery's astronauts began the second half of their flight at 5:25 a.m. Central time this morning to the sounds of Stevie Ray Vaughn's "If the House is A-Rockin," in honor of Mission Specialist Steve Robinson. Robinson is known as "Stevie Ray Robinson" by the other members of the astronaut band known as "Max Q". After enjoying a break in their schedule yesterday, the crew is focusing its attention on this afternoon's retrieval of the Spartan solar physics satellite, which has spent the past two days studying the outer layers of the sun's atmosphere. Retrieval is set for 2:45 p.m. Central time. Rendezvous activities will begin when Commander Curt Brown fires Discovery's engines to lower the shuttle, causing it to accelerate ahead of the satellite. Discovery will fly over the top of Spartan, then coast back to about 8 or 9 miles behind the satellite. Brown and Pilot Steve Lindsey then will maneuver Discovery into position as Robinson powers up Discovery's 50-foot robot arm. Discovery will approach Spartan from beneath the sun probe to a distance of 35 feet. At that point, With the assistance of Scott Parazynski, Robinson will use the remote manipulator system to grapple Spartan to complete the first phase of its scientific mission. As Discovery closes in on Spartan today, the astronauts will test a device called the Video Guidance Sensor, a component of an automated docking system being prepared for use on the International Space Station. It is a laser system that provides precise measurements of how far away the shuttle is from a target and how fast it is moving toward or away from the target. Before grappling Spartan, Discovery will back away from the satellite to test the maximum range capability of the guidance system. Spartan will be used again tomorrow for data collection, once again being unberthed from its payload bay cradle for a few hours so that cameras can be pointed at a series of targets on the spacecraft. Those cameras will test the Space Vision System that uses remote camera views to provide a robot arm operator with the ability to view areas that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Other crew members will continue work with several of the on-board science experiments. Japanese Space Agency Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai and fellow Payload Specialist John Glenn, along with Parazynski and European Space Agency Mission Specialist Pedro Duque, will undergo another series of blood draws. They will then take small amounts of the amino acids alanine and histidine, which contain special tracer molecules, 12 hours before another blood draw. This research is part of the Protein Turnover Experiment that may benefit people on Earth who suffer from weakened muscles or loss of bone mass. Duque, Mukai and Glenn also will collect urine samples as part of the study. Glenn will don electrodes and a data recorder known as a holter monitor, which will record his heart rhythm on orbit, as part of an investigation of heart rate variability during space flight. He also will be kept busy feeding bone cell cultures that are part of the OSTEO experiment, an evaluation of bone cell activity under microgravity conditions, and he will work with the Advanced Organic Separations (ADSEP) experiment, which provides the capability to separate and purify biological materials in microgravity.. Glenn and Duque will spend time with the Astroculture plant-growing experiment and with the MEPS (Microencapsulation Electrostatic Processing System) that studies the formation of anti-tumor capsules containing two kinds of drugs. Duque will collect video data and photograph samples from the Microgravity Glovebox (MGBX), which is used for investigations of colloids, or systems of fine particles suspended in fluid. As part of the evaluation of sleep disturbances in astronauts, Mukai and Glenn will complete a questionnaire about their personal observations of the previous night's sleep. They also will take a computerized battery of tests that measure reaction time, short-term memory, hand-eye coordination and other assessments. Mukai will continue her work with the Japanese Vestibular Function Experiment Unit (VFEU), which holds two toadfish that are electronically monitored to determine the effect of gravitational changes on the inner ear's balance system. She also will monitor the Astroculture-8 facility that is designed to provide a controlled environment in which to grow plants in the weightlessness of space. Discovery is orbiting the Earth every 95 minutes at an altitude of about 341 statute miles with all systems operating in excellent condition. =================================================================== Spartan solar satellite retrieved (11/03/98) Astronaut Stephen Robinson, operating the shuttle Discovery's 50-foot-long robot arm, carefully plucked a 3,000-pound sun study satellite out of open space today, two days after it was released to probe the sun's outer atmosphere. The reusable Spartan-201 spacecraft was snared at 3:48 p.m. as the shuttle sailed 343 miles above the northern coast of South America. "Houston, Discovery, we've got a good grapple on Spartan," Robinson radioed mission control as the robot arm locked onto the spacecraft. "Copy that, good job, Steve," astronaut Mike Gernhardt replied from Houston. Robinson then maneuvered Spartan-201 into its cradle in Discovery's cargo bay, locking it down at 4:05 p.m. The rendezvous appeared to go smoothly with no problems of any significance. This status report will be updated after today's mission status briefing. =================================================================== Spartan satellite captures billion-ton solar flare (11/03/98) Elated astronomers say a small solar physics satellite hauled aboard the shuttle Discovery today photographed at least one solar flare during two days of observations. The titanic detonation - a garden variety outburst by solar standards - sent a billion tons of matter flying off into space at three quarters of a million miles per hour - fast enough to go from the Earth to the moon in 20 minutes. "Our spacecraft has performed what looks like a flawless mission," said mission manager Craig Tooley. "We have about 30 percent of our data already on the ground, already available, with the rest of the data on board on tape recorders, which we'll unload at Kennedy Space Center after landing. ... All in all, I don't think we could be more pleased." The Spartan-201 satellite was released into open space Sunday. Equipped with a pair of high-tech telescopes, the small spacecraft was programmed to study the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, in exquisite detail to provide insights into the physics behind the solar wind and periodic mass ejections. At the same time, data from Spartan's freshly calibrated instruments will be used to help re-calibrate instruments aboard the $1 billion SOHO sun-study satellite. NASA attempted to launch Spartan-201 late last year, but a botched deployment prevented the satellite from collecting any data. But the failure had a silver lining: This time around, Spartan was able to collect data as the 11-year solar cycle ramped back up toward maximum. "I think we have very few regrets and no hard feelings at all about this," said Tooley. "Things turned out almost better than could have been expected. We were flying in a rising solar cycle, which is a very good thing for us. We collected more data than we planned to collect. So I think we've just done wonderful." Lead flight director Phil Engelauf praised Discovery's astronauts for a picture-perfect rendezvous and recovery. "Today was about as textbook perfect a rendezvous and retrieval as you could ask for," he said. "The crew followed the timeline exactly, their maneuvers were performed with extreme precision, they flew the profile exactly as we had planned for it to go and the retrieval was performed ... just about exactly on time. The crew just did an absolutely outstanding job." =================================================================== Astronauts test space station guidance system (11/04/98) Sailing into the home stretch of a textbook mission, the Discovery astronauts spent the morning testing the operation of a robot arm guidance system that will be extensively used during space station assembly. The tests called for the shuttle's robot arm to pick up the Spartan solar physics satellite and position it at different locations around and above Discovery's cargo bay. Based on the geometry of payload bay cameras and special targets on the Spartan satellite, the Space Vision System can compute the precise relative positions of the satellite and the shuttle. This system will be used during the first space station assembly flight next month when arm operator Nancy Currie will have to connect two large space station modules without being able to directly see the docking interface. Under normal circumstances, arm operators "have digital angular information off the arm, we have cameras positioned around the payload bay and on the arm," said veteran astronaut Bonnie Dunbar. "We have out-the-window views and so forth. As we start assembling the space station, we don't have all the cues we'd like to have. In many cases, we don't have direct out-the-window views. We may not have enough camera positions to see ... what we're docking to." The Space Vision System being tested aboard Discovery "is a software synthetic positioning system that is overlaid on our cameras," Dunbar said. "And by using position spots [painted] on the hardware, if you will, it can then calculate what position that article on the arm is in or another article and tell the operator which way to fly the arm to make an appropriate docking even though you don't have a direct out-the-window view or a direct camera view. "We've been testing this over time because it becomes it becomes a more and more critical tool for the aqrm operator to use for assembly," she added. "That's why part of it's being tested on STS-95." Here's a moe technical description of the experiment from NASA's on-line press kit: Space Vision System (SVS) photogrammetry technology uses existing shuttle payload bay camera views of targets on payloads and payload bay hardware to provide precise relative position, attitude, and rate cues in a concise graphical and digital format. The SVS will be used in support of initial space station assembly berthing tasks with the shuttle Remote Manipulator System (RMS); it will also be used during later assembly tasks with the Space Station RMS [robot arm]. The SVS is also being assessed to determine its feasibility to provide range, bearing and rate information associated with [proximity operations]. The Advanced SVS (ASVS) was the next generation version of the SVS with significantly upgraded operational capabilities. Its hardware was based on a Personal Computer (IBM Thinkpad 755C) with a 4-bay expansion chassis containing video cards. The ASVS was flown as a [test] on STS-74, STS-80, and STS-85 to further evaluate on-orbit performance and capabilities of the vision system. SVS targets were installed on payloads of opportunity and the Orbiter to support this testing. The Orbiter SVS (OSVS) is the operational version of the SVS for shuttle applications; the Space Station application is known as the Artificial Vision Function (AVF). Both systems are hard-mounted in their respective vehicles. New capabilities of the OSVS and AVF include vision system control of cameras, more robust target degradation and target reacquisition, advanced photogrammetric algorithm processing and a streamlined user interface. The OSVS will be flown on several test flights to verify vehicle integration, to evaluate on-orbit crew operations, and to characterize on-orbit system performance. Later today, at 1:30 p.m., former Sen. John Glenn will participate in a CBS Radio interview with Walter Cronkite, who will speak to the crew from a luncheon in Houston to mark NASA's 40th anniversary. Immediately after that event, Glenn will chat with comedian Jay Leno. Discovery remains on schedule for landing Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center and forecasters expect reasonably good weather. Here are the latest landing times for Saturday and Sunday (this chart assumes NASA does not staff Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for a Saturday landing): ORBIT...TIME...........EVENT................LOCATION SATURDAY 134.....10:57 a.m......Deorbit ignition 135.....12:06 p.m......Landing..............Kennedy Space Center 135.....12:38 p.m......Deorbit ignition 136.....01:47 p.m......Landing..............Kennedy Space Center SUNDAY 148.....09:08 a.m......Deorbit ignition 149.....10:17 a.m......Landing..............Kennedy Space Center 149.....10:40 a.m......Deorbit ignition 150.....11:49 a.m......Landing..............Edwards Air Force Base 149.....10:49 a.m......Deorbit ignition 150.....11:58 a.m......Landing..............Kennedy Space Center 150.....12:21 p.m......Deorbit ignition 151.....01:30 p.m......Landing..............Edwards Air Force Base 150.....12:30 p.m......Deorbit ignition 151.....01:39 p.m......Landing..............Kennedy Space Center Here is this morning's NASA status report from the Johnson Space Center in Houston: MISSION CONTROL CENTER STATUS REPORT #13 STS-95 Wednesday, November 4, 1998 - 7:00 a.m. EST REV. A Music from Japan awakened Discovery's astronauts at 5:50 a.m. Eastern time this morning. "Wakaki Chi," a cheering song from Keio University where Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai received her medical degree, was played in recognition of the phone call she will receive at 3:55 p.m. from Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and Minister of State for Science and Technology, Yutaka Takeyama. The astronauts will once again remove the Spartan solar science satellite from its berth in Discovery's payload bay for several hours of data collection. Cameras will be pointed at a series of targets on the spacecraft to test the Space Vision System, which uses remote camera views to provide a robot arm operator with the ability to see areas that are out of viewing area. This morning Mission Specialist Steve Robinson, assisted by Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski, will again test the Orbiter Space Vision System. OSVS uses special markings on Spartan and the shuttle cargo bay to provide an alignment aid for the arm's operator using shuttle television images. It will be used extensively on the next Space Shuttle flight in December as an aid in using the arm to join together the first two modules of the International Space Station. Lindsey will use the shuttle's 50-foot robot arm to grapple Spartan, unlatch it and maneuver it into position. Following the OSVS tests, he will use the Video Guidance Sensor to assist in the reberthing processes. VGS provides precise measurements of how far away the shuttle is from Spartan and how fast it is moving toward or away from the target. VGS is a component of an automated docking system being prepared for use on the International Space Station. Other crew members will continue work with several of the on-board science experiments. Commander Curt Brown, Lindsey, Robinson and Payload Specialist John Glenn will complete a daily back-pain questionnaire by as part of a study of how the muscle, intervertebral discs and bone marrow change after exposure to microgravity. Glenn and Japanese Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai will once again don a sleep net before going to sleep this evening. Each also will wear a special sleep suit. Electrodes on the sleep net and sensors in the sleep suit will monitor brain waves, eye movements, muscle tension, body movements and respiration. The electrodes and sensors are connected to a digital sleep recorder that records a variety of measurements as they sleep. Mukai also will swallow a capsule containing either melatonin or a placebo as part of the sleep study. Parazynski and Mukai will draw more blood from ESA Mission Specialist Pedro Duque and Glenn as part of the Protein Turnover Experiment (PTO), which is examining muscle atrophy during exposure to microgravity. Glenn will remove and stow the Holter monitor electrodes and data recorder he has worn for the past 24 hours. The Holter monitor recorded his heart rhythm on orbit, as part of an investigation of heart rate variability during space flight. He also will process blood samples as part of the PTO experiment. Glenn and Lindsey will spend time with the Astroculture plant-growing experiment, while Parazynski and Duque will collect more video data and photograph the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MGBX) experiments known as Colloidal Disorder-Order Transition and Structural Studies of Colloidal Suspension. Colloids are systems of fine particles suspended in fluid. Researchers hope to learn more about how the organization of atoms changes as they form into orderly solid structures. Duque then will deactivate these two experiments for the remainder of the mission. Mukai will continue her work with the Japanese Vestibular Function Experiment Unit (VFEU), which holds two toadfish that are electronically monitored to determine the effect of gravitational changes on the inner ear's balance system. Brown, Lindsey and Glenn will take part in an interview with CBS Radio news and the Tonight Show beginning at 12:30 Eastern time this afternoon. Discovery is orbiting the Earth every 95 minutes at an altitude of about 341 statute miles with all systems operating in excellent condition. =================================================================== Glenn fields questions from Cronkite, Leno (11/04/98) John Glenn waxed a bit philosophical today in a CBS News radio interview with Walter Cronkite. The veteran newsman asked Glenn if he was disappointed the space program was not further along on the high frontier. "I had hoped the space station would come along a little bit faster than it has," Glenn replied from orbit. "I think the shuttle, the Discovery here, one of these days will be used for what it was originally designed for - to act as a shuttle, to carry people and equipment back and forth to a permanently orbiting space station. And that's where the science will get even better than it is with the two-week limitation we have with this vehicle." "Are you disappointed that we're not further along in space exploration?" Cronkite asked. "Oh, I always wish we were further along," Glenn said. "But we have a lot of demands on our budget. I wish we were putting more into it because I think it's so valuable. This country got to be where it is because we put money into research and exploration and we didn't try to solve every problem before we moved off the East Coast. If we had, we'd still be there. But we've made tremendous strides with science. This, of course, is out on the cutting edge of science with benefits for everybody right there in their homes across the country." "And John, where do you think we might be 36 years from now?" "I would presume we will have tried a Mars mission by that time, we'll probably be on Mars, maybe we'll have put another station back on the moon. I would hope we'd have a lot of experience and new results out of the space station by that time. ... There's just no limit to what we could do." Speaking with NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin, Glenn said he continues to feel in tip-top condition. "You were very glad to see I wasn't sick and I can tell you, you weren't half as glad as I was," Glenn joked. "I never felt better. I've gone through the fluid shifts to the head and we probably look a little round-faced to you today, but that's quite normal. But I was very glad I didn't have any upset stomach or anything like that. We just went right to work after we got up here. So that part of it, we got by OK." Goldin then joked with Glenn about his medical research. The former senator was added to the flight to serve as a guinea pig in experiments to explore the similarities between aging and the normal effects of spaceflight. "One of the things we're all going to be interested in is what happens to you when you come back and see how much reversal occurs," Goldin quipped. "Maybe you'll have a full head of hair." "That'd be something!": Glenn said. "Maybe you'd just have to put me up on another mission, whether Annie wants it or not, so I can grow more hair! That is the reason I'm up here, though. There are some 53 changes that occur in the astronauts' bodies when they're up here, the younger people, but they go back to normal when they return to Earth. "Now it happens that about eight or 10 of those are part of the natural part of aging on Earth and that's the reason I'm up here, to see if we can't learn more about what turns the human body on and off in these particular areas so we maybe in the future can get away from things like cardiovascular problems or immune system changes or osteoporosis, balance-coordination problems, things like that that plague older people on the ground." A few moments later, Glenn, commander Curt Brown and pilot Steven Lindsey fielded questions from comedian Jay Leno. "Does Sen. Glenn keep telling you how tough it was in the old days, how cramped it was, how small it was, how lucky you young punks are?" Leno asked. "Well Jay, actually no," Brown replied. "He doesn't always do that. Only when he's awake." Brown turned out to be a bit of a comedian himself. Asked "who's driving right now?" the shuttle skipper said: "Actually, Jay, it's just like California. No one's driving." Asked what the crew could see from space, Brown said if the lighting is good, we can see the Great Wall of China. You can see the pyramids from space, sometimes rivers and big airports, and actually, Jay, every time we fly by California we see your chin." Leno then asked Glenn to compare the food available aboard the space shuttle and aboard his Mercury capsule. "Well, back in those days, you know, we had very plain food, applesauce and so on. This time I can have my Tang mixed with either Geritol or Metamucil so I can take my choice." =================================================================== Shuttle crew in home stretch of historic mission (11/05/98) The Discovery astronauts are putting in a final full day of experiment operations while the crew of the next shuttle flight, scheduled for takeoff Dec. 3, reviews launch procedures at the Kennedy Space Center. For space reporters, a full slate of media activies is scheduled, starting at 11:30 a.m. when John Glenn's wife, Annie, and his two children plan to chat with reporters at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. This is a local-only event and will not be carried on NASA television. Glenn and his Discovery crewmates, meanwhile, will participate in a traditional in-flight news conference at 1:10 p.m. on NASA TV. Vice President Al Gore is scheduled to call the astronauts at 3:40 p.m. and the crew of the next shuttle flight will hold a news conference at 6:30 p.m. to discuss their mission, the first U.S. space station assembly flight. This status report will be updated throughout the day as conditions warrant. In the meantime, here's NASA's morning update from the Johnson Space Center: STS-95 Report #15 Thursday, November 5, 1998 - 6:00 a.m. EST The Moody Blues awakened Discovery's seven astronauts at 5:15 a.m. Eastern time this morning for their eighth day of on-orbit science activities. The song, "I Know You're Out There Somewhere," was chosen by Commander Curt Brown's family. With the Spartan solar science satellite again secured in its berth in Discovery's payload bay, the astronauts will turn their full attention to some of the more than 80 experiments on board. They also will begin shutting down some of the experiments and facilities in anticipation of their return to Earth on Saturday morning. Mission Specialist Steve Robinson will power up the Orbiter Space Vision System (OSVS) for an image optimization test. OSVS will be used in International Space Station assembly as a key source of precision data with which the robot arm operator will perform station assembly activities. Robinson and European Space Agency Mission Specialist Pedro Duque also will power up the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) and check the unit's communications system. The EMU would be used should a spacewalk become necessary; it provides pressure, thermal and micro-meteoroid protection, oxygen, cooling water, drinking water, food, waste collection (including carbon dioxide removal), electrical power and communications. As they have throughout the flight, Commander Curt Brown, Pilot Steve Lindsey, Mission Specialist Steve Robinson and Payload Specialist John Glenn will complete a back-pain questionnaire as part of a study of how the muscle, intervertebral discs and bone marrow change due to microgravity. Results will be compared with data provided by astronauts during previous missions. Glenn will continue blood sample analysis and blood processing that are part of the Protein Turnover (PTO) experiment, which is studying the muscle loss that occurs during space flight. Better understanding of the mechanisms of muscle loss may help scientists combat the muscle wasting commonly seen as a result of aging and in bedridden individuals. Deactivation of some of the experiments will begin today. After using the Electronic Nose one last time to test the shuttle's air quality, Brown will deactivate it for the duration of the mission. The Electronic Nose is a miniaturized electronic air quality monitoring system that mimics the way the human nose detects changes in the air. Duque also will do a final shutdown of the Microgravity Science Glovebox and stow equipment associated with the facility. Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski will check on the fish in the Vestibular Function Experiment Unit (VFEU). By studying how the balance organs of oyster toadfish in the VFEU adapt to microgravity, scientists hope to gain important insights about similar functions in humans and apply this information to develop therapies for equilibrium disorders on Earth. At 1:10 p.m. Eastern time, the entire crew will gather for a press conference with U.S. and Japanese reporters at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, as well as with reporters gathered at the European Space Agency's Villafranca tracking facility outside Madrid, Spain. At 3:40 p.m. Eastern time, the astronauts will gather again for a conversation with Vice-President Al Gore and former Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter from the White House. Before going to sleep Wednesday night, the entire crew will gather for the traditional crew photograph. Then Glenn and Japanese Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai will don for the last time their sleep nets and suits to monitor brain waves, eye movements, muscle tension, body movements and respiration during sleep. Mukai also will swallow a capsule containing either melatonin or a placebo as part of the sleep study. Lindsey and Mukai will conduct additional work with the Astroculture experiment to study the growth of plants in the weightless environment of space. Brown and Glenn will complete the eighth and ninth feedings of the bone cell cultures that are part of the Canadian OSTEO experiment. Preliminary weather forecasts indicate generally favorable weather to support Saturday's landing at 12:06 p.m. Eastern time at the Kennedy Space Center. Remnants of tropical storm Mitch are expected to pass through the area and move off Florida's east coast Friday night, allowing good weather for landing on Saturday. Discovery is orbiting the Earth every 95 minutes at an altitude of about 341 statute miles with all systems operating in excellent condition. =================================================================== Glenn pleased with flight; commander downplays drag chute concern (11/05/98) Joking that the shuttle would make a good retirement home, John Glenn told fellow Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter and Vice President Al Gore that living and working in space is a snap, even for 77-year-old senior citizens. "Scott, I think in our next job we ought to come up here and have a retirement home in space," Glenn radioed. "Because you know, if you spill food it doesn't go on your necktie, it just floats out away from you and in fact, I got some oatmeal on my glasses the other day. You don't need a walker up here, you don't need to worry about osteoporosis, or canes or anything like that because you just float across the room. There's no such thing as broken hips or anything like that. If you have trouble sleeping at night, it's no problem because you have another night coming up in not more than 45 minutes. So maybe this is a place we can start a retirement home someday." Glenn and his six crewmates - commander Curt Brown, pilot Steven Lindsey, Scott Parazynski, Stephen Robinson, Spaniard Pedro Duque and Japanese surgeon Chiaki Mukai - are scheduled to land Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center a few minutes past noon. Entry flight director Linda Ham says the weather should be good Saturday, after clouds and rain from the remnants of Hurricane Mitch pass through the area Friday. There are no technical problems of any significance aboard Discovery and lead flight director Phil Engelauf said today "I've never flown a flight, I think, that has been as clean and as on the timeline for as long and as steadily as this one has. All the payload activities are going beautifully, I don't know what else to say." But engineers continue to evaluate contingency plans to cope with an inadvertant deployment of Discovery's braking parachute. A protective door at the base of the shuttle's vertical tail fin that protects the chute during flight fell off during launch last week. Engineers do not know whether the chute is still intact, whether it is still stowed but partially melted or whether it fell out and was destroyed during the climb to space. The braking chute was developed as a post-Challenger improvement primarily to reduce tire and brake wear during landing. It was first used on shuttle mission STS-49, the maiden flight of the Endeavour in May 1992. While flight controllers believe the odds of an inadvertant deployment are remote, they are developing contingency plans "just in case." Because engineers don't know the current state of Discovery's drag chute, Brown and Lindsey will not deploy it during landing Saturday. Should the chute somehow pop out during the return to Earth, the pilots will have been briefed on how to quickly jettison it. "The ground is still studying that and we'll get the final words coming up probably tomorrow on what we're really going to do and what we're going to plan for," Brown said today. "I have practiced that out in the simulator at NASA Ames [Research Center] where we do our landing and rollout training. It was more of an engineering evaluation, it wasn't really training, but that's kind of semantics. So we have done that kind of thing. "Steve and I have talked about during the entry, during the [final landing] phase when we do get some airspeed on the vehicle if the chute was to deploy what would we do and we've already covered that some," Brown said. "At NASA, we always try to make sure everything is done as safely as possible and we want to cover all the bases and make sure we've checked all the details. The folks on the ground are doing a very good job at that and I'm very happy with what they've told us so far. I think it's really no issue at all. It's a shame the panel came off during our liftoff and caused some worry but I think it's strictly a task on the ground to get the chance to look at all the data." In an interview today, Ham told CBS News that if the chute deployed prior to the shuttle slowing to about 2.8 times the speed of sound, it probably would not inflate because there would not be enough aerodynamic pressure acting on it. The crew probably would not even notice. But the shuttle's nose would tend to pitch down slightly, which would show up in telemetry. In that case, mission control would tell the crew to simply jettison the parachute. Below mach 2.8, the chute probably would inflate and rip off or, at lower speeds, simply inflate. The crew would feel the effects of such a deployment as a "significant" change, Ham said, and notice the nose of the orbiter pitching up. If the deployment happened below 50,000 feet, while Brown was manually flying the shuttle, he would take his hands off the stick while pilot Steve Lindsey hit switches to deploy and cut the chute away. Ham said a deployment at altitudes lower than about 150 feet would require especially quick action by Lindsey. But again, she said, "we don't think anything's going to happen." Earlier today, Glenn's wife, Annie, and his two children, David and Lyn, met with reporters to discuss the flight. "All I can say is I feel 100 percent better than I did one week ago at this time," Annie Glenn said. "I was scared, I was really excited for John, but now I can say 'day after tomorrow I can touch him.' That is very special for me." David Glenn said he initially felt angry that NASA had agreed to fly his father on the space shuttle. "When we first heard about this idea, that was pretty hard to accept," he said. "I had an image of him and my mom getting out of the Senate, having time to do the things they had talked about doing and it was hard to image him sitting on this thing. What immediately came to my mind was the whole Challenger thing. "I'd watched all the films of that a 100 times at least," he said. "I think like a lot of people, I had that reaction, just sat there staring and watching it over and over and over and it was such a shock. I knew everything had been going very well and statistically had been an incredibly safe program compared to what people might have guessed early on. But it took awhile to really adjust. My initial reaction was really being just mad." While she ended up supporting her husband's quest, Annie, said one shuttle flight was enough and "as far as I'm concerned, there are going to be no more other flights." Otherwise, Annie Glenn said she was "really tickled" her husband did not succumb to space motion sickness and "hadn't thrown up, you might say. He looks like a young man, he looks great, he's not 77." For Glenn's part, he said he wished the flight "could last another week. I miss Annie, obviously and the rest of the family also. We know it's a long time on the ground there for them to wait, but we're doing a lot of good work up here. She knows that, she sat in on a lot of our briefings and appreciates the purpose of what we're doing up here. So we'll be home shortly, just a couple of more days." =================================================================== Discovery astronauts pack for Saturday landing (11/06/98) The Discovery astronauts wrapped up their orbital research today, tested the shuttle's re-entry systems and began packing up for landing Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center. Entry flight director Linda Ham said forecasters are calling for scattered clouds at 4,000 feet and a crosswind of just 12 knots, well within the shuttle's safety limits. But there's a slight chance that a scattered deck of clouds could thicken and go broken, which would block a Florida landing." "So we will be watching the weather very closely and watching those low clouds," Ham said. The forecast for Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., is excellent Saturday and poor on Sunday. Assuming the forecast holds up, Ham likely would make at least one and probably two attempts to land in Florida on successive orbits and, if unsuccessful, head for Edwards. "Saturday is the best day of all so we really will try to get down tomorrow" at either Kennedy or Edwards, Ham said. Here are updated landing times for Saturday (dV: change in velocity in mph; dT: duration of rocket firing in minutes and seconds): ORBIT...TIME..............EVENT................LOCATION 134.....10:53:23 a.m......Deorbit ignition.....dV: 318; dT: 4:45 135.....12:03:41 p.m......Landing..............Kennedy Space Center 135.....12:25:04 p.m......Deorbit ignition.....dV: 319; dT: 4:46: 136.....01:35:34 p.m......Landing..............Edwards Air Force Base 135.....12:33:59 p.m......Deorbit ignition.....dV: 327; dT: 4:52 136.....01:44:56 p.m......Landing..............Kennedy Space Center 136.....02:06:34 p.m......Deorbit ignition.....dV: 321; dT: 4:46 137.....03:16:58 p.m......Landing..............Edwards Air Force Base Early today, commander Curt Brown, pilot Steven Lindsey and flight engineer Scott Parazynski fired up one of Discovery's three hydraulic power units and tested the shuttle's elevons, rudder and other entry systems. They also test fired the orbiter's small steering jets. One jet (L3L), a thruster on the left orbital maneuvering system rocket pod, failed during the test. It then started leaking oxidizer and flight controllers asked the crew to isolate the propellant manifold feeding the failed jet. That, in turn, also isolated two other jets but Ham said Discovery has plenty of redundancy and "it won't impact any of our planning." The only other issue of any concern is the status of Discovery's braking parachute. A protective door at the base of the shuttle's vertical tail fin that protects the chute during flight fell off during launch last week. Engineers do not know whether the chute is still intact, whether it is still stowed but partially melted or whether it fell out and was destroyed during the climb to space. Playing it safe, Ham said the astronauts will not deploy the braking chute during landing Saturday. "A lot of analysis has been done," Ham said. "If the chute is still in the compartment, we think there probably has been some melting, we think the chute will remain where it is in the same situation that it's in all throughout entry and post wheels stop. ... We don't expect it will come out. But if it does, we will ask the crew to get rid of it by hitting the 'arm,' 'deploy' and 'jettison' buttons. Once it's released, there will be no further impact." At velocities above 2.8 times the speed of sound, Ham said the chute would not inflate at all even if it somehow managed to pop out of its container. Between mach 2.8 and an altitude of 150 feet, the chute would try to open but it would rip apart due to aerodynamic stress. Below 150 feet, however, the chute would inflate, causing the shuttle's nose to pitch up while increasing the vehicle's sink rate. In that case, Lindsey would need to act quickly to cut the chute away to avoid a potentially catastrophic landing (sink rate: 15 feet per second). Here's how the issue was summed up in the morning mail to Discovery: "There is ample time up high for diagnosis and action and considerably less time as you approach the threshold. Post gear deploy, the chute jettison is critical. For this regime, we recommend the pilot: 1. Have the Arm, Deploy and Jettison covers up; 2. If the pilot has his hands on the eyebrow panel he can ARM, DEPLOY & JETTISON beofre disreef occurs before disreef occurs." Translation: If Lindsey keeps his hands on the control panel by the chute switches, he can push all three before the parachute can even unreef and inflate. But again, Ham said no one expects any such contingency to develop. Once on the ground, 77-year-old astronaut John Glenn will face four hours of medical tests to chart his body's re-adaptation to gravity after nine days in space. But NASA managers said he will be allowed to join his crewmates for a post-landing walk-around if he feels up to it. Over the course of the 92nd shuttle flight, Glenn endured 11 blood sticks, gave up 17 blood samples and 48 urine samples while receiving two blood infusions and two oral ingestions of tracer chemicals as part of an experiment to monitor muscle changes in space. He also underwent eight days of body core temperature monitoring, four nights of sleep monitoring and four days of cognitive testing. And during re-entry, Glenn wore a portable electrocardiogram and a blood pressure sensor attached to a small recorder. "We should get possibly two hours of data recording of blood pressure and ECG during the re-entry process when he feels gravity for the first time after his nine days of weightlessness," said mission scientist John Charles at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "The benchmark we always ask for is a good set of recordings at the time of seat egress, that is, the first time he stands up after landing." All seven astronauts will spend the night at Kennedy or, if diverted to California, at Edwards. They will fly back to the Johnson Space Center Sunday morning. =================================================================== Shuttle Discovery rigged for landing (11/07/98) The Discovery astronauts readied the shuttle for re-entry and landing today, stowing experiments and shutting down their Spacehab research module for a landing at 12:03:41 p.m. at the Kennedy Space Center. There are no technical problems of any significance aboard the shuttle and the only issue appears to be the possibility of offshore clouds rolling in and obscuring the runway. But as of 6:30 a.m., the clouds appeared to be dissipating as they reached shore, boosting optimism about an on-time landing. Commander Curt Brown and his crew have four landing opportunities today, two in Florida and two at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Entry flight director Linda Ham said Friday she plans to make two Florida landing attempts and, if unsuccessful, do divert to Edwards. NASA tries to avoid California landings if at all possible because it costs about $1 million to ferry a shuttle back to Florida and adds a week or more to the orbiter's ground processing time between flights. But the forecast for Edwards is "no go" Sunday and excellent today, so NASA went ahead and sent a shuttle landing team to California. Assuming they are cleared for an on-time entry, Brown and pilot Steven Lindsey will fire Discovery's twin orbital maneuvering system braking rockets at 10:53:23 a.m. for four minutes and 45 seconds, slowing the shuttle by 318 mph to drop out of orbit. Thirty-nine minutes later, the shuttle will fall into the discernible atmosphere 77.6 miles above the Pacific Ocean, 4,920 miles from the Kennedy Space Center. After streaking high above central Texas, Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico, Discovery's velocity will drop below the speed of sound just before noon as the vehicle approaches the Florida landing site. About four minutes later, Brown, flying Discovery manually, will guide the black-and-white spaceplane to a touchdown on runway 33 to close out a 134-orbit mission spanning 3.6 million miles since blastoff Oct. 30. Here are all four landing opportunities for Saturday (dV: change in velocity in mph; dT: duration of rocket firing in minutes and seconds): ORBIT...TIME..............EVENT................LOCATION 134.....10:53:23 a.m......Deorbit ignition.....dV: 318; dT: 4:45 135.....12:03:41 p.m......Landing..............Kennedy Space Center 135.....12:25:04 p.m......Deorbit ignition.....dV: 319; dT: 4:46: 136.....01:35:34 p.m......Landing..............Edwards Air Force Base 135.....12:33:59 p.m......Deorbit ignition.....dV: 327; dT: 4:52 136.....01:44:56 p.m......Landing..............Kennedy Space Center 136.....02:06:34 p.m......Deorbit ignition.....dV: 321; dT: 4:46 137.....03:16:58 p.m......Landing..............Edwards Air Force Base Once on the ground, Brown, Lindsey, flight engineer Scott Parazynski, Stephen Robinson, Spaniard Pedro Duque, Japanese surgeon Chiaki Mukai and 77-year-old John Glenn will leave the orbiter shortly after touchdown. About 45 minutes to an hour after landing, the astronauts are expected to make a traditional walk-around to inspect the space shuttle. Glenn will participate, NASA officials say, if he feels up to it. If not, he (and any others who don't feel like walking) will be taken directly to crew quarters. Either way, Glenn faces about four hours of post-landing tests to measure his body's re-adaptation to gravity. A post-landing news conference with Brown and company is expected around 6 p.m. All seven astronauts will fly back to the Johnson Space Center early Sunday for a noon welcome home celebration at Ellington Field in Houston. The only technical issue of any significance is lingering concern about Discovery's braking parachute. A protective door at the base of the shuttle's vertical tail fin that protects the chute during flight fell off during launch. Engineers do not know whether the chute is still intact, whether it is still stowed but partially melted or whether it fell out and was destroyed during the climb to space. Playing it safe, Ham said the astronauts will not attempt to deploy the braking chute during landing Saturday. While an inadvertant deployment during the return to Earth is considered extremely unlikely, Brown and Lindsey are prepared to take quick action to jettison the parachute should it pop out at any point. The only time this would be a real concern is if it deployed with the shuttle less than 150 feet off the ground. In that case, if the crew did nothing, the braking parachute would inflate and pull the nose of the shuttle up. The sink rate would increase to some 15 feet per second and the shuttle would hit the ground hard enough to cause severe damage and probable injury to the crew. But that's if the crew did nothing. While he would have to act quickly, Ham said Lindsey could still simply jettison the chute and Brown could guide Discovery to a normal landing. Additional details on this issue from a news conference with Ham on Friday are available below in the CBS News Reporter's Notebook =================================================================== Shuttle Discovery glides to sunny touchdown (11/07/98) The shuttle Discovery glided to a sunny touchdown today at the Kennedy Space Center, bringing 77-year-old John Glenn back to the unfamiliar tug of Earth's gravity after nine days in weightlessness. Moments after the black-and-white spaceplane rolled to a stop, Glenn radioed Houston and thanked NASA for giving him a second ride in space, 36 years after he became the first American in orbit. "I want to reprise something I said a long time ago, except this time it is 'One G [gravity] and I feel fine,'" Glenn said from his seat on the shuttle's lower deck. "Discovery and this crew took us around and around and that view is still tremendous." Sounding fit and clearly excited by the experience, Glenn passed along his "heartfelt thanks" to "those whose prayers, along with my own, followed us around the world. "And to all the NASA team from top to bottom and bottom to top, that continue to do the superb research job that benefits every home in this nation - often without notice or proper recognition - our thanks and my personal thanks for a job well done," Glenn said. "Give each other a pat on the back. You deserve it." Flying upside down and tail first over the southern Indian Ocean, commander Curt Brown and pilot Steven Lindsey fired Discovery's twin orbital maneuvering system braking rockets at 10:53 a.m. for four minutes and 45 seconds, slowing the shuttle by 318 mph and putting it on course for an on-time landing in Florida. Earlier concern about clouds and slightly high winds dissipated as the morning wore on and as the shuttle approached the spaceport, the crew was greeted by brilliant sunshine, a partly cloudy sky and breezy but acceptable winds. Flying the orbiter manually from about 50,000 feet on down, Brown guided the 120-ton spacecraft through a sweeping right overhead turn, lined up on runway 33 and settled to a picture-perfect landing at 12:03:31 p.m. Landing marked the end of NASA's 92nd shuttle mission, a 134-orbit voyage spanning 3.6 million miles since blastoff Oct. 30. It was the 16th Kennedy Space Center landing in a row and the 22nd in the last 23 dating back to July 1995. While entry and landing went strictly by the book, Brown and Lindsey did not release the shuttle's braking parachute after main gear touchdown because of concern the system might have been damaged during launch when a protective door fell off at engine ignition. The pilots were briefed before entry to quickly jettison the chute should it inadvertantly deploy, but there was no such release and Brown brought Discovery to a stop using the orbiter's landing gear brakes. "Houston, Discovery, wheels stopped, KSC," Brown radioed as the shuttle rolled to a halt. "Welcome home, Discovery, and a crew of seven heroes from a mission dedicated to improving life on Earth. Beautiful landing, Curt," replied astronaut Susan Kilrain from mission control in Houston. Brown, Lindsey, Glenn, Scott Parazynski, Stephen Robinson, Spaniard Pedro Duque and Japanese surgeon Chiaki Mukai planned to doff their suits and take a stroll around Discovery about an hour or so after landing. All seven will spend the night at the Florida spaceport before flying back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for a welcome home celebration around 1 p.m. Sunday. For Glenn, at 77 the oldest man to fly in space, the mission did not end with touchdown. He faced about four hours of medical tests to precisely chart how his body began re-adapting to Earth's gravity after nine days aloft. The first few hours are critical for such experiments as the neurovestibular and cardiovascular systems begin making adjustments to the once familiar, now new, environment. Glenn and Mukai will participate in additional experiment runs in Houston, repeating many of the tests they carried out in orbit and before launch to document how their bodies changed to accommodate the absence of gravity and how they then re-adjusted. =================================================================== Glenn able to walk around shuttle; NASA pleased with flight (11/07/98) John Glenn, looking a bit wobbly and every bit of his 77 years, joined his younger crewmates for a traditional post-landing walk-around inspection of the space shuttle Discovery today about two hours after touchdown. Smiling and chatting with well wishers, Glenn did not address the shuttle landing team, instead choosing to pose with his crewmates while commander Curt Brown said a few words to Administrator Daniel Goldin and other dignitaries. "We had a very successful flight," Brown said from the runway. "We wanted to thank KSC for giving us a vehicle, Discovery, that had absolutely no problems. We're just very thrilled to bring it back to Kennedy today in the same condition we left in." Shuttle program manager Tommy Holloway said the 92nd shuttle flight "was an outstanding mission." "I think it sets a standard for the future, absolutely exceptional performance across the entire system," he said. "STS-95 was a showcase of the utilization of the space shuttle. ... Over 83 experimemnts were executed and almost all were at or over 100 percent successful." Glenn faced about four hours of post-landing medical tests to precisely chart neurovestibular and cardiovascular changes as they occurred. While Glenn appeared frail and stooped as he walked around the shuttle, Sam Pool, head of life sciences at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said his appearance was not all that unusual. "Many people who return from spaceflight, even the relatively short ones, have what we call ataxia, and that's a little bit of an unsteady footing, they need to be a little bit careful, particularly when they turn corners and that sort of thing," Pool said. "And I think that's what you were seeing in the senator. ... I could see some degree of unsteadiness in one or two others and it's not an uncommon occurance." Even so, Pool said researchers hypothesized before Discovery's mission that Glenn might have more problems with such unsteadiness than his younger crewmates. But no major problems were expected and overall, "this was really a wonderful mission," Pool said. "We have much to learn and to study and analyze now that we have a tremendous amount of data we've gathered so far. I can say the state of crew health pre flight and in flight was excellent and I think you can see ... they're doing well at this point in time." =================================================================== Crew news conference postponed (11/07/98) A planned post-landing news conference with John Glenn and his Discovery crewmates was postponed to Sunday morning to give the astronauts time to complete required medical checks and to get a good night's sleep. A NASA spokesman insisted there were no major problems and that post-landing medical tests were taking longer than expected to complete. In a statement released by Glenn's press secretary, daughter Lyn Glenn described her father as "ecstatic" when he met with his family in crew quarters. "He's walking with a wide gait as he gets his balance back," Lyn Glenn said. "He was ecstatic to hug mother. It was a very long hug and they both seemed very grateful to be together." She said the family appreciated "the prayers and interest from so many people for the crew. They truly are six heroes and one legend. And all of the families are grateful and proud to have them back." The news conference is now scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Sunday. =================================================================== Fit-looking Glenn elated by space voyage (11/08/98) Back on Earth after nine days in weightlessness, John Glenn said today he "didn't feel so hot" immediately after landing Saturday and that he had to walk slowly to keep his balance. But 24 hours later, the 77-year-old astronaut said he felt nearly normal and was elated with the outcome of his historic shuttle mission. "Obviously, I was walking a little straddle-legged there to keep my balance a little bit," said Glenn, looking fit and chipper in his blue flight suit. "But everything went very well. We went through all the medical tests yesterday and as far as I know everything's coming out very well. For two weeks, almost three weeks, we'll be going through very extensive medical tests. ... So we're hard at it again on all the follow ups to everything that happened on the mission." As for his physical condition after landing, Glenn said "when you come back from something like this you feel maybe a little bit woozy. I'm probably 95 or 98 percent back to normal now. I'm not whipping my head around quite yet, but that'll come over the next few days, I guess. I feel great." Glenn and his six crewmates glided to an on-time landing Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center (see the CBS News Reporter's Notebook below for complete landing coverage). For Glenn, the return to Earth was much more benign than his first trip home back in 1962 when he experienced a braking force of seven to eight G's during re-entry in a cramped Mercury capsule. Aboard the shuttle, he was subjected to about one-and-a-half Gs. And, of course, the trip home took quite a while longer. "We had a marvelous view of the United States as we entered," said commander Curt Brown. "We passed over Baja California going mach 24 and I've never seen California go by so fast. It was unbelievable. It was clear all the way to Florida except for a brief moment over Eastern Texas. ... We had a beautiful re-entry, we rolled out on final for a nominal approach and a nominal touchdown and rolled to a stop after a very, very successful mission. Then we departed the orbiter and everyone of my crew members, I'm very, very proud of them, walked off the orbiter." Even though he felt a bit shaky, Glenn said he was determined to walk off the shuttle under his own power, adding "if I'd been on my hands and knees I was going to do it. I wasn't quite to that point." "But obviously, I was not doing my best gait out there yesterday," he said. "When we got out, I was kind of, not disoriented, that would be too strong a word for it, but you're walking very straddle legged like this so you can keep your balance because if you tip too far one way you can't catch yourself. The pressure on me was just to be there as a crew member rather than what any other outside perception might be." Glenn, Brown, pilot Steven Lindsey, Scott Parazynski, Stephen Robinson, Spaniard Pedro Duque and Japanese surgeon Chiaki Mukai, flew back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston today after participating in the most heavily attended shuttle news conference in years. All seven appeared in good spirits as Glenn fielded a steady stream of questions from the media. Asked what he planned for the future, Glenn said he had no definite plans beyond spending more time with his wife, Annie, and working with college students in his home state of Ohio. "I don't worry about the future of this country as far as being taken over from outside," he said. "I do worry when so many people have such a cynical and apathetic attitude toward government, politics, things that make this country go and implement our democracy, implement the Constitution. And I think it's important we not let that kind of attitude prevail too long or we will go downhill. So I'll be working on some of those things with the students back in Ohio and elsewhere around the country and I look forward to that." Asked if his flight aboard Discovery was definitely his last space voyage, Glenn said his wife had left little doubt on that score. "Annie has demanded that I spend more of my time with her than I've been able to do in the past and I think that's a reasonable look to the future," he said. "I have no big plans past that." But he left the door open to work with NASA in some capacity, saying "I do strongly believe in this program and firmly believe we're getting a lot of good information and if I can help out in some way and help relay this kind of information back and forth to the American people so they can appreciate the importance of it, why I'd like to do that." In the near term, Glenn and Mukai face several weeks of medical testing to repeat many of the experiments carried out in orbit. The goal is to chart their re-adaptation to gravity in the same way their adaptation to weightlessness was recorded on board Discovery. Glenn clearly feels passionately about the value of the research and the justification for his role in the mission. "I feel very elated that things went well, we got a lot of the data we were looking to get and we worked very hard up there," he said. "Obviously, we'd like to make STS-95B and go right back up again. But that's not to be. A sense of accomplishment, I guess, I feel, but a little bit let down that the whole thing is over, maybe. But nothing serious. I'm quite elated at how the whole thing went." ===================================================================