07.09.97

Wednesday, July 9, 1997, 5:00 p.m. CDTSTATUS REPORT: STS-94-17

STS-94 MISSION CONTROL CENTER STATUS REPORT #17



A brisk pace of scientific investigation is continuing on board 
Columbia as the STS-94 mission enters the second half of its planned 
16-day stay on orbit.



The official halfway point of the Microgravity Science Laboratory 
mission occurred just before 9:30 a.m. central time today, at 7 days, 
20 hours and 26 minutes into the flight. The seven-member crew 
continues its around-the-clock science support studying how various 
materials and liquids change and behave in the weightless environment 
of space.



Throughout the morning the Red team astronauts, Jim Halsell, Susan 
Still, Don Thomas and Greg Linteris, supported investigations in the 
Large Isothermal Furnace, Middeck Glovebox and other facilities in 
the Spacelab module.



This morning, Still talked with two television stations in her 
hometown of Augusta, Georgia. In interviews with WRDW-TV and WJBF-TV, 
she and Halsell discussed the progress of their mission to date and 
the day-to-day housekeeping tasks performed on board.



This afternoon at the request of the flight control team, Halsell 
toggled a power supply switch for one of Columbia’s aerosurface 
servo-actuators (ASA’s) that control various aerodynamic 
surfaces, including the rudder and elevons. There are four 
ASA’s on board, each with redundant power supplies. The flight 
control team noticed that ASA 4 had lost redundancy in one of its two 
power sources and requested Halsell to perform the power cycle which 
restored full redundancy and cleared the problem. The loss of one of 
the two power supplies to ASA 4 would not have had any impact on the 
mission.



The Red team began an eight-hour sleep period shortly after 3 p.m. 
central time.



The Blue team of crew members, Payload Commander Janice Voss, Mission 
Specialist Mike Gernhardt and Payload Specialist Roger Crouch, 
assumed responsibility for orbiter and science operations shortly 
after 1 p.m. central time. Voss and Crouch will continue work with 
investigations in the Large Isothermal Furnace and Combustion Module. 
Crouch is scheduled for about an hour and one-half of off-duty time 
early in his day.



Columbia continues a virtually trouble-free and stable platform for 
the ongoing investigations.



The next STS-94 status report will be issued at about 6 a.m. central 
time Thursday.

	
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