04.05.97

Saturday, April 5, 1997, 6:30 a.m. CSTSTATUS REPORT: STS-83-02

STS-83 MISSION CONTROL CENTER STATUS REPORT # 2



The red team members of STS-83, Commander Jim Halsell and Pilot Susan 
Still along with Mission Specialist Don Thomas and Payload Specialist 
Greg Linteris have been busy continuing the payload activation 
process begun by their blue team counterparts as the research efforts 
of the first Microgravity Science Laboratory-1 (MSL-1) mission get 
into full swing.



The STS-83 crew will spend more than two weeks studying the properties 
of combustion and the behavior of metals, materials and fluids in the 
absence of gravity. The astronauts are split into red and blue teams, 
each working a 12-hour shift, to allow around-the-clock operations in 
the pressurized Spacelab science module in Columbia’s cargo 
bay.



After being awakened just before midnight, Halsell and Still set up 
the bicycle ergometer in the Shuttle’s middeck area. Each of 
the STS-83 crewmembers will use the bicycle for exercise during the 
flight. Thomas activated the Large Isothermal Furnace (LIF) 
experiment and the Expedite the Processing of Experiments to the 
International Space Station (EXPRESS) rack while Linteris continued 
the activation of Protein Crystal Growth experiments.



Remaining activities in the red team’s day will include the 
setup and checkout of the Wireless Data Acquisition System (WDAS) 
experiment. This is a proof of concept payload that uses wireless RF 
signals to relay data from temperature sensors in the payload bay and 
spacelab module. Analysis of future Space Station operation 
requirements indicate that there may be a requirement for real time 
monitoring of temperature readings in various parts of the station 
and a system such as the WDAS could meet that need.



Columbia’s blue team of astronauts is scheduled to be awakened 
at 9:21 a.m. CST this morning to begin Flight Day 2 activities.



Columbia continues to circle the Earth in a 187 x 184 s.m. orbit, 
completing one full revolution of the Earth every 90 minutes.



Voss and Crouch will conduct an interview with two television stations 
in the Rockford Illinois area at 5:46 p.m. this afternoon. Voss is a 
native of Rockford.



The next STS-83 status report will be issued at 6 p.m. Central time 
Saturday.

	
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