Conference 7.286::space

Associated Press Mon 25-NOV-1985 01:55                          Space Shuttle

   Atlantis On Again For Tuesday Launch After NASA Scrubs The Scrub
                          By HOWARD BENEDICT
                          AP Aerospace Writer
   CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - The off-and-on-again flight of space
shuttle Atlantis is on for Tuesday night, after quick repair job
let NASA scrub its scrub, erasing a 24-hour postponement of the
second nighttime launch.
   Officials on Sunday morning announced a postponement until
Wednesday night because of a problem with a faulty hydraulic engine
valve. Three hours later, they said the trouble had been fixed more
quickly than expected and they ordered the countdown to start that
afternoon for a Tuesday launch.
   Liftoff is set for 7:29 p.m. EST and should be a dazzling
display of only the second nighttime launching in 23 shuttle
missions.
   During a week in space, the six-man, one-woman crew will release
three commercial communications satellites, and space-walkers Jerry
Ross and Sherwood Spring will build a 45-foot beam and a small
pyramid to test concepts for constructing a large space station in
orbit.
   The postponement was announced after technicians detected the
failure of a valve in the hydraulic system of engine No. 2. But
within hours, engineers had borrowed a replacement valve from
sister ship Discovery, installed it and checked it out.
   NASA said the replacement was ``exceedingly smooth,'' opening
the way to revert to the original launch time. The scrub was
scrubbed.
   The problem was with a valve which maintains pressure in the
hydraulic fluid reservoirs. The system is the main source of
hydraulic pressure for such things as powering fuel pumps and
swiveling the engine's rocket nozzle for steering. It is a parallel
power source for other hydraulic devices such as landing gear,
brakes and wing flaps.
   The astronauts are to deploy the satellites for the Mexican and
Australian governments and for RCA American Communications.
Mexico's first astronaut, Rodolfo Neri, will be aboard to observe
the release of the Mexican payload and to conduct several
experiments.
   Spring and Ross will test the building tecniques during two
six-hour space walks scheduled on Friday and Sunday, after the
cargo bay has been cleared of the satellites.
   The other crew members are commander Brewster Shaw, Bryan
O'Connor, Mary Cleave and Charles Walker. Walker is a McDonnell
Douglas engineer who is to process a drug that could be used to
treat people with red-blood cell deficiencies, such as anemia.

Associated Press Tue 26-NOV-1985 00:23                 BRF--Shuttle Listening

    Public Gets Chance to Listen in on Shuttle Conversations

   WASHINGTON (AP) - For a fee, space buffs will be able to listen
to the crew of the space shuttle Atlantis from two hours before the
scheduled 7:29 p.m. EST liftoff today until the space plane lands
next Tuesday.
   The crew is to deploy three satellites on a one-a-day basis, and
then, on Friday, do the first of two six-hour space walks to
practice construction tasks that will be needed in the next decade
to erect a space station.
   The National Space Institute will operate ``dial-a-shuttle,'' a
telephone service in which the listener can hear space-to-ground
conversation.
   Users of the service in the United States will be charged 50
cents for the first minute and 35 cents for each additional minute.
Overseas callers are charged at usual international rates.
   The telephone number is 900-410-6272.

Associated Press Tue 26-NOV-1985 00:26                          Space Shuttle

       Space Shuttle Atlantis Ready For Fiery Night Launch
                          By HOWARD BENEDICT
                          AP Aerospace Writer
   CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - A forecast of clear skies promised a
brilliant show tonight when space shuttle Atlantis with its
700-foot tail of fire dashes into the darkness on a flight to test
space station construction concepts.
   ``Weatherwise, we're setting up for a really spectacular launch;
we should have a clear beautiful sky with almost a full moon,''
said Lt. Scott Funk, the shuttle weather officer.
   Atlantis and its crew of six men and one woman are to lift off
at 7:29 p.m. EST, and NASA said if conditions are right, the
blazing exhaust should be visible from South Carolina to Cuba.
   It is only the second scheduled after-dark launch in 23 shuttle
missions. The first, in 1983, was seen from Tampa and Miami, both
more than 150 miles away. But heavy clouds blocked the view to the
north and southwest.
   Atlantis will carry into orbit Mexico's first astronaut, three
commercial communications satellites, a small drug factory, a
special camera to search for underground water in drought-stricken
areas of Africa, materials processing experiments and 99 aluminum
struts that two space-walking astronauts will assemble into a large
beam and a small pyramid.
   The satellites will be deployed for the Mexican and Australian
governments and for RCA American Communications, which are paying
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration a total of about
$30 million for the delivery service.
   Mexican astronaut Rodolfo Neri will observe the release of his
country's satellite and conduct several experiments for Mexican
scientists.
   After the satellites have been deployed, Jerry Ross and Sherwood
Spring will don space suits and step into the open cargo bay to
assemble the struts to practice techniques for building the large
permanent space station the United States plans for the early 1990s.
   Ninety-three rods, 3 to 4 feet long, will be snapped together
like giant Tinkertoy segments to form a 45-foot beam. Six 12-foot
struts will be fashioned into an inverted pyramid.
   Ross and Spring will assemble and disassemble the structures
several times, both while floating free and with their feet
restrained, to compare the work methods and see how their
productivity in weightlessness improves with practice.
   Two space walks, each six hours long, are planned, on Friday and
Sunday.
   The other crew members are commander Brewster Shaw, Bryan
O'Connor, Mary Cleave and Charles Walker. Walker is a McDonnell
Douglas engineer who is to process a drug called erythropoietin
that could be used to treat people with red-blood-cell
deficiencies, such as anemia.
   A powerful camera will be used to search for geological features
that might be evidence of underground water in Ethiopia and
Somalia, African nations where thousands have died because of
drought.
   One of two materials processing experiments is intended to grow
crystals in zero gravity that are purer and larger than can be made
in Earth's gravity. The other will explore whether mirrors with
better refelctivity can be made in weightlessness.

Associated Press Wed 27-NOV-1985 04:15                          Space Shuttle

      Astronauts Launch Mexican Satellite After Fiery Liftoff
                          By HOWARD BENEDICT
                          AP Aerospace Writer
   CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Atlantis' astronauts, hurled into
orbit in a dazzling nighttime launch, today deployed a $42 million
Mexican communications satellite that for economic reasons and
because of earthquake damage to ground facilities won't be used for
four years.
   Morelos B is the first of three communications payloads the crew
planned to spin out of the space shuttle in the first two days of
its mission to clear its cargo bay for two lengthy space walks to
practice space station construction methods.
   ``We got a good deploy,'' reported astronaut Sherwood Spring.
   Forty-five minutes later, a rocket motor fired to propel Morelos
B toward a lofty outpost 22,300 miles high.
   The positioning of the satellite dictated the brilliant
nighttime liftoff Tuesday that provided rocket watchers with the
most spectacular sound and light show in the 35-year history of
more than 2,000 launchings from Cape Canaveral.
   Mexican officials said Morelos B would be inserted into an orbit
that will allow it to slowly drift, without using fuel, to its
planned stationary post in 1989. They said if they waited four
years to launch, the cost would be four times the $10 million
Mexico is paying NASA for the delivery service now.
   Morelos A, which was launched from a shuttle in June, is
providing first-time telephone and television service to many
remote areas but only half its capacity is being used. The recent
Mexican earthquake which damaged many of the nation's satellite
ground communications facilities was another factor in the decision
to ``park'' the second satellite for several years. It will be some
time before money is available to repair the facilities.
   Astronaut Rodolfo Neri, Mexico's first astronaut, was aboard to
observe the deployment of his country's satellite and to conduct
several experiments for Mexican scientists.
   The launch originally was scheduled for 7:38 a.m. today. But
when Mexico decided to put Morelos B into the drifting orbit,
liftoff was advanced to an after-dark liftoff at 7:29 p.m. Tuesday.
   In the immediate area, the clear sky was transformed from night
into light as the 100-ton space plane thundered toward orbit,
trailing a 700-foot fountain of flame. The sensational sight drew
oohs and aahs from more than 55,000 people watching from inside the
spaceport and another 100,000 or so viewing from vantage points
elsewhere in the county.
   The launch was seen as far away as Columbia, S.C., 400 miles to
the north; Miami, about 200 miles to the south; Key West, about 420
miles southwest; and St. Petersburg, 150 miles west.
   Only twice before have rockets with such power blasted away from
the Cape in darkness. The first was Apollo 17 in 1972, and the
second was space shuttle Challenger in 1983. Both times clouds
reduced the visibility. But not Tuesday night, when the stars were
twinkling, and a bright moon, just one day shy of being full,
hovered above the launch area.
   Once in orbit, the six men and one woman in the crew settled in
for a weeklong flight during which they will launch the three
satellites, practice space station building concepts, operate a
small drug factory, search for water in drought-stricken Africa
with a special camera and grow a variety of crystals.
   A satellite will be launched tonight for the Australian
government and on Thursday for RCA American Communications.
   On Friday, Spring and Jerry Ross will take the first of two
six-hour space walks to test techniques for building the permanent
space station the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
plans for the 1990s. They will fashion 93 struts into a 45-foot
beam that could be a key building unit and from six 12-foot-long
struts they will form a structure that looks like an upside-down
pyramid.
   The other crew members are commander Brewster Shaw, Byran
O'Connor, Mary Cleave and Charles Walker. Walker, making his third
space trip, is a McDonnell Douglas engineer who will operate a
machine to purify a hormone called erythropoietin, a complex
protein that can be used to treat red-blood-cell deficiencies such
as anemia. McDonnell Douglas and its project partner, 3M, hope to
produce enough of the pure hormone for the animal testing required
by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
   If the FDA approves the medical use of the hormone, McDonnell
Douglas hopes to develop a large orbiting factory that would
produce enough of the material for marketing.
   During daylight flights over Ethiopia and Somalia, where a long
drought has created a continuing famine, the astronauts will focus
a powerful camera on the dry desert surface in a search for
geological formations that may indicate the presence of underground
water.
   The mission is scheduled to end Dec. 3 with an afternoon landing
at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

Associated Press Wed 27-NOV-1985 04:18                           Shuttle-View

     Nighttime Shuttle Launch Thrills Even 300 Miles Distant
                       By The Associated Press
   A glimpse of fiery vapor trail thrilled poolside loungers in the
Bahamas and watchers from Key West, Fla., to Georgia as space
shuttle Atlantis climbed a pillar of flame in the second nighttime
launch in the program's history.
   About 55,000 people were at Kennedy Space Center for the
dazzling sound and light show of Tuesday's 7:29 p.m. blast-off
beneath a near-full moon.
   Atlantis' takeoff was visible for nearly eight minutes before it
disappeared behind a cloud bank about 690 miles east of Cape
Canaveral, Fla. But even far from the Cape, the views still were
brilliant.
   ``Right before it happened, there were some meteor showers to
the southeast of the moon and then this very spectacular display,''
said Edmund Kulakowski, of Fort Myers, Fla., 150 miles to the
southwest.
   ``All the neighbors were out. The whole street seemed to be
out.'' said Kulakowski, 65, a former science and astronomy teacher.
``You could hear the oohs and ahhs, they were so proud. It was
really amazing.
   ``It looked like you'd expect - a rocket. And even when it
disengaged, you could still trace the shuttle itself, taking off
like a speck.''
   Gary Sease, 32, assistant city editor of The Florida Times-Union
Jacksonville Journal, saw the launch from west Jacksonville, 150
miles north of the Cape.
   ``It was gorgeous. You could see a stream of fire.'' he said,
adding that he saw the booster rocket separate. ``I watched the
main engine 'til it faded from sight. It was a real thrill.''
   More than 300 miles to the north, at WCSC-TV in Charleston,
S.C., the Atlantis ``looked like two bright red dots'' as it rose,
said producer Chris Drummond after he and a crew watched from the
roof of the station.
   Barry Kohn, front desk manager at La Terraza de Marti hotel in
Key West, about 300 miles southwest of the Cape, said the entire
hotel staff watched the launch from the rooftop deck.
   ``When we first saw it was bright orange, about two inches long.
It was really pretty,'' he said. ``We were really excited to see
it. It was the first time I had seen it.''
   In the Bahamas, some 50 miles off the east coast of Florida,
tourist Donald Drinkwater watched from poolside at The Grand Hotel
on Paradise Island.
   ``We saw a streak of orange flame and it was interrupted by a
low cloud. And then we saw it continue on,'' said Drinkwater, 65,
of Denver. ``We saw two nice flashes in a matter of a couple of
seconds. It was a big thrill.''
   Duane Price, 31, said he saw the shuttle for about a minute
through binoculars from a field near his home in the central
Georgia town of Byron.
   ``It looked like a vapor trail from a jet, but it was a real
wide band of vapor,'' Price said.
   The shuttle's bright orange tail and body could be seen 120
miles to the west in Tampa, St. Petersburg, and in Miami, about 200
miles south. Clouds obscured the view from Pensacola, about 360
miles to the northwest.
   Heavy cloud cover in Mississippi, Alabama and the Atlanta area
prevented viewers there from seeing the launch.

Associated Press Sun 01-DEC-1985 23:16                          Space Shuttle

     Second Spacewalk Ends After Maneuvering Of Structures
                             By PAUL RECER
                          AP Aerospace Writer
   SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) - Atlantis' spacewalking hardhats
Sunday built a four-story tower and a large pyramid in the
shuttle's open cargo bay, maneuvered the structures by hand and
declared themselves ready to ``go build a space station.''
   In their second spacewalk test of construction skills,
astronauts Jerry Ross and Sherwood Spring assembled a 45-foot metal
tower and a 12-foot pyramid from aluminum struts and then
manhandled them about the cargo bay to prove they were master space
steeplejacks.
   The excursion lasted 42 minutes longer than the planned six
hours, ending at 10:04 p.m. EST, and the astronauts sounded tired
as they closed the cargo bay hatch. Earlier, they effortlessly
played with the large metal structures.
   ``It feels very easy,'' said Ross as he hefted the tower. ``I
can go wherever I want to with it.''
   At one point, the astronaut laughed and said, ``Let's go build a
space station. We're ready.''
   After disassembling the tower, the astronauts built the pyramid,
weighing about 384 pounds, and twirled it around, holding the bulky
geometric shape by its apex.
   They had difficulty detaching the pyramid from its base, and
dropped behind their schedule by more than half an hour. Ross said
it appeared the base was distorted by heat and he used a spare
attachment. Mission Control gave them permission to continue the
spacewalk beyond the planned six hours.
   Television views showed Spring holding the tower at its
midpoint. He appeared like a toy figure playing with a metal
framework many times his size, but he moved it and controlled it
easily. Sunlight glistened off gold foil on the struts and ignited
a glow in the colors of the U.S. flag on the side of the tower.
   There also were views of Spring playing with the pryamid. He was
able to twirl it like a top in slow motion as it floated in
weightlessness.
   ``I could balance this thing on my nose,'' said Spring.
   Ross stood on a platform on the end of Atlantis' robot arm as
the tower was released into his hands. He moved the bulky,
200-pound structure around and was even able to keep it pointed at
the moon as the spacecraft raced along 220 miles above the Earth.
   ``I can bring it down so I've got the moon right in the middle
of triangle,'' said Ross. ``Bingo! Smack dab.''
   The astronauts built the tower from 93 strut of aluminum tubes 1
inch in diameter. The pyramid was made of 6 aluminum struts,
12-feet long. The parts for both structures had sockets that
permitted them to snap together like Tinkertoy pieces.
   Spring and Ross were eager to start their second spacewalk of
Atlantis' mission and moved through a hatch into the open cargo bay
at 3:22 p.m. EST, about half an hour earlier than planned.
   ``It's a bright shining day outside,'' said Ross. ``I can't wait
to go outside and play.''
   ``We've got a couple of bit chompers up here,'' said mission
commander rewster Shaw. ``What do you say we get this thing
started?''
   On Friday, the astronauts built and disassembled the tower and
pryamid in a five-hour, 32-minute spacewalk. They raced ahead of
schedule and were able to build and disassemble the pyramid a total
of eight times.
   Construction of the beam and pyramid, said NASA officials,
proved that astronauts will be able to assemble major elements of a
permanent space station that NASA hopes to build in orbit in the
1990s.
   During much of Friday's work, the astronauts floated free.
   But for Sunday's work, the assembly was accomplished while one
of the astronauts stood on the end of Atlantis' robot arm,
controlled from inside the shuttle by astronaut Mary Cleave.
   At one point, both spacewalkers rode from the bottom to the top
of the tower and back.
   ``Thanks for the ride, Mary,'' joked Spring. ``Can I have
another ride later. I'll be good.''
   ``Sure,'' answered Ms. Cleave.
   The astronauts strung a rope along the tower, imitating the
installation of utility cables in a space station.
   Ross said it was easy, ``like being in the backyard stringing
clothesline.''
   Several times during Sunday's walk, the astronauts paused to
look at the Earth and reported seeing lightning, parts of
California and Mexico and, at one point, told of seeing their
neighborhood near the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
   ``There's Friendswood,'' said Ross, referring to a Houston
suburb. ``It's one of those clear days in Houston.'' Looking east,
he added: ``Hi, New Orleans.''
   David Akin of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who
directed development of the pyramid structure, and Douglas Heard of
NASA's Langley Research Center, who was in charge of the tower
materials, said that Friday's spacewalk proved conclusively that
astronauts can be the construction workers of the homesteading era
of space exploration.
   ``We feel there is very clear evidence of the astronauts'
adaptation to this free-floating building technique,'' said Akin.
   NASA plans to construct a permanent space station during the
next decade, creating, in efect, a village in orbit. Current plans
call for a series of modules containing living quarters and
laboratories joined by beams or trusses to communications and power
modules. The spacewalks by Ross and Spring were to demonstrate how
astronauts could build the beams.
   Shuttles and other spacecraft could ferry equipment and supplies
to and from the space station, connecting at airlocks like ships in
port. The station could be constantly occupied, with crews rotating
every few weeks.
   Several U.S. aerospace companies already are designing modules
that could be attached to the space station, forming private
housing for laboratories or even small factories manufacturing
products impossible to make on Earth.
   Atlantis astronauts were awakened Sunday when Mission Control
played an Irish folk song called ``They're Moving Father's Grave To
Build A Sewer.''
   Astronaut Shannon Lucid, communicating with Atlantis from
Mission Control, explained that since they were building things,
``it seemed appropriate to have a ballad about a major engineering
project.''
   Shaw responded with an Irish greeting, ``Top of the morning to
you.''
   Others on the seven-member crew are Bryan O'Connor, the pilot,
McDonnell Douglas engineer Charles Walker, and Mexican astronaut
Rodolfo Neri, the first of his nation to fly in space.
   The astronauts will talk about their adventure on Monday with a
news conference from space. Atlantis' weeklong mission ends Tuesday
with an afternoon landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

Associated Press Fri 29-NOV-1985 17:36                         Shuttle-Lizard

          Scaly Critter Causes Spaceage Problem

   SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) - An 18-inch African lizard pulled
the plug for a few seconds on the astronauts orbiting overhead
Friday in space shuttle Atlantis.
   Officials at a shuttle tracking station in Dakar, a town in
Senegal in West Africa, reported that they lost contact briefly
with Atlantis when a lizard caused the station's electrical power
to falter.
   ``The station experienced a momentary power flunctuation,
causing the computer to halt,'' said a message from Dakar. ``The
cause of the fluctuation was found to be an 18-inch monitor type
lizard.''
   The lizard had crawled across electrical circuit connectors,
causing them to short out. A technician dislodged the lizard with a
screwdriver and the reptile, described as ``scorched, but alive''
quickly escaped.
   ``The lizard was last seen moving at a rapid pace across the
plains of Senegal,'' the report concluded.
   Officials said the incident did not endanger the astronauts and
that the loss of communications was brief and did not affect the
space mission.

Associated Press Tue 03-DEC-1985 23:22                          Space Shuttle

                     Atlantis Lands In California
                             By LEE SIEGEL
                           AP Science Writer
   EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - The space shuttle Atlantis
landed safely Tuesday with a cargo of promise: video tapes to help
design a U.S. space station, a purified hormone for tests of a new
medical treatment, and film that may locate hidden water in
drought-ridden Africa.
   With mission commander Brewster Shaw at the controls, the
shuttle dropped through wispy clouds and landed smoothly on a
concrete runway at this desert air base at 4:33 p.m. EST in front
of about 6,700 spectators.
   It rolled smoothly down the runway before stopping on the center
line.
   ``Welcome home Atlantis,'' said Mission Control. ``Great
landing.''
   Atlantis showed few signs of damage after its seven-day flight,
and ``we and the whole shuttle program are extremely delighted,''
Jesse Moore, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's
space flight chief, said at a post-landing news conference.
   The successful efforts of Atlantis' spacewalking astronauts to
test construction methods in space ``provided a wealth of data that
will be extremely valuable in designing and developing a space
station'' in the early 1990s, he said.
   The mission, the eighth shuttle flight in the past eight months,
also showed NASA is capable of continuing monthly shuttle flights,
Moore said.
   The shuttle's plunge from orbit started when Shaw fired rockets
at 3:27 p.m. to slow the craft and drop it from its 218 mile-high
orbit in a long blazing glide over the Pacific Ocean.
   It crossed the California coast just south of Ventura with its
characteristic double sonic boom, then turned to dive toward the
runway northeast of Los Angeles.
   Mission Control had briefly considered delaying the landing
because of clouds that moved in over Edwards, but at about 3:10
p.m., Shaw was told, ``You are go for the burn.''
   Shuttles usually land on a dry lakebed at Edwards rather than
concrete, but 0.78 inches of rain since Nov. 25 has soaked the area
and left water standing.
   Preliminary inspection revealed that Atlantis lost none of its
heat-shielding tiles, although some tiles around its nose, landing
gear and elevons sustained ``a few dings,'' Moore said.
   The brakes, which suffered damage on previous flights by other
shuttles, ``looked reasonably good,'' he added.
   The seven-member crew's 2.8 million-mile voyage started Nov. 26
with a night launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
   Others on the crew were astronauts Bryan O'Connor, Mary Cleave,
Sherwood Spring and Jerry Ross, McDonnell Douglas engineer Charles
Walker, and Mexican astronaut Rodolfo Neri, the first of his nation
to fly in space.
   Three hours after the shuttle landed, Neri held a news
conference in Spanish for Mexican reporters.
   ``I'd like to send my warmest greetings to all the people of
America,'' Neri said later in English as all the astronauts made
brief comments before departing for Houston in two jets.
   ``We had a great time,'' Shaw said. ``It's great when you can go
up and fly a spacecraft and never get the malfunction book out of
its locker. That's a good mission.''
   Stored aboard Atlantis were miles of video tapes of Ross and
Spring as they built large structures of spindly metal struts in
the shuttle's open cargo bay during two spacewalks. Scientists
believe the construction demonstration will make a major
contribution in the design of an American space station planned for
the 1990s.
   Atlantis also carried samples of a purified hormone that can be
used to treat red-blood cell deficiencies, such as anemia. The
samples, purified in an electrical process that is more efficient
in zero gravity, will be used in animal tests, the first step in
winning Food and Drug Administration approval for clinical use.
   Walker, on his third spaceflight for McDonnell Douglas, operated
the hormone purification device, which he helped design, and said
at a news conference from orbit Monday that he achieved ``good
results.''
   ``We'll be ready soon to go into pharmaceutical manufacturing in
space,'' said the engineer. He said with FDA approval, the pure
erythropoeitin could be on the market by 1988 and could benefit
millions of patients.
   Shaw said at Monday's news conference that the astronauts took
``a whole string'' of photographs with a variety of cameras of
Africa's drought-stricken Ethiopia and Somalia. Experts plan to
examine the photos for surface evidence of water that may be hidden
beneath of those desert lands, where famine continues to kill.
   The astronauts also launched three communications satellites,
conducted a variety of crystal-growth experiments and tested a new
auto-pilot system that will enable shuttles to automatically hold
position in orbit next to a space station or satellite.
   Neri was on board to witness the launch of his country's second
communications satellite, the Morelos B, and to conduct several
experiments of Mexican design.
   The other satellites were launched for RCA and for the
Australian government. NASA was paid $30 million for the launch
services.
   Ross and Spring spent about 12 hours spacewalking in Atlantis
cargo bay.
   They repeatedly assembled and disassembled a 45-foot tower and a
large pyramid structure while four video cameras recorded their
every move. The video images will be reduced by computer for time
and motion studies that will help determine how the space station
will be assembled in the weightlessness and vacuum of orbit.
   Doug Heard of NASA's Langley Research Center, a leader in the
construction project, said the data ``will be put to quick use in
planning the nation's first space station.''
   Another project scientist, David Akin Jr. of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, said the spacewalks were ``100 percent
successful.''
   Current plans call for the space station to include a series of
modules containing living quarters and laboratories, connected by
beams to communications and power modules.
   The astronauts were awakened Tuesday by the sound of ``Born in
the USA,'' Bruce Springsteen's hit record.