Conference 7.286::space

Associated Press Wed 16-OCT-1985 21:53                          Space Shuttle

   CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - The giant transporter carrying
Challenger to the launch pad broke down Wednesday, delaying the
space shuttle's arrival at the pad for six hours.
   The tracked transporter, called a crawler and weighing 6.3
million pounds, was to ave made the three-mile trip to the pad in
six hours as it lumbered at maximum speed of 1 mph. The shuttle
rode upright on the back of the vehicle.
   But at noon, about four hours into the trip, two problems
developed. The first, in an electrical circuit, was quickly fixed.
But the second, a crack in a hydraulic line, required several hours.
   The line had to be depressurized and a new section welded in
place, and then the system had to be repressurized and tested
before the crawler could move again. It was the first such
breakdown for the crawler.
   The delay was a treat for late arriving tourists, who might not
have had a chance to view the shuttle in the open. Tour buses pass
close to the pathway on which the crawler travels.
   The shuttle reached the pad about 8 p.m., and officials said the
breakdown would not delay Thursday's practice countdown. The
astronauts were to climb on board during the final two hours of the
practice Friday morning.
   Challenger is to lift off Oct. 30 with a record eight-person
crew on a flight paid for by West Germany.
   The astronauts - five Americans, two Germans and a Dutchman -
are to conduct a total of 70 West German experiments in a
pressurized Spacelab module mounted in th shuttle's cargo bay. The
experiments are in material science and processing, navigation,
medicine and biology.
   The biggest crew on a previous space flight was seven.
   The Federal German Aerospace Research Establishment is paying
NASA $64 million to carry the experiments into orbit for a week of
research. The control center for the experiments during the mission
will be in Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich, marking the first time
control of a space shuttle payload will be outside the United
States.
   Commanding the mission is veteran shuttle pilot Henry
Hartsfield. The other crew members are pilot Steven Nagel; mission
specialists James Buchli, Guion Bluford and Bonnie Dunbar, and
payload specialists Reinhard Furrer, Ernst Messerschmid and Wubbo
Ockels. Furrer and Messerschmid are the West Germans, Ockels, the
Dutchman.

Associated Press Mon 28-OCT-1985 06:54                          Space Shuttle

         Countdown Starts For International Space Flight
                          By HOWARD BENEDICT
                          AP Aerospace Writer
   CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - The countdown began today for
Wednesday's launch of space shuttle Challenger on an international
science mission with a record crew of five Americans, two West
Germans and a Dutchman.
   Liftoff was scheduled for noon EST on a flight on which the
astronauts will conduct 80 experiments in the pressurized Spacelab
workshop in the shuttle's cargo bay. It will be the 22nd shuttle
mission, the ninth for Challenger.
   Most of the experiments are West German, and the Federal German
Aerospace Establishment is paying the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration $64 million to ferry them into space. They
deal with materials processing, medicine, biology, navigation and
technology.
   The control center for the experiments will be Oberpfaffenhofen,
near Munich, marking the first time that a foreign country will
control a shuttle payload during flight.
   The astronauts flew here Sunday from their training base in
Houston, and one of the Germans, Reinhard Furrer, told reporters,
``I am deeply convinced that doing major science in space is very
worthwhile, and we're among the first, so we have to push very
hard.''
   ``Hopefully, we'll come back with very interesting results,''
added the other German, Ernst Messerschmid.
   Wubbo Ockels of The Netherlands, named to the flight by the
European Space Agency, thanked NASA ``for making it possible for us
to fly.'' ESA built the Spacelab module and will have several
experiments on board.
   The American crew members are commander Henry Hartsfield, Steven
Nagel, Bonnie Dunbar, Guion Bluford and James Buchli.
   Challenger is scheduled to return to Earth Nov. 6, landing at
Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
   Dignataries who will view Wednesday's launch include Princess
Margriet Francisca of The Netherlands and her husband, Pieter van
Vollenhoven, the West German and Dutch ambassadors to the United
States and Hermann Oberth, 91, of West Germany, one of the world's
three great rocket pioneers, who developed theories of rocketry and
space flight half a century ago.
   [Other experiments on-board the space shuttle include a]
botanical garden, a sealed glove chamber for working with
biological samples, a container to monitor the growth of South
African frog larvae and a test device designed to precisely locate
Challenger's position in space.
   One of the most intriguing experiments is a one-man motorized
sled that runs on rails mounted on the floor in the aisle of the
23-foot-long Spacelab. With an astronaut seated on it and linked to
various medical monitors, the sled will be accelerated down the
rails. The purpose is to study the effect on the body's vestibular,
or balance, mechanism in weightlessness.
   The astronauts also will launch a small satellite for the U.S.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It is designed to send
and receive radio data to and from remote sites, such as untended
ocean buoys that gather weather and other information.
   During landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Nov. 6,
Hartsfield will test a new computerized nosewheel steering system.
If it works, shuttles may soon be able to resume landing back at
this Florida launch site, something they haven't done since April,
when Discovery blew one tire and shredded another during touchdown
on the hard concrete runway.
   Until the problem of excess brake and tire wear can be solved,
shuttles are returning to the wide open and softer dry lake bed
runways at Edwards.

Associated Press Wed 30-OCT-1985 04:08                           Shuttle-Crew

   European Scientists Are Backbone Of Orbiting Laboratory Mission
                             By PAUL RECER
                          AP Aerospace Writer
   SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) - Mission commander Henry Hartsfield
says the biggest problem with flying in orbit with the largest
space crew in history will be ordinary housekeeping chores and just
finding a place to sleep.
   Hartsfield leads a crew of five American astronauts and three
European scientists for a weeklong orbital science voyage scheduled
to begin today. The crew's size, one more than the usual seven, has
required a lot of planning.
   The mission commander said the crew would operate in two shifts,
with some sleeping and some working most of the time. But when the
shifts change everyone will be trying at once to eat and use the
bathoom.
   ``During that time,'' he said, ``we do have a big congestion
problem.''
   Discipline, Hartsfield said, is the answer.
   ``The larger the crew becomes, the more crew discipline is
required,'' he said. ``Each person will have to be responsible for
cleaning up his own trash. Trash management becomes a real problem
with this flight.''
   Hartsfield, pilot Steven Nagel and mission specialist James F.
Buchli will be responsible for flying Challenger. Mission
specialists Bonnie Dunbar and Guion S. Bluford will work in a
science module with European scientists Reinhard Furrer and Ernst
Messerschmid of West Germany and Wubbo Ockels of the Netherlands.
   During part of the mission, teams of three and five crew members
will take turns working and sleeping, said Hartsfield. There are
only four bunks.
   ``We were pressed to find a place for the fifth person to
sleep,'' said the astronaut. The fifth person, probably Ockels,
will curl up in an air lock among the space suits, he said. ``It's
a very comfortable place to sleep.''
   Hartsfield, 51, an astronaut since 1969, is making his third
shuttle flight. The Birmingham, Ala., native holds degrees from
Auburn and the University of Tennessee.He was commissioned into the
Air Force from Auburn's ROTC program and became a fighter pilot. He
was selected as an Air Force astronaut in 1966, and joined the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration after the military
astronaut program was canceled. Hartsfield retired from the Air
Force with the rank of colonel.
   Nagel, 39, an Air Force lieutenant colonel, was born and raised
in Canton, Ill. He holds degrees from the University of Illinois
and California State University at Fresno. He served as a fighter
pilot and a test pilot before his selection in 1978 as a NASA
astronaut. Nagel served as a mission specialist in June aboard
shuttle Discovery.
   The flight will be the first for Ms. Dunbar, 36. She was born in
Sunnyside, Wash., and holds two degrees from the University of
Washington and a doctorate in biomedical engineering from the
University of Houston. Ms. Dunbar was chosen as an astronaut in
1980 after working for years as an engineer for a space contractor.
   Bluford, 43, an Air Force colonel who flew 144 combat missions
in Vietnam, was born in Philadelphia and holds a bachelor's degree
from Pennsylvania State University. He earned master's and
doctorate degrees from the Air Force Institute of Technology. He
was selected as an astronaut in 1978 and served as mission
specialist on a 1983 flight of space shuttle Challenger.
   Buchli, a 40-year-old Marine Colonel, flew on a three-day secret
military shuttle flight in January. He was born in North Dakota and
grew up in Fargo. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and
hold a master's degree from the University of West Florida. He
trained as a Marine infantry officer and served a year of combat
duty in Vietnam. He later earned his pilot's wings and served tours
in Thailand and Japan.
   Ockels, 39, is a native of the Netherlands and has been training
for space flight since 1978. He was one of three selected by the
European Space Agency to train for the first Spacelab mission and
served as a back-up astronaut for that flight. He holds a doctorate
in physics and math from the University of Groningen and has
conducted experimental studies in nuclear physics.
   Messerschmid, 40, and Furrer, 44, physicists selected by the
West German government to fly on the mission, have spent years as
experimental scientists.
   Furrer, a native of Worgl, West Germany, has published more than
50 papers, mostly on atomic and optical physics. Before his
selection for the mission, he taught at the Free University in
Berlin.
   Messerschmid, an expert in space communications systems, has
published more than 30 scientific papers. He is a native of
Reutlingen, West Germany.

Associated Press Wed 30-OCT-1985 12:23                          Space Shuttle

                          By HOWARD BENEDICT
                          AP Aerospace Writer
   CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Five Americans, two West Germans and
a Dutchman, the largest space crew ever, rode the shuttle
Challenger into orbit today for a week of round-the-clock research
in a workshop crammed with furnaces, biological chambers, a garden
and a one-man sled on rails.
   The 100-ton space plane rumbled spectacularly off its launch pad
right on schedule at noon EST to start the 22nd shuttle mission,
the ninth for the veteran Challenger. A tail of fire 700 feet long
trailed the shuttle as it darted into a sunny sky high over the
Atlantic Ocean on a northeast heading.
   Nine minutes later, Mission Control Center in Houston reported
Challenger was in a secure orbit more than 200 miles high.
   Among the dignitaries who viewed the launching were Princess
Margriet of The Netherlands; Guenther van Well, the West German
ambassador to the United States; Christa McAuliffe of Concord,
N.H., who will be the first teacher in space on a January shuttle
flight; and 91-year-old Hermann Oberth of West Germany, one of the
world's early rocket pioneers.
   Another invited guest, 74-year-old Kirby Grant, who played
television's ``Sky King,'' was killed in a traffic accident on his
way to view the launch, said Capt. Mike Kirby of the state patrol.
   A total of 76 experiments are in the European-built Spacelab, a
23-foot-long pressurized laboratory mounted in the ship's cargo bay.
   Most of the experiments are West German and the Federal German
Aerospace Establishment is paying the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration $64 million to ferry them into orbit. The
control center for the experiments is in Oberpfaffenhofen, near
Munich, marking the first time that a foreign country will control
a shuttle payload during flight.
   ``The scientific goal is to acquire interesting results in
materials processing, the life sciences, biology and navigation in
the absence of gravity,'' said Ernst Messerschmid, one of the
German astronauts. ``But it also will demonstrate that we in
Germany can handle all the data in our own operations control
center.''
   Reinhard Furrer, the other German, said, ``The aim is to obtain
basic research data. These are pilot projects and we are hoping we
can use the results for application to industry and medicine, in
biology, almost all fields of science.
   ``It is a major milestone leading to future cooperation among
nations in space. It will get us ready on all levels for projects
like the U.S. space station.''
   West Germany and nine other nations of the European Space Agency
have signed a memorandum of understanding with NASA and are
considering ways they can become part of the station with an
investment of about $2 billion. ESA has several experiments aboard
this flight and selected the Dutch astronaut, Wubbo Ockels, to
oversee them in space.
   The Americans in the crew are Henry Hartsfield, veteran of two
earlier shuttle flights, Steven Nagel, Bonnie Dunbar, Guion Bluford
and James Buchli.
   ``We're still trying to figure out if we're a gaggle or a flock
or a herd,'' Miss Dunbar said of the eight-person crew. The largest
previous space crew was seven, on several shuttle missions.
   Because of the heavy workload, the astronauts will be divided
into two shifts, each working 12 hours for a round-the-clock
operation.
   The lab has furnaces for melting and mixing materials and
growing crystals, a small botanical garden, a sealed-glove chamber
for working with biological materials and a container where the
growth of frog eggs will be monitored.
   Mounted on the Spacelab floor are two 12-foot parallel rails on
which a one-seat space sled will be driven by an electric motor for
tests that may shed light on why a large percentage of shuttle
astronauts have suffered motion sickness early in weightless flight.
   Astronauts will be strapped on the sled and will be fitted with
medical monitors to record the reaction of the body's vestibular or
inner-ear balance mechanism as the device moves at several feet per
second along the rails.
   During landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Nov. 6,
commander Hartsfield will test a new computerized nosewheel
steering system as he rolls down the runway. If it works, shuttles
may soon be able to resume landings back at this Florida launch
site, something they haven't done since April when Discovery blew
one tire and shredded another on touchdown.
   The commanders of all shuttles to date have applied left or
right wheel brakes to steer during landing, sometimes causing
excess brake and tire wear, especially on the hard concrete runway
here. Until the problem can be solved, shuttles are returning to
the wide-open and softer dry lake bed at Edwards.

Most spacelab missions fly highly-inclined orbits which can bring them overhead
in the New England area occasionally.  Does anyone know what sort of orbit
61-A is flying?  Will we in MASS/NH get a glimplse of it on this flight, and
if so, when?

Associated Press Thu 31-OCT-1985 08:30                          Space Shuttle

             Astronauts Launch Small Military Satellite
                          By HOWARD BENEDICT
                          AP Aerospace Writer
   CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Challenger's astronauts interrupted
their lab work today to launch a small experimental satellite to
test a system for tracking Soviet missile-firing submarines under
the Arctic ice pack.
   The 150-pound payload sprang out of a canister mounted outside
the Spacelab workshop where crew members were riding on a one-man
sled in a medical test and conducting basic research in metals
processing, biology, life sciences and navigation. Spacelab is in
the cargo bay.
   Meanwhile, the eight-person crew, the largest ever sent into
space, was settling into its two-shift round-the-clock operation of
science research in the 23-foot Spacelab, whose operation is being
controlled by West German scientists from a center in
Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich.
   The astronauts spent part of today trouble-shooting problems
with a pressure regulator, a camera, a teleprinter, a
communications link and one of three metallurgy furnaces. They
repaired all but the furnace, and experts on the ground were
seeking a solution.
   ``GLOMR is deployed, no problems,'' reported pilot Steve Nagel
after the launch of the satellite.
   GLOMR is an acronym for Global Low Orbiting Message Relay and
was launched for the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency. It is designed to send on-off commands to small remote
sensors dropped off by ship or aircraft in remote or hostile areas.
   The sensors could track submarines lurking under the ice and
relay that information to the satellite. U.S. satellites have
photographed Soviet submarines breaking through Arctic ice. GLOMR
also could collect weather data from far-flung ocean buoys.
   The satellite will not fly over the Arctic on this flight, but
future shuttle military missions launched from Vandenberg Air Force
Base, Calif., will pass over the poles and be able to drop such
payloads into polar orbit. If the satellite-sensor test works, the
Pentagon will consider developing an operational system.
   GLOMR originally was to have been launched during an April
shuttle flight, but the effort was scrubbed when the canister door
did not open fully.
   There are five Americans, two West Germans and a Dutchman aboard
Challenger, which vaulted into space Wednesday to begin a seven-day
flight. West Germany is paying the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration $64 million to fly Spacelab and its experiments.
   Reinhard Furrer, one of the two Germans, took the first ride on
the sled designed to test human balance reflexes in weightlessness
and told scientists in Oberpfaffenhofen: ``It seemed not to be too
hard on the crewman.''
   The sled, running on 12-foot-long rails inside the laboratory,
affects the inner ear's balance mechanism by applying acceleration
forces equal to Earth's gravity on four of the astronauts. Data
from the experiments could help determine why about half of all
astronauts suffer spells of motion sickness early in space flights.
   Wubbo Ockels, the Dutch astronaut named to the flight by the
European Space station, said after his run on the sled, ``The
visual stimulation is not very provocative. It is not noticeably
different than on the ground.'' For the test, he wore a bubble-like
helmet in which a revolving device stimulated his eyes.
   Reinhard and Ockels are members of the Blue Team. Red Team
members Ernst Messerschmid, the other German, and Guion Bluford,
took their turns on the sled today. The other crew members are
commander Hank Hartsfield, pilot James Buchli and mission
specialist Bonnie Dunbar.
   The sled is one of 76 experiments on board that focus on the
effects of weightlessness. There also are furnaces for mixing and
melting metals and growing crystals, a small botanical garden, a
sealed chamber with glove ports for working on biological samples
and containers where fertilized eggs of two types of insects and of
an African toad are developing to see if zero gravity affects the
embryos.
   Fertilized eggs of two types of insects and of an African toad
will be allowed to develop to see if weightlessness affects the
embryos.
   The astronauts also will draw their own blood to seek the reason
why astronauts on earlier flights often returned to Earth with a
diminished supply of disease-fighting white blood cells.
   Challenger is scheduled to land Nov. 6 at Edwards Air Force Base
in California, where the soft, broad desert runway will allow
Hartsfield to test a computer-directed nosewheel steering system.
   Experts hopes it will give more control during shuttle landings
and permit the craft to resume touchdowns on concrete at the
Kennedy Space Center. Discovery blew one tire and shredded another
during a Florida landing in April and engineers blamed a steering
system that requires applying brakes on the landing gear, causing
extreme tire and brake system wear.
   NASA officials prefer a Kennedy landing to avoid having to ferry
the returned spacecraft across the country, bolted atop a Boeing
747.

Associated Press Thu 31-OCT-1985 19:33                   Shuttle-West Germany

                 Problems with High-Temperature Oven
                         By JOACHIM SONDERMANN
                        Associated Press Writer
   OBERPFAFFENHOFEN, West Germany (AP) - A high-temperature oven
needed for crystal production experiments on the space shuttle
Challenger was malfunctioning, a West German ground control
spokesman said Thursday.
   Mission manager Hansulriche Steimle, speaking to reporters at
the German Space Operations Center in this rural town near Munich,
said the German-built oven had not developed a ``vacuum'' required
for the experiments. He said control center scientists were working
to solve that problem.
   Another problem that plagued one of three power cells had been
solved, he said.
   The Challenger, carrying a West German spacelab and two West
German scientists, was launched Wednesday from Cape Canaveral,
Fla., for a week of research.
   The mission has been designated D-1, for Deutschland-1, because
it is made up primarily of West German equipment and experiments,
and is the first spacelab mission to be controlled by the West
Germans.
   The operations center, with 150 scientists in three control
rooms, has ground control of the scientific operations aboard the
shuttle.
   West Germany paid $64 million to the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration to launch the spacelab.
   The crew of eight astronauts and scientists made up the 45
minutes they were behind schedule earlier Thursday, the mission
manager said.
   The crew, the largest ever sent into space, has five Americans
and a Dutch scientist.
   The group was split up into two shifts, with the ``red'' shift
taking over from the ``blue'' shift at 1 a.m. EST Thursday, Steimle
said.
   The West German control center doctor, Hnno Stromeyer, said the
crew was ``exceptionally motivated'' and showed no signs of space
sickness.
   ``In fact I had to tell Wubbo Ockels (the Dutch scientist) to go
to bed so that he would be rested up for his next shift,''
Stromeyer said.
   Ulf Merbold, West Germany's first astronaut, who joined a U.S.
spacelab mission in November 1983, arrived at Oberpfaffenhofen
Thursday from Cape Canaveral, where he witnessed the launch.
   ``When it started I almost cried. It's much more emotional when
you watch it,'' Merbold told reporters.

Associated Press Thu 31-OCT-1985 21:46                          Space Shuttle

  Experiments Stress Astronauts Balance Systems, but None Get Sick
                             By PAUL RECER
                          AP Aerospace Writer
   SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) - Challenger's astronauts endured
jolting, carnival-like rides on a sled rolling on 12-foot-rails
inside their orbiting laboratory Thursday in an experiment to learn
why people get sick in space.
   None of the four test subjects reported getting sick and NASA
fligt director Chuck Knarr said all eight crew members were
healthy, but experiments designed to confuse and upset the inner
ear balance mechanism did take a toll.
   Ernst Messerschmid, one of two West German scientists in the
eight-member crew, reported that ``the ceiling appeared to be the
floor,'' an illusion that he said took him more than half an hour
to dispel.
   He was sharp-eyed enough, though, to spot a fly flitting around
the inside of the space laboratory. Officials declined to speculate
how the fly got there and the astronauts offered no suggestions.
   Messerchmid was one of four who rode an electric sled able to
give sudden and violent acceleration forces equivalent to the force
of gravity on Earth. While riding the sled, the astronauts wore
helmets that blacked out their sight or displayed a rotating dome
painted with dots to further confuse their vestibular system, or
balance mechanism.
   Mission commander Henry Hartsfield reported the record-sized
crew was settling in comfortably aboard Challenger.
   ``The mission is going real well,'' he told scientists
monitoring the flight. ``There are good pictures coming to you and
good (experiment) results coming to you in the next few days.''
   The National Aeronautics and Space Administration had trouble
distributing the television pictures.
   A ditch digger snapped a cable connecting Mission Control with a
satellite antennae array, which briefly interrupted a circuit
sending pictures from the Johnson Space Center to other NASA
offices, but signals were restored with a back-up cable. There was
no effect on communications with the spacecraft and the astronauts
were not aware of the problem.
   The experiments began just a few hours after Wednesday's noon
launch of Challenger from Kennedy Space Center, and continued into
Thursday as the crew, the largest ever launched, started 24-hour
operations in the pressurized Spacelab carried in the shuttle's
cargo bay.
   All of the experiment equipment in the laboratory was turned on,
but officials reported that a furnace intended to melt metals
malfunctioned. Experts on the ground worked to figure out how to
fix it.
   The astronauts also launched a small experimental Defense
Department satellite called the Global Low Orbiting Message Relay,
a Defense Advance Research Projects Agency system designed to track
Soviet submarines under the Arctic ice.
   The laboratory's 76 experiments were designed to study the
effects of zero gravity, actually microgravity in the shuttle's low
orbit, on melted metals and glasses, biological samples including
insects and frog eggs, and on the astronauts themselves.
   Slide rides were taken by Messerschmid, fellow West German
scientist Reinhard Furrer, U.S. astronaut Guion Bluford and Dutch
scientist Wubbo Ockels. All said they could tolerate the sudden
movements and Bluford said it was ``smoother and less provocative
than on the ground.''
   About half of all space travelers experience motion sickness
during the early days of a mission, and experts had expected that
the sled could aggravate this tendency.
   After Messerschmid's disorienting sled ride, he was attached to
the deck of the laboratory in a harness of elastic cords. He said
his disorientation continued as he jumped and pulled against the
cords so his reflexes could be measured as he was snapped back to
the deck.
   ``When I started, I felt I was standing upside down,'' said
Messerschmid.
   Although the furnace failed, the astronauts reported a
successful start on a number of other experiments. Data was
collected on a colony of fruit flies that will hatch during the
seven-day mission, and lights were turned on to start germination
of corn seeds. Also on board are fertilized frog eggs, a colony of
one-celled animals called paramecia, and a variety of bacteria.
   The biological samples will be studied after their return to
Earth to see if their development was affected by weightlessness.
   GLOMR, the Defense Department satellite, was ejected by springs
from a canister in the cargo bay.
   ``GLOMR is deployed, no problems,'' reported pilot Steven Nagel.
   It is designed to communicate with remote sensors dropped by
ship or aircraft in remote areas. The sensors could track
submarines under Arctic ice and send information to the GLOMR for
relay to military command centers.
   Challenger is not flying over the Arctic on this mission, but
future shuttle flights, launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base,
Calif., will circle the poles and deploy a GLOMR that could receive
data from sensors on the ice.
   West Germany is leasing the Challenger flight to carry the
experiments at a cost of $64 million. The science investigations
are being managed from a control center near Munich, marking the
first foreign control of a shuttle payload.
   Veteran astronaut Henry Hartsfield is the mission commander.
Others on board are U.S. astronauts James Buchli and Bonnie Dunbar.
   Challenger is scheduled to land Nov. 6 at Edwards Air Force Base
in California.

Associated Press Mon 04-NOV-1985 10:54                          Space Shuttle

                          By HOWARD BENEDICT
                          AP Aerospace Writer
   CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - West German space officials decided
today not to seek a one-day extension of shuttle Challenger's
science mission when the American Mission Control Center reported
power would be marginal for such a move.
   ``The decision has been made not to extend the mission, and it
will land at its normal time Wednesday at 12:44 p.m. (EST),''
Mission Control in Houston reported.
   Landing will be at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., after a
seven-day journey.
   West Germany, which is paying the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration $64 million to ferry 76 mostly-German experiments
into orbit, asked earlier today for an additional day to gain more
knowledge about the effects of weightlessness on metals, biologcal
growth and human physiology.
   NASA officials said there would be enough power for an
extension, but only if the astronauts shut off some of their
power-hungry furnaces and other experiments. ``After reviewing the
options and power requirements, it was decided not to extend,'' a
statement said.
   Ernst Messerschmid, one of two West German physicists in the
crew, said that without an extension, ``we'll work extra shifts to
get all the work done. We don't mind. The work is fun.''
   Five Americans, two West Germans and a Dutchman are the crew for
the ambitious research flight, which German officials said was
going better than expected after a slow start because of necessary
repairs to balky equipment.
   Challenger is being controlled from the Johnson Space Center in
Houston, while the experiments are managed by 140 scientists at a
center in Oberpfaffenhoven, near Munich.
   A summary of the experiments released in English from the German
control center said the astronauts had caught up with their work
and had completed all the experiments planned to date in
metallurgy, biology, crystal growth, fluid physics, navigation and
human adaptation to weightlessnes.
   ``The success rate is bigger than we expected despite some
problems,'' said Hansulrich Steimle, the West German mission
manager.
   Analysis of the experiments could take weeks or months after
they are returned to Earth.
   Messerschmid said the crew had lost track of a fruit fly that
had been buzzing around the laboratory for three days after
escaping from a Spanish experiment.
   Mission Control in Houston theorized that the fly, which
scientists at Oberpfaffenhoven named ``Willie,'' had been ground up
in an air filter.
   A message sent to the shuttle by teleprinter read, ``Willie is
on the10 most wanted list - dead or alive. An extra ration of
(beer) to his (her?) captor! Seriously, all sources indicate that
Willie is caught in the glovebox charcoal filter.''
   Controllers in Germany jokingly said that in memory of the fly
they would dedicate Challenger's 75th orbit of the Earth to his
deat. ``We'll call it a black orbit,'' a communicator told the
astronauts.
   The other crew members are West German Reinhard Furrer, Dutchman
Wubbo Ockels and commander Henry Hartsfield, Steven Nagle, James
Buchli, Bonnie Dunbar and Guion Bluford. Because of the great
number of experiments, they are working in two round-the-clock
shifts.

Associated Press Tue 05-NOV-1985 19:58                        Shuttle-Germany

       Astronauts Get New Work Plan To Catch Up On Experiments
                         By JOACHIM SONDERMANN
                        Associated Press Writer
   OBERPFAFFENHOFEN, West Germany (AP) - Astronauts aboard the
space shuttle Challenger have been given a new schedule to work on
experiments they have been unable to complete, a ground control
spokesman said Tuesday.
   Mission manager Hansulrich Steimle said ``a new time plan''
involving a reshifting of work schedules will allow the astronauts
to carry out some of the 50 hours of incomplete experiments.
   There is an eight-man crew aboard the U.S. spacecraft - five
Americans, two West Germans and one from the Netherlands.
   West Germany rented the Challenger to conduct experiments in a
space lab built in West Germany. It is the first time in America's
space shuttle series that a foreign country has been in charge of
such a mission.
   The flight is controlled from the Johnson Space Center in
Houston, Texas, and the experiments are managed by the center here.
   Earlier Tuesday, Steimle acknowledged there were too many
experiments sent along and too many demands had been placed on the
astronauts.
   ``We asked our colleagues to do far too much,'' Steimle said.
   Steimle heads 150 scientists who are monitoring the experiments
at the West German Space Control Center in rural Oberpfaffenhofen,
near Munich.
   He said it would have been better not to have given the
astronauts so much work, but those involved in the decision did not
want to disappoint fellow scientists, some of whom had worked on
their projects for up to 10 years.
   The astronauts had expressed understanding for their colleagues
before the launch last Wednesday, Steimle said.
   Challenger is scheduled to land at Edwards Air Force Base in
California at 6.44 p.m. Wednesday.
   In his briefing for reporters, Steimle said he also regretted
that a televised hookup Monday in which Research Minister Heinz
Riesenhuber spoke with the German astronauts had not been called
off because a complicated experiment was being carried out at the
same time. The experiment failed.
   He said he could not rule out that the distraction of the hookup
had contributed to the failure of the ``interdiffusion of
salt-melting'' experiment.
   Despite repeated problems with equipment, including a smelting
oven, most of the 76 planned experiments were carried out,
according to ground control scientists.
   Steimle said that in addition to trying to catch up on their
schedule, the astronauts were busy Tuesday stowing away some 1,000
pieces of equipment in preparation for Wednesday's landing.

Associated Press Wed 06-NOV-1985 12:50                          Space Shuttle

                          By DENNIS ANDERSON
                        Associated Press Writer
   EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - Space shuttle Challenger
and its international crew landed safely on a desert runway today
to end a week-long research mission viewed as an important step
toward a $2-billion European investment in an American space
station.
   The five Americans, two West Germans and one Dutchman in the
record crew touched down on a dry lakebed here at 12:45 p.m. EST
after an orbital journey of nearly 3 million miles.
   On landing, commander Henry Hartsfield was to have tested a new
nose-wheel steering system by twice guiding the craft about 20 feet
off the runway centerline and back again. There was no immediate
word on results of the maneuver.
   Success would clear the way for shuttles to land once more on
the harder, shorter and narrower concrete runway at the Kennedy
Space Center launch site in Florida.
   The shuttles originally were designed to be steered by applying
brakes on the landing gear, but a crosswind landing at Kennedy in
April resulted in tire and brake damage, and NASA scheduled all
subsequent touchdowns at Edwards until the new nose-wheel steering
system could be qualified.
   ``Welcome home Challenger and congratulations on a wonderful
mission,'' Mission Control radioed as the shuttle rolled to a stop.
   The astronauts were returning with a rich harvest of information
gathered from scientific experiments that studied the effects of
weighlessness on materials processing, crystal growth, biological
samples and human physiology.
   West Germany paid the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration $64 million to carry the experiments into orbit in
the pressurized Spacelab module anchored in Challenger's cargo bay.
The control center for the experiments was in Oberpfaffenhoven,
near Munich, marking the first time that a foreign country
controlled a shuttle payload during flight.
   The German control center issued a summary report today that
called the mission ``a great success.'' It said only one experiment
failed, and that was a study of the mixing of two different types
of salt solution, ruined because the mixing chamber was not
properly heated. The other 75 ``achieved their goals or went beyond
their goals,'' the report said.
   Most of the experiments involved basic research and results
won't be known until after weeks or months of analysis. Most of the
experiments were of West German origin but several were provided by
the 12-nation European Space Agency.
   A West German commentator at Oberpfaffenhofen reported that more
than 95 percent of the flight objectives were achieved despite
early problems with materials melting furnaces and a heavy work
schedule that at times forced the astronauts to give up some of
their rest time just to keep up.
   ``This complex mission can be judged very successful,'' the
commentator said. ``West Germany and Europe should be very proud of
this mission.''
   Hans-Hilger Haunschild, deputy secretary of the West German
Ministry of Research and Technology, said the astronauts' research
in the 23-foot-long Spacelab, which was built by the European Space
Agency, is a logical step toward European participation in the
permanent U.S. space station which President Reagan authorized last
year.
   NASA's Jesse Moore, director of the shuttle program, agreed,
saying ``We see a good partnership building as we head toward the
space station in the '90s.''
   NASA is negotiating with several European countries, the
European Space Agency, Japan and Canada to gain their participation
in the station. West Germany and Italy, in particular, would like
to have the station include a large European-built pressurized
workshop module which they call Columbus. ESA is considering a $2
billion investment in the project.
   Five of Challenger's astronauts who participated in medical
experiments will continue to be guinea pigs, repeating those
experiments for two weeks after they return home so that flight
surgeons can compare reactions in gravity with those observed in
weightless space.
   Ernst Messerschmid and Reinhard Furrer, the two West Germans in
the crew, Dutchman Wubbo Ockels, Bonnie Dunbar and Guion Bluford
will fly to the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday for the medical
tests. Hartsfield and Challenger's two pilots, Steven Nagel and
James Buchli, were to fly later today to the astronaut training
base at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
   The tests include runs on a one-person electric sled that
accelerates along 12-foot rails. While riding the sled, the
astronauts, both in space and on the ground, wear helmets that
black out their sight or display a rotating dome painted with dots
to confuse their vestibular syste, or balance mechanism. The tests
are expected to provide clues to why a large number of astronauts
have suffered temporary motion sickness during the early part of
space flight.
   Most of the experiments involved the processing of materials in
small furnaces for heating metals and making alloys lighter and
stronger than anything that can be produced in Earth's gravity.
Other processing units were used in tests for growing pure and
large crystals that could lead to improvements in electronic
semiconductors.
   Biological experiments studied the growth of plants and animal
cells in weightlessness. Also examined was the flow of liquids in
zero gravity.

Augh!!!  This is going to sound petty, but I am sick and tired of
seeing the $64M payment that Europe made for this mission!!!!  Every
flipping AP story (either here or in the Globe) makes note of this
fact. 

I won't remember who was on the flight, or what it did, but AP will NOT
let met forget how much Europe paid!

Sorry - I had to vent that - news isn't news when its old hat.

- dave

Associated Press Thu 07-NOV-1985 13:21                          Space Shuttle

           Space Officials Hail International Mission
                        By DENNIS ANDERSON
                      Associated Press Writer
   EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - Space shuttle Challenger
came home with a slightly scorched nose but with only 18
heat-resistant tiles damaged on re-entry, the lowest number ever in
22 shuttle missions, officials said today.
   Ending a 3-million-mile voyage, the spacecraft touched down
Wednesday on the Mojave Desert in a test of a new landing mechanism
designed to allow the shuttle to resume landing on a shorter,
concrete runway at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
   West German scientists said its treasure trove of scientific
data would provide impetus for more international cooperation in
space.
   National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokeswoman Leslie
Neihouse said the shuttle would be returned to Florida on Sunday.
She said the number of tiles damaged was a record low, while orange
marks on Challenger's nose were caused by heat during re-entry into
Earth's atmosphere.
   She added that the preliminary investigation of the landing
mechanism called nose-wheel steering ``looked very good'' but that
further review of the device would be conducted at Johnson Space
Centr in Houston.
   The shuttle's brakes were in excellent condition, she said.
   Astronauts and NASA officials were happy with the spacecraft's
performance on the 22nd shuttle flight, and West German officials
were delighted with the load of scientific data brought back from
the seven-day, 45-minute flight.
   ``It was a beautiful mission that gives our scientists data to
prepare the way for future missions,'' said Dr. Hermann Strub, a
spokesman for West Germany's federal Ministry for Research and
Technology.
   West Germany paid NASA $64 million to haul the European-built
Spacelab and a record crew of eight astronauts into orbit. Strub
said the mission lead to U.S.-European cooperation in development
of a space station in the 1990s.
   James Beggs, administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, agreed that the mission enhanced joint space
efforts.
   ``It gives us a lot of confidence that we can proceed to the
space station,'' Beggs said, noting that international crews would
be routine on an orbiting space platform.
   Two West German scientists, Ernst Messerschmid and Reinhard
Furrer, and a Dutch researcher, Wubbo Ockels, worked with American
payload specialists on experiments in weightlessness, materials
processing and crystal growth. During 111 orbits, the scientists
completed 75 of 76 experiments devised by West Germany and the
European Space Agency.
   ``We demonstrated that we can bring many countries on a shuttle
mission and with cooperation, get a lot of work done,'' pilot
Steven R. Nagel said before departing for Johnson Space Center in
Houston with commander Henry W. Hartsfield and mission specialist
James F. Buchli.
   After Challenger glided in, using new nose-wheel steering
equipment, the Europeans and astronauts Bonnie J. Dunbar and Guion
S. Bluford were whisked away for medical tests. The group had
performed personal experiments designed to test the physical
effects of space travel.
   Scientists are attempting to find out why about half of all
astronauts suffer disorienting illness during space flight.
   Hartsfield said there were no problems with the orbiter during
its ninth space flight, but NASA technicians were investigating the
source of orange scorch marks on Challenger's nose.
   Jesse Moore, NASA's chief of space shuttle operations, said the
orange marks appeared to be from water-proof coating that burned.
But he said more investigation was needed.
   The nose-wheel steering mechanism could lead to resumed landings
in Florida after one more test on a shuttle due to land at Edwards
in December, he added.
   NASA wants to resume Florida landings to shorten the time used
in launch preparations. The space agency has used the unlimited
runway on the desert since a tire blew during a landing in Florida
last April.
   The computer-guided nose-wheel steering mechanism is intended to
replace the use of alternating brake pressure which has kept the
shuttle on a straight path during landings.
   In the future, Beggs said people would benefit from substances
that can only be manufactured in space, such as the crystals aboard
Challenger that may lead to improvements in electronic
semiconductors.

Associated Press Thu 07-NOV-1985 23:58                          Space Shuttle

               Astronauts Undergo Arduous Medical Tests
                          By HOWARD BENEDICT
                          AP Aerospace Writer
   CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Instead of relaxing after a
strenuous week in space, five of Challenger`s astronauts are
undergoing arduous medical tests in a laboratory that looks like a
cross between high-tech electronics and medieval torture.
   Often blindfolded or with their heads in electronic boxes, they
are being spun on rotating chairs; rocked on a tilting table; made
dizzy in a shifting room; accelerated on an electric sled;
restrained by straps in an exercise called ``hop and drop,'' and
are having numerous blood samples drawn.
   It's all for science, as flight surgeons try to learn why so
many space travelers suffer motion sickness early in orbital flight.
   Five of the eight astronauts who ended a week-long space shuttle
research mission on Wednesday flew here Thursday to repeat medical
tests they started before the flight and continued in space.
   They are Americans Bonnie Dunbar and Guion Bluford, West Germans
Ernst Messerschmid and Reinhard Furrer and Dutchman Wubbo Ockels.
The other three American crew members, commander Henry Hartsfield,
Steven Nagel and James Buchli, did not take part in the tests and
returned to the astronaut training base in Houston after Challenger
landed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
   The five human guinea pigs will be here at least a week as
American and West German doctors subject them to extensive tests.
   The doctors want to compare the astronauts' responses to these
tests in gravity with their responses to the same tests in
weightless space.
   They are concentrating on the body's vestibular, or balance
system. The center of that system is the vestibular organ, or inner
ear. Researchers believe a conflict between perceptions of the eyes
and the inner ear confuses the brain and causes some individuals to
suffer from space sickness for a day or two before the brain
adjusts to weightlessness.
   About half of the 111 people who have made space shuttle flights
have become ill, none seriously. The National Aeronautics and Space
Administration would like to pinpoint the cause and find a way to
prevent it, either with drugs or by pre-adapting astronauts in a
simulator before a flight.
   In one test, crew members wear a helmet with a rotating mirror
dome that flashes lights in their eyes. Their eyes' responses are
recorded by a small television camera and by electrodes to see how
the brain correlates visual information with information from
balance organs in the inner ear.
   The astronauts also ride a one-man electric sled accelerated
along 12-foot rails - just like on Challenger - to determine
whether weightlessness increases or decreases the sensation of
linear acceleration. Eye movements also are recorded.
   In the ``hop and drop'' exercise, an astronaut restrained in a
harness jumps up and down by pulling on elastic cords while
electrodes measure head and other body movements.
   Dr. Arnauld E. Nicogossian, NASA's director of life sciences,
said the experiments are the most extensive ever conducted in a
search for the cause of space sickness. ``The next six months
should give us a better understanding of the problem and what are
the most appropriate countermeasures,'' he said.
   Meanwhile, engineers at Edwards pronounced Challenger in
excellent condition after its 3-million-mile journey. They said it
would be several days before they know the results of the test of a
new nose-wheel steering system used on landing. If it worked,
shuttles will resume landings on the harder, shorter and narrower
runway at the Kennedy Space Center launch site.