Conference 7.286::space

From: [email protected] (Peter E. Yee)
Date: 10 Aug 91 00:15:34 GMT
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA


          Mitch Varnes
          KSC News Center
          407-867-2468

                     INTERNATIONAL MICROGRAVITY LABORATORY (IML)
                                       STS-42
                              Processing Status Update
                                   August 8, 1991

               A pre-move review of the IML Spacelab module was  held  ear-
          lier  this  week  at KSC,  and a consensus was reached to proceed
          with plans to move the IML payload to a test stand where it  will
          undergo  many of the final portions of its pre-flight processing.
          IML is now positioned in the  Operations  &  Checkout  Building's
          Test Stand III.   On August 14, IML is scheduled to be hoisted by
          a crane and placed into an adjoining test area where more  exten-
          sive  checkouts can be conducted.   IML will fly aboard the Space
          Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-42,  now targeted for launch  in
          late January 1992.

                     IML/STS-42 ACCOMPLISHED PAYLOAD MILESTONES

          * Start of experiment rack staging ----------------Nov. 20, 1989
          * Start of experiment integration------------------Feb. 23, 1990
          * Start of floor staging---------------------------March 19, 1990
          * Start module staging-----------------------------April 27, 1990
          * Complete floor and rack staging------------------July 27, 1990
          * Experiment functional test-----------------------Aug. 2, 1990
          * Spacelab systems test----------------------------Aug. 23, 1990
          * Experiment Mission Sequence Test-----------------Aug. 27, 1990
          * Start Spacelab integration-----------------------Jan. 9, 1991
          * Spacelab Mission Sequence Test-------------------April 15, 1991
          * Rack flow balance--------------------------------June 17, 1991

                                REMAINING MILESTONES

          * Move to new test stand * start Cargo Integration
          Test Equipment (CITE) operations-------------------Aug. 14, 1991
          * CITE testing-------------------------------------Aug. 28, 1991
          * Crew Equipment Interface Test (part 1)-----------Sept. 3, 1991
          * Crew Equipment Interface Test (part 2)-----------Oct. 15, 1991
          * Move IML to Orbiter Processing Facility and
          install into payload bay of Shuttle Discovery------Nov. 8, 1991
          * Orbiter Interface Verification Test--------------Nov. 13, 1991
          * Targeted launch date of STS-42/IML---------------Jan. 22, 1992

 KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - FRIDAY, SEPT. 27, 1991 - 11:30 AM

 
       STS-42/IML - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - SLF and OPF BAY 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Removing the flight nose landing gear tires.
- Installing the "roll-around" tires.
- Tow the vehicle to bay 3 about 12 noon today.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Post-flight inspections.
- Removal of the tail cone early next week.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Orbiter and 747 landed at the SLF yesterday at 1:16 p.m.
- Orbiter demated from 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft overnight.

 

   KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - MONDAY, SEPT. 30, 1991 - 10 AM


 
           STS-42/IML - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Preparations to power up the vehicle.
- Positioning of the body flap.
- Removal of the tail cone.
- Open payload bay doors.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Functional test of the payload bay doors.
- Frequency response test of the aerosurfaces.
- Post-flight inspections.
- Removal of one of the auxiliary power units later this week.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Orbiter arrived at bay 3 at 1:35 p.m. Friday.
- Orbiter jacked and leveled in the OPF.
- Access to the crew compartment has been established.

   ###    STS-42 SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS- VAB HIGH BAY 1

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Transfer of the left aft booster to the Vehicle Assembly Build-
ing to begin stacking operations for STS-42.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Stacking of the left aft booster to the mobile  launcher  plat-
form.


 

    The title of this notes is with regards to Atlantis and the actual
    information is about Discovery. Can this note be moved to a new
    location or the title changed so as not to make it confusing??
    
    

    KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - TUESDAY, OCT. 1, 1991 - 10 AM

 
           STS-42/IML - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Removal of the tail cone.
- Preparations to open the payload bay doors.
-  Removal  of  the  wing  leading  edge  tile  carrier panels in
preparation for inspections of several T-seals.
- Post-flight inspections.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Functional tests of the payload bay doors.
- Frequency response test of the aerosurfaces.
- Removal of one of the auxiliary power units later this week.
- Inspections of several T-seals later this week.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Repositioned the body flap in preparation to  remove  the  tail
cone.

    ###   STS-42 SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS- VAB HIGH BAY 1

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Mating the left aft booster to the mobile launcher platform.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Transfer of the left aft center segment to the VAB this  after-
noon.
 
 

   KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - WEDNESDAY, OCT. 2, 1991 - 10 AM


 
           STS-42/IML - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3


WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Inspections of payload bay door hinges.
- Flight readiness test of the aerosurfaces.
- Preparations to open the payload bay doors.
-  Removal  of  the  wing  leading  edge  tile  carrier panels in
preparation for inspections of several T-seals.
- Waterproofing the payload bay doors.
- Post-flight inspections.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Functional tests of the payload bay doors.
- Removal of one of the auxiliary power units later this week.
- Inspections of several T-seals later this week.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Removed the tail cone.

    ###   STS-42 SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS- VAB HIGH BAY 1

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Mating the left aft center segment to the left booster.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Mated the left aft booster to the mobile launcher platform.
- Transferred the left aft center segment to the VAB yesterday.
 
 

    KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - FRIDAY, OCT. 4, 1991 - 10 AM


 
           STS-42/IML - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3


WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Preparations to offload residual propellant from the  auxiliary
power units and the orbital maneuvering system.
- Inspections of payload bay door hinges.
- Flight readiness test of the aerosurfaces.
- Preparations to open the payload bay doors.
- Removal of the wing leading edge tile carrier panels.
- Waterproofing the payload bay doors.
- Inspections of the RCC T-seals. Out of ten T-seals removed only
one,  on  the  left  wing,  was cracked.  Only one more T-seal is
scheduled for inspection.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Functional tests of the payload bay doors.
- Removal of one of the auxiliary power units later this week.

WORK COMPLETE:
- A frequency response test of the orbiter's flight control  sys-
tem.

    ###   STS-42 SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS- VAB HIGH BAY 1

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Leak checks of the joint between the left aft center   and  the
left aft booster segments.

WORK SCHEDULED:
-  Transfer the left forward center segment to the VAB early next
week for stacking.
 
 

    KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - MONDAY, OCT. 7, 1991 - 10 AM


 
           STS-42/IML - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3


WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Opening of the payload bay doors.
- Preparations to perform a functional test of  the  payload  bay
doors.
- Removing STS-48 payload equipment from the payload bay.
-  Inspections  of the RCC T-seals.  One T-seal was found cracked
out of the eleven seals inspected so far.  All 42 T-seals will be
inspected.
- Post-flight inspections and testing.

 WORK COMPLETED:
-  Drained  residuals from the auxiliary power unit catch bottles
and from the orbital maneuvering system and reaction control sys-
tem tanks.
- Removed one of the auxiliary power units.

    ###   STS-42 SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS- VAB HIGH BAY 1

WORK IN PROGRESS:
-  Transfer  of  the  left  forward  center segment to the VAB in
preparation for stacking operations.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Mating the left forward segment and left forward  assembly/nose
cone this week.


 

   KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - TUESDAY, OCT. 8, 1991 - 10 AM


 
           STS-42/IML - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Post-flight measurements and inspections of the 17-inch discon-
nects.
- Removing STS-48 payload equipment from the payload bay.
- Preparations to inspect the reinforced carbon carbon T-seals on
the leading edges of the wings.  One T-seal was found cracked out
of the eleven seals inspected so far.  All 42 T-seals will be in-
spected.
- Post-flight inspections and testing.

 WORK COMPLETED:
- Opened payload bay doors and performed functional test.

  ###     STS-42 SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS- VAB HIGH BAY 1

WORK IN PROGRESS:
-  Mating  of the left forward center segment to the left booster
today.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Mating the left forward segment and left forward  assembly/nose
cone this week. This will complete stacking of the left booster.
 
 

   KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - WEDNESDAY, OCT. 9, 1991 - 10 AM


 
           STS-42/IML - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Post-flight measurements and inspections of the 17-inch discon-
nects.
- Removing STS-48 payload equipment from the payload bay.
- Preparations to inspect the reinforced carbon carbon T-seals on
the leading edges of the wings.  One T-seal was found cracked out
of the eleven seals inspected so far.  All 42 T-seals will be in-
spected.
- Removal of carrier panels from around the main engines.
- Reconfiguration of the aft flight deck.
- Post-flight inspections and testing.

 WORK COMPLETED:
- Opened payload bay doors and performed a functional  test  ear-
lier this week.

   ###   STS-42 SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS- VAB HIGH BAY 1

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Mating of the left forward segment to the left booster.
-  Leak checks of the field joint between the left forward center
and the left aft center segments.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Mated the left forward center segment to the booster.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Mating the left forward assembly/nose cone this week. This will
complete stacking of the left booster.


 

   KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - THURSDAY, OCT. 10, 1991 - 10 AM
 
 
 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3
 
WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Checks of the Ku-band antenna drive assembly.
- Post-flight measurements and inspections of the 17-inch discon-
nects.
- Inspections of the reinforced  carbon  carbon  T-seals  on  the
leading  edges of the wings.  One T-seal was found cracked out of
the 16 inspected so far. All 42 T-seals will be inspected.
- Reconfiguration of the aft flight deck.
- Post-flight inspections and testing.
 
 WORK COMPLETED:
- Removed UARS support equipment from the payload bay.
- Carrier panels have been removed from around the three main en-
gines.
 
      ##  STS-42 SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS- VAB HIGH BAY 1
 
WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Mating of the left forward segment to the left booster.
 
WORK COMPLETED:
- Leak checks of the left center joints.
 
WORK SCHEDULED:
- Mating the left forward assembly/nose cone this week. This will
complete stacking of the left booster.

 
 

    KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - FRIDAY, OCT. 11, 1991 - 10 AM
 
 
 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3
 
WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Preparations to perform leak checks of the orbital  maneuvering
system.
- Checks of the Ku-band antenna drive assembly.
- Post-flight measurements and inspections of the 17-inch discon-
nects.
-  Inspections  of  the  reinforced  carbon carbon T-seals on the
leading edges of the wings.  One T-seal was found cracked out  of
the 16 inspected so far. All 42 T-seals will be inspected.
- Reconfiguration of the aft flight deck.
- Post-flight inspections and testing.
 
WORK SCHEDULED:
- Drying of the shuttle main engines.
- Validation of the electrical system.
-  Leak  and functional test of the main propulsion system helium
system.
- Removal of the robot arm.
 
 
     ###  STS-42 SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS- VAB HIGH BAY 1
 
WORK IN PROGRESS:
-  Mating  of  the  left  forward  assembly\nose cone to the left
booster.
 
WORK COMPLETED:
- Leak checks of the left forward joints.
 
WORK SCHEDULED:
- Stacking of the right aft booster next week.

 

     KSC SHUTTLE STATUS  -  TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1991  -- 10:00 a.m.


 
      STS-42/IML --  DISCOVERY (OV 103)  -- OPF High Bay 3


WORK IN PROGRESS:
*  Heat shield installations
*  Spacelab module brazing
*  Remote Manipulator System operations

WORK COMPLETED:
*  Removal of water dump nozzle
*  Inspection of all Tee-Seals on wings leading edges. (Only one
   reported to be cracked. It will be replaced with on-the-
   shelf spare.)

WORK SCHEDULED:
*  Reinstallation of Tee-seals

KSC SHUTTLE STATUS  -  THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1991  -- 10:00 a.m.
_________________________________________________________________

 
      STS-42/IML --  DISCOVERY (OV 103)  -- OPF High Bay 3


WORK IN PROGRESS:
*  Heat shield removal on engines 1 and 3
*  Removal of Remote Manipulator System
*  Reinstallation of T-seals
*  Tile work around nose landing gear
*  Installation of dump valve nozzle
*  Reaction Control System regulator flow

WORK COMPLETED:
*  Inspection of all T-Seals on wings leading edges.
*  Helium tank vents
*  Down processing of previous mission, STS-48.

WORK SCHEDULED:
*  Close payload bay doors for bulb seal measurements

    KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - FRIDAY, OCT. 18, 1991 - 10 AM


 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Removal of heat shields from around the main engines.
- Validation of the orbiter electrical system.
- Reinstallation of the  reinforced  carbon  carbon  T-seals  and
panels on the leading edges of both wings.
- Close the payload bay doors.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Removal of the shuttle main engines next week.
-  Leak  and functional test of the main propulsion system helium
system.
- Inspections of the payload bay bulb seal.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Removal of the robot arm.
- Installation of the dump nozzle.


     ###  STS-42 SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS- VAB HIGH BAY 1

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Mating of the right aft center to the booster.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Leak checks of the field joint on the right booster.

 

    KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - MONDAY, OCT. 21, 1991 - 10 AM

 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Preparations to remove the shuttle main engines.
- Reinstallation of the  reinforced  carbon  carbon  T-seals  and
panels on the leading edges of both wings.
- Open the payload bay doors.
- Functional test of the radiators.
- Thermal protection system operations.
- Leak and functional tests of the main propulsion system.
- Testing of the communications system.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Removal of the shuttle main engines beginning tomorrow.
-  Leak  and functional test of the main propulsion system helium
system.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Inspections of the payload bay bulb seal.
- Validation of the electrical system.


   ###   STS-42 SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS- VAB HIGH BAY 1

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Stacking of the right forward center segment.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Transfer of the right forward segment to the VAB on Wednesday.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Mated the right aft center segment to the booster.
 

 

   KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - TUESDAY, OCT. 22, 1991 - 10 AM

 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3


WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Removal of the three shuttle main engines.
-  Reinstallation  of  the  reinforced  carbon carbon T-seals and
panels on the leading edges of both wings.
- Inspections of the radiators.
- Thermal protection system operations.
- Leak and functional tests of the main propulsion system.
- Testing of the communications system.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Installation of three shuttle main engines beginning Thursday.
- Leak and functional tests of the main propulsion system  helium
system.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Drying of the shuttle engines.


   ###    STS-42 SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS- VAB HIGH BAY 1

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Stacking of the right forward center segment.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Transfer of the right forward segment to the VAB tonight.



 

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER -  SHUTTLE STATUS - WEDNESDAY, OCT. 23, 1991

 
              STS-42/Discovery OV-103/IML/OPF Bay 3


WORK IN PROGRESS

- Powered-on testing

- Removal of SSME #3

- Mating of Right Forward Center booster segment in VAB

- Reinstallation of T-Seals

- Routine tile work

WORK SCHEDULED

- Begin installation of main engines for next mission on Thursday

- Leak and functional test of main propulsion system


WORK COMPLETED

- Engine #2 transported to VAB main engine maintenance facility
at 9:30 p.m. last night

- Engine #1 removal and delivery to VAB on Monday

- Inspection of heat dissipation radiatiors on payload bay doors

- X-ray and leak check of water dump nozzle


 

   KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - THURSDAY, OCT. 24, 1991 - 11 AM


 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3


WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Installation of three main engines.
- Installation of the wheels and tires on the main gear.
- Reinstallation of the  reinforced  carbon  carbon  T-seals  and
panels on the leading edges of both wings.
- Functional tests of the radiators.
- Thermal protection system operations.
- Leak and functional tests of the main propulsion system.
- Testing of the communications system.

WORK SCHEDULED:
-  Leak and functional tests of the main propulsion system helium
system.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Removal of the three shuttle engines.

   ###     STS-42 SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS- VAB HIGH BAY 1

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Stacking of the right forward segment.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Mating of the right forward assembly/nose cone tomorrow.

 

Mitch Varnes                                     Oct. 24, 1991

KSC Release No. 120-91

     Years of planning and several months of pre-launch  process-
ing  and  testing of flight hardware are nearing the final stages
for Kennedy Space Center engineers and scientists working on  the
first  International  Microgravity  Laboratory  (IML-1)  Spacelab
module.   Scheduled to be flown aboard the orbiter  Discovery  in
January 1992, IML-1 is the primary payload for the seven-day-long
STS-42 Space Shuttle mission.

     IML-1 is now housed inside the cleanroom-like environment of
the  Operations  and Checkout Building's highbay,  but next month
will be moved to bay 3 of the Orbiter Processing  Facility  where
it  will be installed inside the Shuttle Discovery's payload bay.
Stowage of some experiments and further testing will continue  on
IML-1 once it's inside Discovery,  but the majority of pre-launch
work will be completed by the time it leaves the  Operations  and
Checkout Building.

     "I've been associated with the IML-1 mission since 1989, and
it's really nice to see the payload shaping up so well," remarked
Glenn  Snyder,  KSC's STS-42 payload processing manager.   "We've
handled IML-1 in a careful,  methodical fashion,  and the product
really  exemplifies  that.    I  think it's the cleanest and most
trouble-free Spacelab we've ever processed."

     IML-1 is the first in a series of IML missions scheduled  to
be  launched  aboard the Shuttle during the next decade.   All of
these missions are dedicated to the study of life  and  materials
sciences  in  microgravity.   The missions will specifically con-
centrate on the intricate effects of weightlessness on living or-
ganisms and how materials react when mixed in space.

     The IML program is a continuation  of  NASA's  peaceful  and
successful  multi-national space efforts.   The venture is a com-
bined partnership of NASA,  the 14-nation European  Space  Agency
(ESA),  the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the French National Cen-
ter for Space Studies (CNES),  the German Space  Agency  and  the
German  Aerospace Research Establishment (DARA/DLR),  and the Na-
tional Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA).

     A seven member astronaut flight crew  is  scheduled  to  fly
aboard Discovery on the IML-1 Space Shuttle mission.  The crew of
the  fourteenth  flight  of the orbiter Discovery will consist of
Commander Ron Grabe, Pilot Steve Oswald, Mission Specialists Nor-
man  Thagard,   David  Hilmers  and  Bill  Readdy   and   Payload
Specialists Roberta Bondar and Ulf Merbold.  Bondar is a Canadian
astronaut representing the Canadian Space Agency.  Merbold repre-
sents the European Space Agency.

    KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - FRIDAY, OCT. 25, 1991 - 10 AM


 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3


WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Installation of the main engines.
- Installation of the wheels and tires on the main gear.
-  Reinstallation  of  the  reinforced  carbon carbon T-seals and
panels on the leading edges of both wings.
- Thermal protection system operations.
- Leak and functional tests of the main propulsion system.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Leak and functional tests of the main propulsion system  helium
system.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Functional test of the radiators.
- Installation of engine No. 1.

    ###   STS-42 SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS- VAB HIGH BAY 1

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Stacking of the right forward assembly/nose cone.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Mated the right forward segment.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Measurements of the boosters alignment next week.
- Closeouts of the solid rocket boosters.
- Mating the external tank to the  solid  rocket  boosters  early
next month.


 

     KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - MONDAY, OCT. 28,1991  10 AM
 
 
 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3
 
 
WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Installation of T-seals on the leading edges of the wings.
- Installation of the water dump nozzle.
- Fuel cell single cell voltage test.
- Installation of the landing gear wheels and tires.
- Servicing of water spray boiler No. 3.
 
WORK COMPLETED:
- Installation of the three main engines.

   ###   STS-42 SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS - VAB  HIGH BAY 1
 
WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Closeouts of the solid rocket boosters.
- Leak checks of the field joints.
 
WORK COMPLETED:
- Completed stacking the segments last week.
 
WORK SCHEDULED:
- Alignment measurements of the boosters.
- Mate the external tank to the boosters next week.
 
 

     KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - TUESDAY, OCT. 29, 1991  10 AM

 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Installation of T-seals on the leading edges of the wings.
- Installation of the water dump nozzle.
- Servicing of the water spray boilers.
- Preparations for a hot oil flush of the auxiliary power units.
- Preparations to install the Spacelab tunnel adapter.
- Inspections of thermal control blankets in the payload bay.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Fuel cell single cell voltage test.
- Installation of the main landing gear wheels and tires.
-  Repositioned  the  aerosurfaces  for thermal protection system
operations.

 WORK SCHEDULED:
- In the VAB next week,  mating the external tank  to  the  solid
rocket boosters.

 

   KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - FRIDAY, NOV. 1, 1991  10 AM

 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Connections of fluid interfaces  between  the  main  propulsion
system and main engines.
- Servicing the orbiter with potable water.
- Installation of T-seals on the leading edges of the wings.
- Servicing of the water spray boilers.
- Preparations to install the Spacelab tunnel adapter.
- Inspections of thermal control blankets in the payload bay.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Brake anti-skid test.
- A hot oil flush of the auxiliary power units.
- Checks of the hydraulic and flight control systems.
- Check out of the nose wheel steering system.

 WORK SCHEDULED:
-  In  the  VAB next week,  mating the external tank to the solid
rocket boosters.


 

      KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - TUESDAY, NOV. 5, 1991  10 AM


 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Installation of the Spacelab tunnel adapter.
-  Preparations for functional testing of the orbital maneuvering
system pods and the forward reaction control system.
- Thermal protection  system  operations  on  all  areas  of  the
vehicle.
- Installation of auxiliary power unit No. 1.
- Checks of the main engine electrical interfaces.
- Servicing the orbiter with potable water.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Functional test of the galley.

WORK COMPLETED:
-  Mated  the external tank to the solid rocket boosters at 11:25
p.m. last night.


 

KSC SHUTTLE STATUS  -  THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1991  -- 10:00 a.m.
_________________________________________________________________



 
      STS-42/IML --  DISCOVERY (OV 103)  -- OPF High Bay 3


WORK IN PROGRESS:
*  Hook-up of Auxiliary Power Unit # 1
*  Payload integrated verification tests

WORK COMPLETED:
*  Installation of tunnel adapter

WORK SCHEDULED:
*  Cabin and tunnel adapter leak checks
*  External tank disconnect door functional tests
*  Auxiliary Power Unit closeouts and retests


 

KSC SHUTTLE STATUS  -  FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1991  -- 10:00 a.m.
_________________________________________________________________

 
      STS-42/IML --  DISCOVERY (OV 103)  -- OPF High Bay 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
*  Hook-up of Auxiliary Power Unit # 1
*  Payload integrated verification tests
*  Potable water servicing

WORK COMPLETED:
*  Installation of tunnel adapter

WORK SCHEDULED:
*  Cabin and tunnel adapter leak checks
*  External tank disconnect door functional tests
*  Auxiliary Power Unit closeouts and retests


 

     KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - TUESDAY, NOV. 13, 1991  11 AM

 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Testing of the orbital maneuvering system pods and the  forward
reaction control system.
- Testing of the power reactant storage and distribution system.
- Thermal protection system operations.
- Testing of the auxiliary power units.
- Checks of the main engine electrical interfaces.
- Servicing the orbiter with potable water.
- Installation of heat shields around the main engines.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Functional test of the external tank doors.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Servicing of the ammonia boiler.

 

    KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - WEDNESDAY, NOV. 13, 1991  11 AM

 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Preparations to install the payload laboratory.
-  Testing of the orbital maneuvering system pods and the forward
reaction control system.
- Testing of the power reactant storage and distribution system.
- Thermal protection system operations.
- Testing of the auxiliary power units.
- Checks of the main engine electrical interfaces.
- Servicing the orbiter with potable water.
- Installation of heat shields around the main engines.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Installation of the Spacelab tunnel extension.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Servicing of the ammonia boiler.


 

   KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - FRIDAY, NOV. 22, 1991  10 AM
 
 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3
 
WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Installation of sleep stations in the crew module.
- Closing out the midbody of the orbiter.
- Thermal protection system operations.
- Installation of heat shields around the main engines.
 
WORK COMPLETED:
- Successful interface verification tests  between  the  Interna-
tional Microgravity Laboratory and the orbiter.
 
WORK SCHEDULED:
- Installation of auxiliary power unit No. 1 tonight.
- Installation of the Spacelab tunnel next week.
 
 
 

*Informal* targets for STS-42 have it heading to the pad in late December,
with the launch tentatively scheduled for 22-Jan.

KSC will shut down for Thanksgiving (Thursday and Friday), and the facilities
maintenance period is during the Christmas holiday - which means a few more
days off for the launch team as well.

[From the STS-44 post-launch press conference.]


- dave

    KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - TUESDAY, NOV. 26, 1991  10 AM


 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Installation of the Spacelab tunnel.
- Testing of the orbital maneuvering system pods.
- Cleaning of the payload bay.
- Installation of sleep stations in the crew module.
- Closing out the midbody of the orbiter.
- Thermal protection system operations.
- Installation of heat shields around the main engines.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Leak check of the Spacelab tunnel Friday.
- Begin aft closeouts next week.

 

     KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - MONDAY, DEC. 2, 1991  10 AM

 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Begin aft compartment closeout.
- Testing of the orbital maneuvering system pods.
- Cleaning of the payload bay.
- Closing out the midbody of the orbiter.
- Thermal protection system operations.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Installation of the Spacelab tunnel.
- Leak tests of the tunnel.
- Installation of check valves in the main propulsion system.

WORD SCHEDULED:
-  Crew  equipment  interface  test planned Wednesday with STS-42
flight crew.


 

KSC SHUTTLE STATUS  -  FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1991  -- 10:00 A.M.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

 
       STS-42/IML --  DISCOVERY (OV 103) -- OPF High Bay 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
*  Orbital Maneuvering System functional tests and checkouts
*  Reaction control systems electrical redundancy test
*  Thermal protection system operations (only six tile cavities
   remain)

WORK COMPLETED:
*  Integrated hydraulic operations
*  Landing gear functional tests
*  Final aerosurface cycling

WORK SCHEDULED:
*  Payload bay door cycle
*  Tow to Vehicle Assembly Building targeted for noon Dec. 13


 

   KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - MONDAY, DEC. 9, 1991  10:30 AM


 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Closing the payload bay doors for flight.
- Functional test of the landing gear.
- Leak checks of the main propulsion system.
- Testing of the forward reaction control system.
- Thermal protection system operations.

WORK COMPLETED:
-  Closed  out  the  International  Microgravity  Laboratory  for
flight.
- Final cleaning of the payload bay.
- Stowed the Ku-band antenna for flight.
- Closed out the aft engine compartment.
- Tests of the orbital maneuvering system.

WORK SCHEDULED:
-  Rollover  to the Vehicle Assembly Building targeted for Friday
morning.


 

Mitch Varnes                                    Dec. 6, 1991

KSC Release No. 138-91


     Throughly checked out and firmly tucked  into  the  orbiter
Discovery's   payload   bay,   the   International   Microgravity
Laboratory-1 (IML-1) Spacelab module is now ready  to  be  trans-
ferred to Launch Pad 39-A.  IML-1 is the prime payload of STS-42,
the first Space Shuttle flight of 1992.

     Discovery  is  now  inside  its  processing  hangar  and  is
scheduled to be moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) next
week.  Inside the VAB,  Discovery will be mated with its external
tank  and twin solid rocket boosters.   The STS-42 launch vehicle
is slated to be transported to the launch pad  during  the  third
week of December.

     More  than  two years of planning and pre-mission processing
by the KSC payloads community  were  essentially  completed  this
week when the STS-42 astronauts inspected the Spacelab module for
the  last  time  before  their  planned  late  January  lift-off.
Routine system checks through launch and stowage of  some  flight
experiments are the only requirements left for the IML-1 process-
ing team.

     "It  (IML-1)  has  been  a  very  clean  and  smooth-flowing
payload," remarked Glenn Snyder,  KSC's STS-42 payload processing
manager.  "The contractor and NASA teams have worked hand-in-hand
on  IML-1,  and we're now at a point where we're just about ready
to fly."

     IML-1 is the first of a series of IML  missions  planned  to
fly aboard the Space Shuttle this decade.   All of these missions
are dedicated to the study of  life  and  materials  sciences  in
microgravity.   The missions will specifically concentrate on the
intricate effects of weightlessness on living organisms  and  how
materials react in space.

     The  IML  program  is  a  continuation  of NASA's successful
multi-national space efforts.  The venture is a combined partner-
ship of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Canadian Space
Agency (CSA),  the  French  National  Center  for  Space  Studies
(CNES),  the  German Space Agency (DARA),  and the National Space
Development Agency of Japan (NASDA).

     A seven member astronaut flight crew  is  scheduled  to  fly
aboard Discovery on the IML-1 Space Shuttle mission.  The crew of
the  fourteenth  flight  of the orbiter Discovery will consist of
Commander Ron Grabe, Pilot Steve Oswald, Mission Specialists Nor-
man  Thagard,   David  Hilmers,   and  Bill  Readdy  and  Payload
Specialists Roberta Bondar and Ulf Merbold.  Bondar is a Canadian
astronaut  representing  the Canadian Space Agency.   Merbold,  a
German citizen,  will represent the European Space Agency on  the
IML-1 mission.

 KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - WEDNESDAY, DEC. 11, 1991  10:30 AM

 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Determine orbiter's weight and center of gravity.
- Thermal protection system operations.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Closed the crew module hatch.
- Final power down of the orbiter.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Attach the orbiter to the orbiter transporter overnight.
- Retract the landing gear tomorrow.
- Rollover to the Vehicle Assembly Building targeted for tomorrow
afternoon.

 

   KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - THURSDAY, DEC. 12, 1991  10 AM

 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - OPF BAY 3

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Retraction of the landing gear.
- Preparations to transfer the orbiter to  the  Vehicle  Assembly
Building about 4 p.m. today.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Attached the orbiter to the transporter.
- Determined the orbiter's weight and center of gravity.

WORK SCHEDULED:
-  Mating  Discovery  to  its  external  tank  and  solid  rocket
boosters.
- Shuttle Interface Test,  to verify connections between the STS-
42  vehicle  elements and launch platform,  is set to begin early
Monday.
- Rollout to launch pad 39-A targeted for Dec. 18.

 

    KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - FRIDAY, DEC. 13, 1991  10 AM

 
             STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - VAB

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Connecting the orbiter to the external tank  and  solid  rocket
boosters.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Transferred the orbiter to the VAB yesterday.  First motion was
at 4:32 p.m.  and the transporter was in the  transfer  aisle  by
5:07 p.m.
- The orbiter was lifted over the transom in the VAB at 3:10 a.m.
today.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Shuttle Interface Test,  to verify connections between the STS-
42 vehicle elements and launch platform,  is set to  begin  early
Monday.
- Rollout to launch pad 39-A is targeted for Dec. 18.

 

    KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - MONDAY, DEC. 16, 1991  10 AM

 
             STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - VAB

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Closing out connections of the electrical monoball area on  the
liquid  hydrogen and liquid oxygen 17-inch umbilicals between the
external tank and orbiter.
- Preparations to begin the shuttle Interface Test to verify  the
connections between the vehicle elements and the launch platform.

WORK COMPLETED:
-  Connected  the  orbiter  to the external tank and solid rocket
boosters.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Rollout to launch pad 39-A is targeted for 12:01 a.m. Thursday.
- Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test set for Jan. 6-7.
- Flight Readiness Review planned Jan. 9.
- Launch targeted for third week of January.

 

12/13/91: DISCOVERY WILL ROLL TO PAD NEXT WEEK
Lisa Malone

KSC RELEASE NO. 139-91

     Space Shuttle Discovery's roll out to launch pad  39-A  next
Wednesday,  Dec.  18,  will  be  a  visible step toward the first
launch of 1992.

     Yesterday  afternoon,   Discovery  was  moved  from  Orbiter
Processing Facility bay 3 to the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building
where  it  is  being  connected  with the external tank and solid
rocket boosters.

     Discovery is being prepared  for  the  STS-42  International
Microgravity  Laboratory-1  (IML)  mission currently targeted for
launch the third week of January.   Discovery's 14th flight is  a
seven-day mission with a seven-member crew.

     Flight  preparations  on  Discovery  for  the STS-42 mission
began Sept. 27, following its last mission,  STS-48,  which ended
with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

     Discovery was the first orbiter to be prepared for flight in
Orbiter Processing Facility bay 3 which was equipped in September
1991 to support full-scale Shuttle processing, testing and check-
out.  All of Discovery' systems were fully tested during its  10-
week stay in the OPF.

     Space Shuttle main engine locations for this flight  are  as
follows:  engine 2026 in the No.  1 position,  engine 2022 in the
No. 2 position, and engine 2027 in the No. 3 position.  These en-
gines were installed October 24-25.

     The  Crew  Equipment  Interface  Test with the STS-42 flight
crew was conducted on Dec.  4 in the OPF.  This test provides  an
opportunity  for  the crew to become familiar with the configura-
tion of the orbiter and  anything that is  unique to  the  STS-42
mission.

     Technicians   installed   the   International   Microgravity
Laboratory payload into Discovery's payload bay on Nov. 17, while
the vehicle was in the Orbiter Processing Facility.  The  payload
bay doors were closed for flight in the OPF on Dec. 9.

     Booster  stacking  operations  on mobile launcher platform 3
began Oct. 1,  and were completed by Oct.  21.  The external tank
was mated to the boosters on Nov. 4.

     After  the  vehicle  is secured at the pad next week,  tech-
nicians will hook up ground power supplies,  ground  cooling  and
conditioned air to the vehicle elements.  STS-42 Shuttle process-
ing teams will be off the Christmas and New  Year's  Day  holiday
period.

     The Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test,  a full dress re-
hearsal of launch day with the STS-42  flight  crew,  is  planned
Jan.  6-7.  While the crew is here, they will be trained in emer-
gency escape procedures at the  launch  pad,  and  will  practice
driving in the armored personnel carriers.  The mock countdown is
set to begin at 8 a.m. on Jan. 6, and will culminate with a simu-
lated engine cutoff shortly after 11 a.m. EST on
Jan. 7.

     A standard 43-hour launch countdown is  scheduled  to  begin
three days prior to launch.  During the countdown,  the orbiter's
onboard fuel and oxidizer storage tanks will be  loaded  and  all
orbiter systems will be prepared for flight.

     About  nine  hours before launch,  the external tank will be
filled with its flight load of a half a million gallons of liquid
oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants.  About two  and  one-half
hours before liftoff, the flight crew will begin taking their as-
signed seats in the crew cabin.

     Landing  is planned at Edwards Air Force Base,  Calif.,  be-
cause of the heavier weight of the  vehicle  returning  to  Earth
with  the  IML  laboratory  tucked inside its payload bay.  KSC's
landing convoy teams will be on station in California to safe the
vehicle on the runway and  prepare it for the cross-country ferry
flight back to Florida.  Five days  are  need  at  Dryden  Flight
Research Facility to prepare the orbiter for the ferry flight and
bolt  it  to  the  747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.  A two-day ferry
flight is scheduled.

     Once back in Florida,  Discovery will be taken out of flight
status  for  the  next  eight  and a half months while undergoing
major  modifications,  upgrades  and  required  inspections.  The
shuttle  processing  team  will perform this work on Discovery in
the Orbiter Processing Facility.  Discovery's 15th space  flight,
planned  in  the  fall of 1992,  is designated Mission STS-53,  a
Department of Defense flight.
 

re .41
    
>and  will  practice driving in the armored personnel carriers.
    
    Anyone know why the vehicles are armoured?
    
    Are they expecting enemy forces roaming about KSC? (-:

    Re: .42
    
    Because when you use them you are running away from a fully fueled rocket
    that could blow up at any second - and that little extra protection
    from schrapnel (you know, bits of wings, tanks, launch pad) probably
    helps make the drive a bit more enjoyable (and survivable).    :-)
    
    - dave

 KSC SHUTTLE STATUS  -  FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1991  -- 10:00 A.M.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

 
          STS-42/IML --  DISCOVERY (OV 103) -- Pad 39-A

WORK IN PROGRESS:
*  Launch Pad validations following Auxiliary Power Unit hot fire
*  Preparations for loading of hypergolic fuels next year
*  Space vehicle holiday securing and power down operations

WORK COMPLETED:
*  Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) # 1 hot fire
*  SRB flight readiness hydraulic tests
*  Rotating Service Structure moved around vehicle

WORK SCHEDULED:
*  The vehicle will be powered down for the holidays during
   second shift tonight. Power on operations will resume after
   the first of the year.
*  Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test -- Jan. 6-7.
*  Flight Readiness Review -- Jan. 9.
*  Launch of STS-42 is targeted for the third week of January.

PAYLOAD STATUS:
   The International Microgravity Laboratory is in the orbiter
payload bay and it has been closed out for flight. The payload
bay doors are not scheduled to be opened prior to flight.


 

  KSC SHUTTLE STATUS  -  THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 1992  -- 10:00 A.M.
  -----------------------------------------------------------------

 
          STS-42/IML --  DISCOVERY (OV 103) -- Pad 39-A

WORK IN PROGRESS:
*  Post holiday deconfiguration
*  Preparations for electrical power up
*  Preparations for loading of hypergolic fuels next week
*  Launch pad validations
*  Helium signature test preparations
*  Power Reactant and Storage Distribution system T-0 checks

WORK COMPLETED:
*  SRB hydraulic tests

WORK SCHEDULED:
*  Main engine frequency response test
*  Helium signature test
*  Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test -- Jan. 6-7.
   (Crew to arrive at KSC on Jan.5)
*  Flight Readiness Review -- Jan. 9.
*  Launch of STS-42 is targeted for the third week of January.

PAYLOAD STATUS:
   The International Microgravity Laboratory is in the orbiter
payload bay and has been closed out for flight. The payload bay
doors are not scheduled to be opened prior to flight.


 

The STS-42 Press Kit is available.  A monster: 23 pages!

I still have a couple of hours of format tuning to do, so you might consider
waiting until Monday morning to pick it up.


pragma::public:[nasa]sts-42.ps

- dave

  KSC SHUTTLE STATUS  -  FRIDAY, JANUARY 3, 1992  -- 10:00 A.M.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

 
          STS-42/IML --  DISCOVERY (OV 103) -- Pad 39-A

WORK IN PROGRESS:
*  Electrical power up
*  Main engine frequency response test and ball seal leak checks
*  Preparations for loading of hypergolic fuels next week
*  Launch pad validations
*  Helium signature test preparations
*  Power Reactant and Storage Distribution system T-0 checks

WORK COMPLETED:
*  Post holiday deconfiguration
*  SRB hydraulic tests
*  Crew compartment vent door cycling and checks

WORK SCHEDULED:
*  Helium signature test
*  Pre-launch propellant servicing
*  Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test -- Jan. 6-7.
   (Crew to arrive at KSC at 11:30 a.m. Jan.5)
*  Launch Readiness Review -- Jan. 6
*  Flight Readiness Review -- Jan. 9.
*  Launch of STS-42 is targeted for the third week of January.

PAYLOAD STATUS:
   The International Microgravity Laboratory is in the orbiter
payload bay and has been closed out for flight. The payload bay
doors are not scheduled to be opened prior to flight.


 

    KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - MONDAY, JAN. 6, 1992  11:30 AM


 
           STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - PAD 39-A

 WORK IN PROGRESS:
 - Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT).  T minus zero  is
 planned at 11 a.m. tomorrow with a simulated main engine cutoff.
 - STS-42 flight crew emergency egress training at the launch pad.
 -  Helium  signature leak test of the three main engines and main
 propulsion system.
 - Preparations to load hypergolic propellants on  board  the  or-
 biter for use by the in-flight engines and thrusters.
 - Launch Readiness Review.

 WORK COMPLETED:
 -  STS-42  flight  crew  members arrived at KSC yesterday for the
 TCDT.
 - Main engine flight readiness test.

 WORK SCHEDULED:
 - STS-42 crew wake up at 6 a.m. tomorrow.
 - STS-42 crew departure from Operations and Checkout Building  at
 7:45 a.m. tomorrow.
 - Crew arrives at the white room about 8:15 a.m. tomorrow.
 - STS-42 flight crew departure from KSC tomorrow.
 -  Loading  hypergolic  propellants into the orbiter set to begin
 Wednesday and continue through Friday.
 - Flight Readiness Review planned Jan. 9.
 - Launch targeted for third week of January.


 

    KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - TUESDAY, JAN. 7, 1992  10 AM


 
        STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - PAD 39-A

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) concluded today as
planned at 11 a.m. with a simulated main engine cutoff.
- Preparations to load hypergolic propellants on  board  the  or-
biter for use by the in-flight engines and thrusters.

WORK COMPLETED:
- STS-42 flight crew training at the launch pad.
- Helium signature leak test.
-  Launch  Readiness  Review.  There are no significant issues or
concerns.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- STS-42 flight crew departure from KSC this afternoon.
- Loading hypergolic propellants into the orbiter  set  to  begin
Wednesday and continue through Friday.
- Flight Readiness Review planned Jan. 9.
- Launch targeted for third week of January.


 

   KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - WEDNESDAY, JAN. 8, 1992  11 AM


 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - PAD 39-A

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Preparations to load hypergolic propellants into the  orbiter's
storage  tanks  that  supply  the  orbital maneuvering system and
reaction control  system.  Hydrazine  will  be  loaded  into  the
orbiter's  auxiliary  power  units  and  into  the  solid  rocket
boosters' hydraulic power units.
- Clear launch pad of all non-essential personnel tonight through
early Friday for the loading operation.
- Repairs of three tiles on the orbiter's belly.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test concluded yesterday.
- STS-42 flight crew departed KSC yesterday.
- Calibration of the inertial measurement units.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Flight Readiness Review scheduled tomorrow.
- Launch targeted for third week of January.


 

Barbara Schwartz
Johnson Space Center, Houston                         January 7, 1992

Dave Drachlis
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.

EDITORS NOTE:  N92-3


        The first flight of the International Microgravity Laboratory, IML-01,
is set for Jan. 22 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. This flight is dedicated
to research in both materials and life sciences disciplines in the microgravity
environment.  Over 220 scientists in 14 countries are involved in this
unprecedented international effort.

        A series of briefings to familiarize news media with the operations and
science of the IML-01 mission will be conducted on Friday, Jan. 10, from the
Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston, and from the Marshall Space Flight Center
(MSFC), Huntsville, Ala. The schedule follows:

9 a.m. EST              MISSION OVERVIEW BRIEFING

                                Bob Castle, Lead Flight Director (JSC)
                                Bob McBrayer, Mission Manager (MSFC)

10:10 a.m.              LIFE SCIENCES (MSFC)

                        Significance of IML-01
                                Dr. Ronald J. White, Program Scientist

                        IML-01 Science
                                Dr. Robert Snyder, Mission Scientist

                        Microgravity Vestibular Investigations
                                Dr. Millard Reschke, Principal Investigator

                        Gravitational Plant Physiology Facility
                                Dr. David Heathcote, Principal Investigator

                        Biorack
                                Dr. Claude Brillouet, Project Scientist

                        Space Physiology Experiments
                                Dr. Alan Mortimer, Chief Life Sciences,
                                Canadian Space Agency

11:30 a.m.              MATERIALS SCIENCES (MSFC)

                        Introduction
                                Dr. Robert Sokolowski, Program Scientist

                        Casting & Solidification Technology
                                Dr. Mary McCay, Principal Investigator

                        Critical Point Facility
                                Dr. Daniel Beysens, Principal Investigator

                        Cryostat, Protein Crystal Growth
                                Dr. Walter Littke, Principal Investigator

                        Organic Crystal Growth Facility
                                Dr. Akira Kanbayashi, Principal Investigator

                        Vapor Crystal Growth System & Mercury
                        Iodide Crystal Growth
                                Dr. Lodewijk van den Berg, Principal Investigato
r

1 p.m.          LUNCH BREAK

2 p.m.          SHUTTLE STUDENT INVOLVEMENT PROGRAM (JSC)

                        Convection in Zero Gravity
                                Scott Thomas

                        Zero-G Capillary Rise of Liquid Through Porous Media
                                Constantine Costes

        All briefings will be broadcast on NASA Select television, accessed via
SATCOM F2R, transponder 13, located at 72 degrees west longitude.  News media
attending the press conference at NASA Headquarters or field centers may ask
questions from those locations.

    KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT -- THURSDAY, JAN. 9 -- 11 A.M.
    --------------------------------------------------------

 
          STS-42/IML-01 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - PAD 39-A

WORK IN PROGRESS:

-Pad is clear of personnel and loading of hypergolic  propellants
into the orbiter's storage tanks is underway.   These propellants
supply the orbiter's orbital maneuvering system and reaction con-
trol systems during space flight.   Pad should reopen by  mid-day
Friday.

-Flight  Readiness Review underway at KSC.   A launch date should
be selected and announced by late this afternoon.

WORK COMPLETED:

-Tiles on orbiter's belly were repaired.

WORK SCHEDULED:

-Launch targeted for third week in January.

 

Ed Campion
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                          January 9, 1992

Lisa Malone
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

EDITORS NOTE:  N92-4

        NASA managers today announced Jan. 22, 1992 as the official launch
date for Shuttle Mission STS-42 which will involve the Space Shuttle
Discovery carrying the International Microgravity Laboratory-1 (IML-1) in
its cargo bay.  The launch window on Jan. 22 opens at 8:53 a.m EST and
extends for 2 1/2 hours.

        Commanding the STS-42 mission will be Ron Grabe, Col. USAF.
Steve Oswald will serve as Pilot.  Mission specialists will include Dr. Norm
Thagard, M.D.; Dave Hilmers, Lt. Col., USMC; and Bill Reddy.  In addition,
Dr. Roberta Bondar, M.D. and Ph.D., of the Canadian Space Agency and Ulf
Merbold, Ph.D. of the European Space Agency will serve as payload
specialists.

        The IML-1 mission will involve the conduct of life sciences and
microgravity processing experiments developed by scientists from NASA,
the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, the French
National Center for Space Studies, the German Space Agency and the
National Space Development Agency of Japan.  More than 220 scientists
from 14 countries will participate in the investigations.

STS-42
1 00042U          92 22.63868251  .00023000  00000-0  25300-3 0    12
2 00042  57.0020 229.1390 0009580 265.8870  94.1131 15.90163224    20

Satellite: STS-42
Catalog number: 00042
Epoch time:      92022.63868251        (22 JAN 92   15:19:42.17 UTC)
Element set:     JSC-001
Inclination:       57.0020 deg
RA of node:       229.1390 deg          Space Shuttle Flight STS-42
Eccentricity:     .0009580             Pre-launch Keplerian Elements
Arg of perigee:   265.8870 deg         Launch:  22 JAN 92  13:53 UTC
Mean anomaly:      94.1131 deg
Mean motion:   15.90163224 rev/day               G. L. Carman
Decay rate:     2.3000e-04 rev/day^2      NASA Johnson Space Center
Epoch rev:               2
 

 KSC SHUTTLE STATUS  -  FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1992  -- 10:00 A.M.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

 
          STS-42/IML --  DISCOVERY (OV 103) -- Pad 39-A

WORK IN PROGRESS:
*  Loading of hypergolic fuels on orbiter and solid rocket
   boosters. Pad should be re-opened for other work later today.
*  Preparations for ordnance operations next week

WORK COMPLETED:
*  Flight Readiness Review -- Mission managers yesterday
   announced Jan. 22, 1992 as the official launch date for
   Shuttle Mission STS-42 and the first International
   Microgravity Laboratory.

WORK SCHEDULED:
*  Trouble-shooting of electrical connections between orbiter
   avionics bay and helium isolation valve on engine number 3.
*  Ordnance installation Monday morning -- pad will be closed
   midnight Sunday night.

PAYLOAD STATUS:
   The International Microgravity Laboratory is in the orbiter
payload bay and has been closed out for flight. The payload bay
doors are not scheduled to be opened prior to flight. Some mid-
deck experiments are being prepared for installation aboard the
vehicle just prior to flight.


 

     KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - MONDAY, JAN. 13, 1992  11 AM


 
           STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - PAD 39-A

 WORK IN PROGRESS:
 - Preparations to install the two contingency  space  suits  into
 the orbiter's airlock.
 - Launch countdown preparations.
 - Close outs of the avionics bays in the aft compartment.
 - Cleaning of the aft compartment.
 -  Final preparations of the auxiliary power units and hydraulics
 system.
 - Initial close outs of the three main engines.

 WORK COMPLETED:
 - Installation of ordnance devices.
 - Successful replacement and retest of wiring for a valve between
 the helium supply tank and the No. 3 main engine.

 WORK SCHEDULED:
 - Purges of the external tank tomorrow.
 - Close out the aft engine compartment for flight Friday.
 - Crew arrives Sunday morning.
 - Launch countdown begins at 1 p.m. Sunday.
 - Launch at 8:53 a.m. EST January 22.


 

     KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - TUESDAY, JAN. 14, 1992  10 AM


 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - PAD 39-A

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Purges of the external tank.
- Functional tests of the two contingency space  suits  just  in-
stalled in the orbiter's airlock.
- Launch countdown preparations.
- Close outs of the avionics bays in the aft compartment.
- Cleaning of the aft compartment.
-  Final preparations of the auxiliary power units and hydraulics
system.
- Initial close outs of the three main engines.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Installed two contingency space suits into the  orbiter's  air-
lock.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Final ordnance operations are scheduled tomorrow evening.
- Close out the aft engine compartment for flight Friday.
- Crew arrives Sunday morning.
- Launch countdown begins at 1 p.m. Sunday.
- Launch at 8:53 a.m. EST January 22.


 

Rev C is now available:  pragma::public:[nasa]sts-42.nasa_select   (842 lines)

- dave

    KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - WEDNESDAY, JAN. 15, 1992  10:30 AM


 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - PAD 39-A

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Preparations for final ordnance operations.
- Launch countdown preparations.
- Preparation of the avionics bays in  the  aft  compartment  for
flight.
- Cleaning of the aft compartment.
-  Final preparations of the auxiliary power units and hydraulics
system.
- Closeouts of the three main engines.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Purged the external tank for pre-tanking conditioning.
- Tests of the two contingency space suits in the orbiter's  air-
lock.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Pressurization of the hypergolic propellant tanks overnight.
- Close out the aft engine compartment for flight Friday.
- STS-42 flight crew arrives Sunday at 9 a.m.
- Launch countdown begins at 1 p.m. Sunday.
- Launch at 8:53 a.m. EST January 22.


 

   KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - THURSDAY, JAN. 16, 1992  11 AM


 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - PAD 39-A

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Pressurization of the hypergolic propellant tanks for flight.
- Launch countdown preparations.
- Preparation of the avionics bays in  the  aft  compartment  for
flight.
- Cleaning of the aft compartment.
-  Final preparations of the auxiliary power units and hydraulics
system.
- Closeouts of the three main engines.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Final ordnance operations.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Removal of service platforms from the launch platform.
- Close out the aft engine compartment for flight tomorrow.
- STS-42 flight crew arrives Sunday at 9 a.m.
- Launch countdown begins at 1 p.m. Sunday.
- Launch at 8:53 a.m. EST January 22.


 

    KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - FRIDAY, JAN. 17, 1992  10 AM


 
          STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - PAD 39-A

WORK IN PROGRESS:
- Launch countdown preparations.
- Removal of thruster covers from the reaction control system.
- Stowing flight crew equipment in the middeck.
- Tests of the leak detectors and hazardous  gas  system  at  the
launch pad.
- Washing down the mobile launcher platform and flame trench.
-  Preparation  of  the  avionics bays in the aft compartment for
flight.
- Cleaning of the aft compartment.
- Installation of the flight doors on the aft engine  compartment
for flight today.

WORK COMPLETED:
- Pressurization of the hypergolic propellant tanks for flight.

WORK SCHEDULED:
- Removal of service platforms from the launch platform.
- STS-42 flight crew arrives Sunday at 9 a.m.
- Launch countdown begins at 1 p.m. Sunday.
- Launch at 8:53 a.m. EST January 22.


 

Article: 1801
From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: clari.tw.space,clari.news.features,clari.news.military
Subject: UPI Special Report: Next Shuttle Mission
Date: 16 Jan 92 21:52:40 GMT
 
 _S_p_a_c_e_ _s_h_u_t_t_l_e_
_D_i_s_c_o_v_e_r_y_ _s_e_t_
_f_o_r_ _l_a_u_n_c_h _O_n_
_I_n_t_e_r_n_a_t_i_o_n_a_l_
_S_p_a_c_e_l_a_b_ _s_c_i_e_n_c_e_
_m_i_s_s_i_o_n 
	
_B_y_ _W_I_L_L_I_A_M_ _H_A_R_W_O_O_D
_U_P_I_ _S_c_i_e_n_c_e_ _W_r_i_t_e_r

	CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (UPI) -- The shuttle Discovery, carrying an
international crew and a $1 billion laboratory in its cargo bay, is set
for takeoff Wednesday on a seven-day flight to study the effects of
weightlessness on people and materials.
	Engineers at the Kennedy Space Center were scheduled to begin the
shuttle's intricate countdown at 1 p.m. EST Sunday. If all goes well,
the $2 billion space freighter will blast off on the 45th shuttle
mission, the first of at least eight planned for 1992, at 8:53 a.m.
Wednesday.
	Strapped in on Discovery's flight deck will be commander Ronald
Grabe, 46, co-pilot Stephen Oswald, 40, flight engineer William Readdy,
39, and Norman Thagard, 48. Seated on the shuttle's lower deck will be
David Hilmers, 41, German physicist Ulf Merbold, 50, and Canadian
neurobiologist Roberta Bondar, 46.
	Merbold, veteran of a 1983 shuttle flight, is the first European to
fly twice aboard a shuttle while Bondar is the second Canadian to serve
as a shuttle ``payload specialist.'' Of the five NASA crewmen, Readdy
and Oswald are rookies while Grabe is making his third voyage. Hilmers
and Thagard each have three previous flights to their credit.
	Working around the clock in two shifts, the astronauts plan to carry
out a smorgasbord of experiments to learn more about how humans, plants,
fruit flies and other biological systems are affected by the absence of
gravity. They also plan to test ways of growing ultra-pure crystals that
could have important engineering applications on Earth.
	The ``International Microgravity Laboratory'' -- IML -- flight
originally was scheduled to last 10 days aboard the shuttle Columbia in
November 1991. But for a variety of reasons, the mission was
remanifested for Discovery and shortened to just seven days.
	And tragically, one of the original crew members, Manley ``Sonny''
Carter, was killed April 5, 1991, in a commuter plane crash that also
claimed the life of former Texas Sen. John Tower. Carter, replaced by
Hilmers, is remembered by a gold star on the crew's mission emblem.
	``He did an awful lot of hard work, good work, before he was
tragically killed,'' Hilmers said in an interview. ``One of the reasons
I was able to be assimilated into the crew as quickly as I was was that
people like Sonny did an awful lot of hard work.''
	Along with getting a new crew member up to speed, Grabe and company
had to figure out how to cram 10 days of research into seven after the
flight was remanifested. It wasn't easy, but the astronauts believe they
will be able to accomplish up to 90 percent of the mission's original goals.
	``We think the compromises that were made were reasonable ones and
truthfully, if we can find ourselves with some free time, we may be able
to do some activities that are even beyond those that are currently
scheduled,'' Thagard said.
	Mounted in Discovery's cargo bay is a European-built Spacelab module
making its fifth trip into space since Merbold helped carry out
experiments aboard Columbia during the lab's maiden flight.
	This time around, the roomy laboratory module is packed with more
than 50 experiments in materials processing and life science. Together,
they make up the first International Microgravity Laboratory shuttle
mission.
	More than 200 researchers from 16 nations -- the 14-nation European
Space Agency, Canada and Japan -- helped design the IML-1 mission and
will help analyze the data brought back to Earth.
	Given Discovery's international crew and payload, it is particularly
fitting, Merbold said, that 1992 has been designated International Space
Year.
	``Science is an international business,'' he said. ``It's the United
States that has this unique resource called the shuttle that is the only
instrument in the western world (able) to perform these experiments in
zero gravity. I think the rest of the world has reason to be grateful
that the Americans share.
	``But ... it is also a beginning. (NASA's) space station is planned
as an international space station and I think everything we're doing now
leads to this new tool, to this new future, with a permanently manned
system in orbit.''
	But there is another reason to be grateful for European, Canadian and
Japanese participation in the U.S. space program: money.
	``To the extent that we're going to be able to make this an
international and cooperative program with money from our international
partners, we're going to be better off,'' Thagard said in an interview.
	``The fact is, space is expensive and some of the things we'd like to
do, going to Mars for instance, probably ... require an international
effort. So I'm glad we're doing it and I want us to do more.''
	To gather as much data as possible, the astronauts will work around
the clock in two 12-hours shifts. The day shift, or ``blue'' team, is
made up of Grabe, Oswald, Thagard and Bondar. The night shift, or ``red''
team, includes Readdy, Hilmers and Merbold.
	The flight plan calls for the red shift to begin a six-hour sleep
period a mere 3 1/2 hours after launch. While they already are going to
bed in staggered shifts to prepare for life in orbit, it won't be easy.
	``Once you get over that initial hurdle, two-shift operations is
really the way to go,'' Grabe said. ``It's so tremendously expensive to
fly in space, the cost per man hour is really so high, that we feel an
obligation to do just as much as we can once we get up there.''
	Along with their Spacelab experiments and a few other minor projects
in the crew cabin, the astronauts also plan to use a large-format IMAX
movie camera to film scenes of life in orbit for an upcoming movie
titled ``Destiny in Space.''
	If all goes well, Grabe and Oswald will guide Discovery to a landing
at Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert northeast of Los
Angeles at 7:05 a.m. PST Jan. 29 to close out the year's first shuttle
mission, the 20th since the 1986 Challenger disaster.
 ------
	The cylindrical Spacelab module, connected to the crew cabin by a
pressurized tunnel, measures 20 feet long and 14 feet wide. It is packed
with racks of experiments that will be operated throughout the flight.
	The first two days of the mission will be devoted primarily to life
science research to gather data showing how the body adapts to the onset
of weightlessness.
	At the same time, the astronauts will begin a series of other
experiments, putting plants, cells and crystal seeds into various
experiment growth chambers and incubators.
	Among the biological research that will be conducted:
	--Gravitational Plant Physiology Facility experiment to study how
plants respond to changing gravity and light levels.
	``It's sort of like having your own mini-greenhouse in orbit,''
Hilmers explained. ``Plants respond to light and they respond to
gravity. On Earth, we can turn off the lights, but we really can't turn
off the gravity. That's why doing botanical experiments in orbit is very
useful.''
	--A suite of 17 experiments mounted in a ``biorack'' that will be used
to study the effects of weightlessness on cells, different tissues,
bacteria and flies.
	``It's very important to understand, even in these small biological
tissues, what kind of changes are possible in a microgravity
environment,'' Bondar said. ``Because we're not just dealing with
microgravity, we're also dealing with aspects of radiation.''
	Along with looking for mutation in fruit flies, Bondar and her
crewmates also will study how eggs are fertilized in weightlessness,
which ``is of interest ... to anybody who's considering in the future
living (off) the planet.''
	--Space Physiology Experiments: A series of experiments to learn more
about space motion sickness, a malady that affects about half of the
astronauts who fly in space.
	--Microgravity Vestibular Investigations: Research to study how the
inner ear and an astronaut's ability to sense direction are affected by
weightlessness. The astronauts will take turns sitting in a rotating
chair to measure how their vestibular systems -- inner ears, nerves and
brain -- respond to changes.
	``The interaction and the conflict between the vestibular systems and
the visual systems is still the leading candidate for the cause of space
motion sickness,'' Thagard said. ``The thought is, the otolith, which is
part of the inner ear ... interacts somehow with the visual system and
that interaction is thought to produce space motion sickness.
	``The problem with trying to study otolith responses in one gravity,
the otolith is the gravity sensor (of the inner ear) and it's difficult
to separate out in that environment pure visual from vestibular
influences. By taking all of this to zero gravity, you can make that
separation very nicely.''
	--Biostack: Research on the use of biological materials to detect
cosmic rays.
	--Mental Workload and Performance Evaluation: Experiments to test an
astronaut's ability to operate computer gear in space.
	--Measurement of radiation throughout the shuttle to help scientists
determine its effect on various biological systems.
	The middle portion of the flight primarily is dedicated to materials
processing experiments. Crystals grown on Earth are affected by a
variety of factors such as convection, but in orbit, those factors are
absent, allowing scientists to obtain samples of ultra-pure materials.
	One crystal that will be grown aboard Discovery is triglycine
sulfate, a ``ferroelectric'' material that produces an electric field at
certain temperatures.
	``The crystal, if its temperature is less than (120 degrees
Fahrenheit) has an electrical field,'' Merbold said. ``That material,
for that reason, can probably be used as an infrared detector. Close to
this (120 degrees), the electrical field depends very strongly on
temperature.''
	It is that property that researchers hope will allow them to make
room temperature infrared detectors for spacecraft and other systems.
	``Most other infrared detector materials have to be cooled to a
temperature of liquid nitrogen or something like that, which makes it
more cumbersome to use,'' Merbold said.
	The Discovery astronauts also will attempt to grow crystals of
mercury iodide for use in gamma and X-ray detectors.
	In addition to the Spacelab experiments, 10 ``get away special''
canisters are mounted at the rear of Discovery's cargo bay housing
experiments, including two designed by high school students, that do not
require direct astronaut operation.

 _a_d_v_ _w_e_e_k_e_n_d_ _j_a_n_
_1_8_,_1_9_ _o_r_
_t_h_e_r_e_a_f_t_e_r 

From: [email protected] (WILLIAM HARWOOD, UPI Science Writer)
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 20 Jan 92 05:08:44 GMT

	CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (UPI) -- Rocket engineers geared up Monday to
service the shuttle Discovery's electrical generators, with the
spaceplane's countdown ticking smoothly toward launch Wednesday on a
weeklong flight to probe the effects of weightlessness.
	Under a cloudy sky, engineers at the Kennedy Space Center started
Discovery's countdown Sunday at 1 p.m. EST, four hours after the
orbiter's six-man, one-woman crew arrived at the Florida shuttleport for
final preparations.
	``We're real excited about the prospect of flying,'' commander Ronald
Grabe, 46, told reporters after a flight from Houston. ``This should be
a good mission for science.''
	Despite dismal weather Sunday, Air Force meteorologists predicted a
70 percent chance of acceptable conditions for Discovery's planned
liftoff Wednesday at 8:53 a.m.
	At the controls will be Grabe and co-pilot Stephen Oswald, 40. Their
crewmates are Norman Thagard, 48, William Readdy, 39, David Hilmers, 41,
Canadian neurobiologist Roberta Bondar, 46, and German physicist Ulf
Merbold, 50.
	Liftoff will mark the 45th shuttle launch in the program's 11-year
history -- the 20th since the Challenger disaster six years ago Jan. 28 --
and the first of eight planned for 1992.
	``Discovery is in excellent shape,'' NASA test director Eric Redding
said Sunday. ``There are no ... technical problems or issues that we're
working at this time. We're looking forward to a Wednesday morning
launch.''
	To keep their flying skills sharp, Grabe and Oswald were scheduled to
practice landing procedures early Monday in a NASA business jet modified
to mimic the shuttle's handling on final approach. Both pilots then
planned to take relaxing spins in sleek T-38 jet trainers.
	Out at launch pad 39-A, engineers prepared to pump liquid oxygen and
explosive liquid hydrogen aboard Discovery late in the morning to power
the ship's three electicity-producing fuel cells.
	After a large rotating gantry is pulled away from the shuttle Tuesday
afternoon, technicians are scheduled to pump a half-million gallons of
liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen rocket fuel into Discovery's external
tank starting at 12:33 a.m. Wednesday. The crew plans to strap in
shortly after 6 a.m. to await liftoff.
	The goal of the ambitious mission is to study the effects of
weightlessness on humans, plants, fruit flies and scores of other
biological samples, and to conduct research on how the absence of
gravity can be used to produce ultra-pure industrial materials.
	More than 50 experiments from some 200 scientists and engineers from
17 nations are packed inside a $1 billion European-built Spacelab module
mounted in Discovery's cargo bay. The cylindrical, 23-foot-long
laboratory is connected to the shuttle's crew cabin by a 19-foot-long
tunnel.
	Once in orbit, the astronauts plan to work around the clock in two
12-hour shifts to gather as much data as possible. For that reason, the
shuttle fliers already are following staggered sleep cycles to adjust
their ``biological clocks'' before launch.
	Readdy, Hilmers and Merbold -- the night shift, or ``red'' team --
planned to go to bed at 10 a.m. Monday while their four crewmates, the 
``blue'' shift, were scheduled to turn in around 9 p.m.
	Discovery's mission represents the fifth flight of a Spacelab module
since the program's debut in 1983, a mission that also featured Merbold.
At that time, he became the first European to fly on a shuttle. With his
launch this week, Merbold will become the first to fly twice.

 KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - TUESDAY, JAN. 21, 1992 - 9:30 A.M.

                      LAUNCH MINUS ONE DAY

          STS-42 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - LAUNCH PAD 39-A

     Launch of Discovery remains scheduled for the opening of the
two-hour and 48 minute window,  or at 8:53  a.m.  EST  Wednesday,
Jan. 22.

     Overnight,  engineers  replaced  a  recorder  called modular
auxiliary data system (MADS) located in  the  orbiter's  middeck.
Tape  in  the  recorder  was  torn  causing  the system to be in-
operable. Retesting of the unit is scheduled to be completed this
morning.  MADS records about 246 parameters such as temperatures,
vibrations  and  pressures of various systems on the orbiter such
as the main engines,  the orbital maneuvering system and reaction
control system.

     Members  of the flight crew were briefed this morning on the
status of the vehicle, payload and weather.  Red team members -
- Mission Specialists William Readdy,  David Hilmers and  Payload
Specialist Ulf Merbold - - are scheduled to be awakened at 8 p.m.
tonight in preparation for the launch. Blue team members - - Com-
mander  Ron  Grabe,  Pilot Steve Oswald,  Mission Specialist Norm
Thagard  and Payload Specialist Roberta Bondar - - are  scheduled
to be awakened at about 4 a.m. EST tomorrow for the flight.

     Yesterday,  liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen reactants were
successfully loaded into the orbiter's onboard fuel cell  storage
tanks.  The orbiter's communications systems have been activated.

     The  STS-42  launch  countdown  began  at  1 p.m.  Sunday as
scheduled.  The count entered another built-in  hold  at  5  a.m.
today which extends until 6:33 p.m. tonight.

     The rotating service structure is scheduled to be moved away
from  the launch vehicle at noon today.  Loading of a half a mil-
lion gallons of liquid oxygen  and  liquid  hydrogen  propellants
into  the external tank is scheduled to begin at 12:33 a.m.  Wed-
nesday.

     This morning,  the International Microgravity Laboratory  in
Discovery's  payload  bay  was  powered  down  in preparation for
launch. Shortly after launch, crew members will activate the sys-
tems onboard IML.  Today, technicians will load dozens of experi-
ments in nine middeck lockers in the orbiter's  middeck.  Because
of their nature,  these experiments require late stowage into the
orbiter.

     Weather forecasts for tomorrow's launch indicate there  will
be  a 90 percent chance of having acceptable weather at the open-
ing of the window and a 95 percent chance for good weather during
the entire launch window. The expected temperature at launch time
is 54 degrees.

     Discovery will be carrying  the  International  Microgravity
Laboratory  into  space  for  a seven day flight with the landing
planned at Edwards Air force Base,  Calif.  More than 200  scien-
tists  from  16 countries are participating in the IML investiga-
tions.
 

                                STS-42
                FLIGHT DAY ONE STATE VECTOR (PREDICTED)
                          ON ORBIT OPERATIONS
                  (Posted 01/17/92 by Roger Simpson)

 The following vector for the flight of STS-42 is provided by NASA
 Johnson Space Center Flight Design and Dynamics Division for use in
 ground track plotting programs.  The vector is valid for flight day
 one.  This vector represents the predictied trajectory of Discovery
 during on orbit operations, after the OMS-2 maneuver.  This vector
 assumes an on time launch.  Questions regarding these postings may
 be addressed to Roger Simpson, Mail Code DM4, L.  B. J.  Space
 Center, Houston, Texas 77058, Telephone (713) 483-1928.

 Lift off Time: 1992:022:13:53:00.000
 Lift off Date: 01/22/92

 Vector Time (GMT) : 022:14:31:52.280
 Vector Time (MET) : 000:00:38:52.280
 Orbit Count :  001
 Weight : 230600.0 LBS
 Drag Coefficient : 2.0
 Drag Area: 2750.0 SQ FT

      M50 Elements                           Keplerian Elements
 -----------------------                 --------------------------
 X    =  15828484.3    FT                A          = 3610.1458 NM
 Y    =  14821229.6    FT                E          = 0.000774
 Z    =   3197144.0    FT                I  (M50)   =  56.84179 DEG
 Xdot =  -7329.428841  FT/S              Wp (M50)   = 164.61195 DEG
 Ydot =  12338.355807  FT/S              RAAN (M50) = 228.64554 DEG
 Zdot = -20898.567475  FT/S            / N (True)   =   5.35389 DEG
                            Anomalies  \ M (Mean)   =   5.34561 DEG

                                         Ha         = 163.2938  NM
                                         Hp         = 162.8423  NM

 Mean of 1950 (M50)   : Inertial, right-handed Cartesian system whose
 Coordinate System      origin is the center of the earth.  The epoch
                        is the beginning of the Besselian year 1950.
                        X axis: Mean vernal equinox of epoch
                        Z axis: Earth's mean rotational axis of epoch
                        Y axis: Completes right-hand system
 A:    Semi-major axis
 E:    Eccentricity                         N:    True anomaly
 I:    Inclination                          M:    Mean anomaly
 Wp:   Argument of perigee                  Ha:   Height of apogee
 RAAN: Right ascension of ascending node    Hp:   Height of perigee

    Well, did the thing fly?

As of 8:30 they said there was an 80% chance it would not be on time (weather),
but 70% chance that it would fly during the 2.5 hour window.

That is the last info I have.

Burns

    NPR radio said that they just had a succesful launch
    on their 10 am news, they gave the impression that
    it just happen min. ago.   
    
    john
    

	Yes it did launch about 1 hour late. There were problem with a
	fuel cell pump and electrostatic charges in the air. Also some
	clouds presented an issue. But their up in orbit now. This
	mission is particularly exciting for me, since Roberta Bondar
	a fellow Canadian is on board. She is also carrying from my
	alma mater, University of Guelph, a crest to be displayed at
	the university.

	Susan

     
    here is the sts-42 pre launch element set adj for the actual take off time
    plus a run for radio/visual observation in the New England USA area.
    
    all times are in UTC , note orbit number are off by one sorry
    program bug
     
    john
    
    
    
     AMSAT Elliptical Orbit Calculator
     V. 43, VAX FORTRAN adaptation by KA1IU, of W3IWI BASIC Program
     Copyright 1983,1984,1985,1986,1987  by AMSAT, W3IWI, KA1IU


     Reference Epoch:  1992 +   22.680059830

     Starting Epoch:   1992 +   22.541666667
                       MON/DAY/YR= 1/22/92 at 13:00 UTC

     Element Set  1: STS 42      (OBJ 92999  Set:    2)                          

     Fundamental Keplerian Elements:

                              At Reference             At Start

     Mean Anomaly deg         94.113100000             21.870105291
     Inclination deg          57.002000000
     Eccentricity              0.000958000
     Mean Motion rev/day      15.901632240             15.901568579
     Arg. Perigee deg        265.887000000            265.604130898
     R.A.A.N. deg            244.075600000            244.713502124

     Other Parameters:

     Orbit Number              2                        0
     S.M.A. km              6679.921                 6679.938
     Apogee Height km        308.160
     Perigee Height km       295.361
     Anom. Period min         90.557
     Decay Rate rev/day^2      2.300E-04
     Doppler Freq mhz          0.000


     Argument of perigee will rotate 360 degrees
     in about     0 years, 176 days.

     Earth angle subtended:      Apogee   Perigee
                                   34.9      34.2 deg

     For observer at   42.6 deg lat,    71.4 deg long,
     visibility circle at average of apogee and perigee height is:

       Northern limit:    59.9 deg latitude
       Center:            41.5
       Southern limit:    25.3

     (Values>90 are on far side of pole. Negative=South Lat.)
     (Center is for circle on stereographic map projection.)



      U.T.C.    AZ   EL  DOPPLER  RANGE   HEIGHT   LAT   LONG  PHASE
     HHMM:SS   deg  deg     hz      km      km    N+S-   W+E-  <256>
      1/22/92 SAT               -----DAY #  22----ORBIT #      2----
     1457:00   212  0.0       0    2014     306   27.1   81.8    90
     1458:00   210  4.3       0    1594     306   30.2   79.2    93
     1459:00   205   10       0    1184     306   33.2   76.5    96
     1500:00   195   20       0     798     307   36.2   73.5    99
     1501:00   166   37       0     504     307   39.1   70.3   102
     1502:00    98   37       0     504     307   41.9   66.8   104
     1503:00    69   20       0     797     307   44.5   63.0   107
     1504:00    59   11       0    1182     308   47.0   58.8   110
     1505:00    54  4.7       0    1592     308   49.3   54.2   113
     1506:00    52  0.3       0    2011     308   51.3   49.2   116

      U.T.C.    AZ   EL  DOPPLER  RANGE   HEIGHT   LAT   LONG  PHASE
     HHMM:SS   deg  deg     hz      km      km    N+S-   W+E-  <256>
      1/22/92 SAT               -----DAY #  22----ORBIT #      3----
     1631:00   263 -1.0       0    2138     307   37.6   95.0   100
     1632:00   269  2.6       0    1766     307   40.4   91.7   103
     1633:00   279  6.7       0    1424     307   43.1   88.0   106
     1634:00   294   11       0    1142     307   45.7   84.1   109
     1635:00   317   15       0     976     308   48.1   79.7   111
     1636:00   344   15       0     986     308   50.3   74.9   114
     1637:00     6   11       0    1167     308   52.2   69.6   117
     1638:00    21  6.4       0    1457     308   53.9   63.8   120
     1639:00    30  2.4       0    1802     308   55.2   57.7   123
     1640:00    36 -1.1       0    2176     308   56.2   51.1   125

      U.T.C.    AZ   EL  DOPPLER  RANGE   HEIGHT   LAT   LONG  PHASE
     HHMM:SS   deg  deg     hz      km      km    N+S-   W+E-  <256>
      1/22/92 SAT               -----DAY #  22----ORBIT #      4----
     1807:00   307 -0.6       0    2122     308   51.2   95.4   115
     1808:00   317  1.7       0    1874     308   53.1   89.9   118
     1809:00   330  3.5       0    1696     308   54.6   83.9   121
     1810:00   345  4.5       0    1612     308   55.8   77.6   124
     1811:00     1  4.2       0    1637     308   56.6   70.8   127
     1811:27A    8  3.7       0    1683     308   56.8   67.7A  128
     1812:00    16  2.8       0    1767     308   57.0   63.9   130
     1813:00    28  0.7       0    1979     308   56.9   56.8   132
     1814:00    37 -1.7       0    2251     308   56.5   49.9   135


      U.T.C.    AZ   EL  DOPPLER  RANGE   HEIGHT   LAT   LONG  PHASE
     HHMM:SS   deg  deg     hz      km      km    N+S-   W+E-  <256>
      1/22/92 SAT               -----DAY #  22----ORBIT #      5----
     1942:00   326 -0.9       0    2160     308   56.8   90.5   128
     1942:00A  326 -0.9       0    2158     308   56.8   90.5A  128
     1943:00   336  1.5       0    1898     308   57.0   83.5   131
     1944:00   349  3.5       0    1701     308   56.8   76.5   134
     1945:00     4  4.7       0    1595     308   56.1   69.7   136
     1946:00    20  4.7       0    1598     308   55.1   63.1   139
     1947:00    35  3.4       0    1709     308   53.7   57.0   142
     1948:00    48  1.3       0    1910     308   52.0   51.3   145
     1949:00    58 -1.1       0    2175     307   50.0   46.1   148

      U.T.C.    AZ   EL  DOPPLER  RANGE   HEIGHT   LAT   LONG  PHASE
     HHMM:SS   deg  deg     hz      km      km    N+S-   W+E-  <256>
      1/22/92 SAT               -----DAY #  22----ORBIT #      6----
     2116:00   325  0.2       0    2031     308   55.7   89.5   138
     2117:00   331  4.0       0    1656     308   54.5   83.1   141
     2118:00   342  8.5       0    1314     308   53.0   77.2   143
     2119:00   359   14       0    1038     308   51.1   71.7   146
     2120:00    25   17       0     894     307   49.0   66.7   149
     2121:00    54   16       0     946     307   46.7   62.2   152
     2122:00    75   11       0    1167     307   44.2   58.0   155
     2123:00    88  5.9       0    1484     307   41.5   54.3   158
     2124:00    96  1.7       0    1846     306   38.8   50.8   160
     2125:00   102 -1.8       0    2231     306   35.9   47.6   163


      U.T.C.    AZ   EL  DOPPLER  RANGE   HEIGHT   LAT   LONG  PHASE
     HHMM:SS   deg  deg     hz      km      km    N+S-   W+E-  <256>
      1/22/92 SAT               -----DAY #  22----ORBIT #      7----
     2250:00   305  1.6       0    1875     307   50.1   92.3   147
     2251:00   301  6.2       0    1464     307   47.9   87.5   150
     2252:00   294   13       0    1070     307   45.5   83.1   153
     2253:00   278   23       0     725     307   43.0   79.2   156
     2254:00   236   34       0     537     306   40.2   75.6   159
     2255:00   188   26       0     659     306   37.4   72.2   162
     2256:00   167   14       0     981     306   34.5   69.2   164
     2257:00   158  7.2       0    1367     305   31.4   66.4   167
     2258:00   154  2.3       0    1775     305   28.3   63.8   170
     2259:00   151 -1.6       0    2192     305   25.2   61.3   173


      U.T.C.    AZ   EL  DOPPLER  RANGE   HEIGHT   LAT   LONG  PHASE
     HHMM:SS   deg  deg     hz      km      km    N+S-   W+E-  <256>
      1/23/92 SUN               -----DAY #  23----ORBIT #     17----
     1334:00   172 -0.8       0    2091     305   24.3   68.6    87
     1335:00   162  2.1       0    1790     305   27.5   66.1    89
     1336:00   150  4.8       0    1552     306   30.6   63.6    92
     1337:00   133  6.7       0    1411     306   33.7   60.8    95
     1338:00   115  7.0       0    1396     306   36.6   57.8    98
     1339:00    97  5.5       0    1513     307   39.5   54.6   101
     1340:00    84  2.9       0    1734     307   42.2   51.0   103
     1341:00    74  0.1       0    2024     307   44.9   47.2   106


      U.T.C.    AZ   EL  DOPPLER  RANGE   HEIGHT   LAT   LONG  PHASE
     HHMM:SS   deg  deg     hz      km      km    N+S-   W+E-  <256>
      1/23/92 SUN               -----DAY #  23----ORBIT #     18----
     1506:00   230 -1.3       0    2167     306   29.0   87.9    91
     1507:00   231  2.7       0    1742     306   32.1   85.3    93
     1508:00   233  8.0       0    1320     306   35.1   82.4    96
     1509:00   236   17       0     907     307   38.0   79.3    99
     1510:00   246   35       0     531     307   40.8   75.9   102
     1511:00   331   66       0     347     307   43.5   72.2   105
     1512:00    31   31       0     582     307   46.0   68.2   108
     1513:00    39   15       0     968     308   48.4   63.7   110
     1514:00    42  7.4       0    1382     308   50.6   58.9   113
     1515:00    44  2.4       0    1805     308   52.5   53.5   116
     1516:00    45 -1.5       0    2229     308   54.1   47.7   119


      U.T.C.    AZ   EL  DOPPLER  RANGE   HEIGHT   LAT   LONG  PHASE
     HHMM:SS   deg  deg     hz      km      km    N+S-   W+E-  <256>
      1/23/92 SUN               -----DAY #  23----ORBIT #     19----
     1641:00   278 -1.2       0    2178     307   42.1   97.2   103
     1642:00   286  1.9       0    1844     307   44.7   93.3   106
     1643:00   297  5.1       0    1555     307   47.2   89.1   109
     1644:00   312  8.0       0    1341     308   49.5   84.5   112
     1645:00   332  9.6       0    1244     308   51.5   79.4   114
     1646:00   352  8.9       0    1289     308   53.3   73.8   117
     1647:00    10  6.4       0    1464     308   54.8   67.8   120
     1648:00    22  3.2       0    1728     308   55.9   61.3   123
     1649:00    31  0.1       0    2047     308   56.6   54.6   126

      U.T.C.    AZ   EL  DOPPLER  RANGE   HEIGHT   LAT   LONG  PHASE
     HHMM:SS   deg  deg     hz      km      km    N+S-   W+E-  <256>
      1/23/92 SUN               -----DAY #  23----ORBIT #     20----
     1817:00   316 -0.9       0    2161     308   54.0   94.0   119
     1818:00   326  1.2       0    1924     308   55.4   87.7   121
     1819:00   339  2.9       0    1757     308   56.3   81.1   124
     1820:00   354  3.7       0    1682     308   56.9   74.2   127
     1820:21A  359  3.7       0    1680     308   57.0   71.8A  128
     1821:00     9  3.4       0    1711     308   57.0   67.2   130
     1822:00    23  2.0       0    1840     308   56.7   60.2   133
     1823:00    34  0.0       0    2049     308   56.0   53.4   136

      U.T.C.    AZ   EL  DOPPLER  RANGE   HEIGHT   LAT   LONG  PHASE
     HHMM:SS   deg  deg     hz      km      km    N+S-   W+E-  <256>
      1/23/92 SUN               -----DAY #  23----ORBIT #     21----
     1952:00   331  0.4       0    2011     308   56.9   86.8   131
     1953:00   342  3.1       0    1736     308   56.4   79.9   134
     1954:00   355  5.5       0    1529     308   55.5   73.3   137
     1955:00    12  6.9       0    1424     308   54.3   67.0   140
     1956:00    30  6.6       0    1442     308   52.7   61.1   142
     1957:00    47  4.8       0    1579     308   50.8   55.7   145
     1958:00    59  2.3       0    1808     307   48.7   50.8   148
     1959:00    69 -0.5       0    2099     307   46.3   46.3   151

      U.T.C.    AZ   EL  DOPPLER  RANGE   HEIGHT   LAT   LONG  PHASE
     HHMM:SS   deg  deg     hz      km      km    N+S-   W+E-  <256>
      1/23/92 SUN               -----DAY #  23----ORBIT #     22----
     2125:00   319 -1.0       0    2171     308   55.0   93.2   138
     2126:00   322  2.8       0    1759     308   53.6   87.1   141
     2127:00   328  7.8       0    1356     308   51.8   81.4   144
     2128:00   337   15       0     978     307   49.8   76.3   147
     2129:00   359   26       0     667     307   47.6   71.6   149
     2130:00    46   33       0     559     307   45.2   67.3   152
     2131:00    86   22       0     746     307   42.6   63.4   155
     2132:00   103   12       0    1085     306   39.8   59.8   158
     2133:00   111  5.9       0    1474     306   37.0   56.5   161
     2134:00   115  1.3       0    1881     306   34.0   53.5   163

      U.T.C.    AZ   EL  DOPPLER  RANGE   HEIGHT   LAT   LONG  PHASE
     HHMM:SS   deg  deg     hz      km      km    N+S-   W+E-  <256>
      1/23/92 SUN               -----DAY #  23----ORBIT #     23----
     2259:00   298 -1.0       0    2161     307   48.8   96.9   148
     2300:00   292  2.4       0    1787     307   46.4   92.4   151
     2301:00   283  6.4       0    1446     307   43.9   88.3   153
     2302:00   268   11       0    1168     307   41.3   84.6   156
     2303:00   245   14       0    1008     306   38.5   81.2   159
     2304:00   219   13       0    1026     306   35.6   78.0   162
     2305:00   198  9.7       0    1212     306   32.6   75.1   165
     2306:00   184  5.3       0    1505     305   29.5   72.4   168
     2307:00   175  1.4       0    1854     305   26.4   69.9   170
     2308:00   169 -2.0       0    2232     305   23.2   67.5   173
    

    Yup, liftoff at 9:52 (if I heard correctly, I was watching the screen).
    Nominal ascent with no OMS-1 required. Beautiful flight. The humidity
    in the atmosphere made the shock waves that form around max-Q very
    visible.
    
    I beleive they said at yesterday's press conference that this was a new
    launch team.
    
    gary

Discovery and its seven-member science crew are in a 160-by-160
nautical mile orbit following this morning's nominal ascent through
clear Florida skies. Launch of Discovery for the STS-42 mission occurred
at 9:52:33 am EST. Launch was delayed one hour because of separate
concerns about an orbiter fuel cell which produced a momentary voltage
spike, the possibility of elevated atmospheric electric charges in the launch
pad vicinity, and a cloud bank which might have impinged on the launch pad
area. Despite these problems, Discovery's launch and ascent were completely
nominal. First and second stage performance was right on the money,
obviating any altitude boost from the orbiter's onboard maneuvering engines.
The crew will now spend the remainder of the day activating the
International Microgravity Laboratory equipment inside the Spacelab
habitable module and beginning the various experiment runs.

Status reports for this mission will be provided by the Mission Control Center
at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and from the Spacelab Payload Operations
Control Center at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. We will post
status reports on Spacelink as they are issued.  The first Shuttle mission
status reports are normally available about 12 hours after launch.

Rev. E (adjusted for actual launch time) is available.  Same place.

- dave

STS-42 Mission Status #1

MCC STATUS REPORT #1
Jan. 22, 1992
5:30 p.m. CDT

With no anomalies to impede progress, the STS-42 crew has begun
its payload activities with the International Microgravity
Laboratory-1.

Mission Specialist and Payload Commander Norm Thagard led the crew
in the successful activation of the Spacelab module.  The two
hour, 30 minute procedure was completed at 1:34 p.m.  CST with
crew ingress into the module at about 12:30 p.m CST.

During STS-42, Discovery will maintain a "gravity gradient"
attitude with the orbiter's tail facing the Earth. In this
attitude, the orbiter does not need the reaction control system
jets to maintain position and thus provides a stable platform for
the microgravity experiments.

Discovery is performing extremely well with no major systems
anomalies as it orbits 162 nautical miles above the Earth.

Later this evening the red team consisting of Mission Specialists
Bill Readdy and Dave Hilmers and Payload Specialist Ulf Merbold
will continue the payload operations while the blue team spends
its first night in space.  Blue team members are Commander Ron
Grabe, Pilot Steve Oswald, Thagard and Payload Specialist Roberta
Bondar.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

IML-1 Mission Status Report #01
6:30 p.m. CST, January 22, 1992
0/09:37 MET
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA's Spacelab transformed the Space Shuttle Discovery into an
orbiting science laboratory this afternoon as its crew began
activating the experiment facilities which make up the first
International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-1) mission.

The flight opens a new era of international cooperation in space
science research.  More than 200 scientists from 14 nations
contributed to the 42 experiments aboard IML-1.  Many of those
scientists are gathered now at NASA's Spacelab Mission Operations
Control facility, located at the Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala.  They will work closely with the crew during the
mission, sharing information, monitoring data, solving problems and
revising plans to take advantage of unexpected research
opportunities.

Experiments aboard the Spacelab will explore the effects of the
near weightlessness, or "microgravity," of space on both materials
and certain life functions.  Because of the great number of
experiments planned for the mission, the seven-member crew is
working around the clock in two 12-hour shifts.  Primary science
responsibility belongs to the Spacelab crew: NASA Mission
Specialists Norm Thagard and Dave Hilmers, Canadian Payload
Specialist Roberta Bondar and German Payload Specialist Ulf
Merbold.  However, for IML-1, the orbiter flight crew -- Commander
Ron Grabe, Pilot Steve Oswald and Mission Specialist Bill Readdy --
will also make significant contributions to science activities.

The first day of the mission is critical for life scientists and
crystal growth experimenters, since many of their samples degrade
quickly and must be loaded into experiment facilities as soon as
possible after launch.

After payload activation was complete about five hours into the
mission, Thagard began startup of Biorack, a European Space Agency
facility which first flew on Germany's Spacelab D-1 in 1985.
Seventeen international experiments (three from the United States)
will study the effects of both microgravity and radiation on
plants, tissues, cells, bacteria, fruit flies, frog eggs and other
biological samples.  The frog egg experiment, designed to evaluate
the way embroys develop in the absence of gravity, was the first
loaded into the Biorack.

Bondar loaded the first group of wheat seedlings into a NASA
facility designed to investigate how plants respond to gravity and
light.  In the Gravitational Plant Physiology Facility, seedlings
are placed in centrifuges to expose them to various gravity forces
and in chambers to expose them to flashes of light.  Only in space
is it possible to study the effects of light and gravity
separately.

Thagard also set up ESA's Critical Point Facility.  Flying for the
first time, it will study fluids at the temperature and pressure
where liquid and vapor become indistinguishable.

Four crystal growth facilities, which will operate throughout the
mission with a minimum of crew interaction, also began operations.
NASA's Protein Crystal Growth experiment (operated by Commander
Grabe in the orbiter's mid-deck) and Germany's Cryostat (in the
Spacelab) will grow high-quality crystals of proteins -- large,
complex molecules that are essential to all life.  Scientists
analyze protein crystals to learn how the molecules are constructed
and how they work inside plants and animals.

The Mercury Iodide Crystal Growth facility, a French experiment
which flew on Spacelab 3, will research the most effective methods
for growing the cystals in space.  Mercury iodide crystals have
practical uses as sensitive X-ray and gamma ray detectors.

Japan's Organic Crystal Growth Facility will grow organic
superconductors from a solution.  Researchers are interested in
these materials because, in spite of their organic nature, they can
-- at extremely low temperatures -- transfer electric current with
no resistance, just like a metal superconductor.  Superconductors
are key components of computers, communications satellites and
other electrical devices.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

IML-1 Mission Status Report #02
06:00 a.m. CST, January 23, 1992
0/21:00 MET
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center

Activity on NASA's first International Microgravity Laboratory
(IML-1) mission continued this morning as the seven-member crew
worked in two 12-hour shifts.  Part of the science aboard
Discovery's Spacelab takes place when the mission specialist and
payload specialist fill out questionaires prior to shift hand-over,
recording descriptions of their physical sensory reactions to being
in space.  Another investigation involving the crew is the Sled
Experiment which measures changes in the gravity sensing part of
the inner ear, the otolith organ. A crew member is strapped onto a
device which slides gently back and forth, stimulating the otolith
organ.  As small electrical impulses are applied to the subject's
leg with an electrode, responses are measured to determine how the
stimulus to the inner ear affects response to the impulses.  Along
with other Space Physiology Experiments, this will test the
astronaut's ability to adapt to a microgravity environment.

In the Spacelab, Mission Specialist David Hilmers and Payload
Specialist Ulf Merbold activated experiments within the Biorack
facility.   Several experiment activities were performed in the
glove-box of Biorack.  An investigation known as CELLS was started
to provide information on formations in cultures of cartilage
cells.  Cartilage impairments found in rodents flown on previous
space flights are similar to those observed in skeletal
malformations in children.  By studying how gravity effects
cartilage formation, scientists may learn about cartilage
development on Earth as well as how bones heal in space.  Another
Biorack experiment, BONES, was activated by the crew to study the
response of cell cultures to the uncompressed, unstressed
environment of microgravity.  Before longer, manned spaceflights
can be planned, the effects of microgravity on bones must be
understood.

Astronauts also are exposing cell cultures to microgravity. An
investigation called FRIEND uses cells which have been transformed
by the leukemia virus into cancerous "Friend Leukemia" cells.  Such
cells do not produce hemoglobin, which plays an essential role in
oxygen transport.  But when exposed to a drug called
dimethylsufoxide (DMSO), Friend cells produce hemoglobin.  By
studying these cells in microgravity, scientists may discover how
the gene responsible for hemoglobin synthesis is regulated.

FLY, a life sciences experiment, was conducted by David Hilmers, to
study microgravity's effect on development of fruit fly eggs.  FLY
first flew on the D1 Spacelab mission in 1985, however, for the
IML-1 mission, the effects of microgravity on the life span of the
fruit fly will be noted.  Another Biorack experiment, EGGS,
involves fertilizing frog eggs in space to determine what role
microgravity plays in embryonic development.  Investigations such
as these must be conducted in order for scientists to predict and
plan for future extended stays in space.

Plants are also part of the IML-1 payload.  NASA's Gravitational
Plant Physiology Facility  houses two plant experiments.  First,
GTHRES studies the gravity threshold of oat plants as they respond
to different levels and durations of weightlessness.  Video images
using infrared radiation are collected throughout the mission
showing the effect of gravity during various stages of plant
growth.  The second experiment, FOTRAN, looks at how plants respond
to a pulse of blue light in the absence of gravity.  Wheat
seedlings planted both before and during the mission are exposed to
different durations of exposure to light.  Their responses are
monitored by an infrared-sensitive, time-lapse camera and recorded
for later analysis. Scientists will use the information gathered to
understand more about plant life in microgravity.

While the crew was busy with life science experiments, material
sciences were going on in the European Space Agency's Critical
Point Facility.  Four different experiments are planned inside the
facility which is primarily for optical studies of transparent
fluids.  To understanding the effects of gravity on the behavior of
fluids, the fluids are examined near the critical point where
liquid and vapor become indistinguishable because of pressure and
temperature changes. IML-1 is the first Shuttle flight for the
Critical Point Facility.  Results are expected to provide insights
on fundamental questions about the basic physics of substances
undergoing phase changes.  Although the facility's electronic
system runs each experimemt automatically, crew members set up and
start the samples, report on them at their critical points,
exchange thermostats and film, and shut down the facility.  Video
images and temperature data are sent back to the investigators at
Marshall Space Flight Center for immediate feedback and analysis.

    Saw some video on the 12:00 PM lunch time news here.  Great shot of one
    of the astronauts whose pants had "fallen down" or should I say
    "drifted" in the zero G environment.  His shorts were showing, and he
    didn't know the camera was on.
    
    :^)
    
    Joe
    

    I thought it was a different flight that they had to repair the
    refrigerator...

STS-42
1 21846U 92  2  A 92 23.74826168  .00210000  00000-0  61700-3 0    49
2 21846  56.9686 239.0991 0009119 258.1473 101.8604 15.90926379   197

Satellite: STS-42
Catalog number: 21846
Epoch time:      92023.74826168        (23 JAN 92   17:57:29.81 UTC)
Element set:     JSC-004
Inclination:       56.9686 deg
RA of node:       239.0991 deg          Space Shuttle Flight STS-42
Eccentricity:     .0009119                SGP4 Keplerian Elements
Arg of perigee:   258.1473 deg         from NASA flight Day 2 vector
Mean anomaly:     101.8604 deg
Mean motion:   15.90926379 rev/day               G. L. Carman
Decay rate:    2.10000e-03 rev/day~2      NASA Johnson Space Center
Epoch rev:              19





                               STS-42
                     FLIGHT DAY TWO STATE VECTOR
                         ON ORBIT OPERATIONS
                 (Posted 01/23/92 by Roger Simpson)

The following vector for the flight of STS-42 is provided by NASA
Johnson Space Center Flight Design and Dynamics Division for use in
ground track plotting programs.  The vector is valid for flight day
two.  This vector represents the trajectory of Discovery during on
orbit operations.  Questions regarding these postings may be
addressed to Roger Simpson, Mail Code DM4, L. B. J.  Space Center,
Houston, Texas 77058, Telephone (713) 483-1928.

Lift off Time: 1992:022:14:52:32.957
Lift off Date: 01/22/92

Vector Time (GMT) : 023:17:00:00.000
Vector Time (MET) : 001:02:07:27.040
Orbit Count :  018
Weight : 231151.0 LBS
Drag Coefficient : 2.0
Drag Area: 2750.0 SQ FT

     M50 Elements                           Keplerian Elements
-----------------------                 --------------------------
X    =  15228527.4    FT                A          = 3605.0134 NM
Y    =   7678954.5    FT                E          = 0.000250
Z    =  13747428.0    FT                I  (M50)   =  56.76360 DEG
Xdot =   2057.760908  FT/S              Wp (M50)   =  26.90008 DEG
Ydot =  21022.922564  FT/S              RAAN (M50) = 238.64363 DEG
Zdot = -14012.522582  FT/S            / N (True)   = 104.48296 DEG
                           Anomalies  \ M (Mean)   = 104.45518 DEG

                                        Ha         = 162.715  NM
                                        Hp         = 160.767  NM

Mean of 1950 (M50)   : Inertial, right-handed Cartesian system whose
Coordinate System      origin is the center of the earth.  The epoch
                       is the beginning of the Besselian year 1950.
                       X axis: Mean vernal equinox of epoch
                       Z axis: Earth's mean rotational axis of epoch
                       Y axis: Completes right-hand system
A:    Semi-major axis
E:    Eccentricity                         N:    True anomaly
I:    Inclination                          M:    Mean anomaly
Wp:   Argument of perigee                  Ha:   Height of apogee
RAAN: Right ascension of ascending node    Hp:   Height of perigee

Mission Control Status Report #2

                       MISSION CONTROL CENTER
                       STS-42 Status Report #2

Thursday, January 23, 1992, 4 a.m. CST

The Red Team of crew members -- Mission Specialists David
Hilmers, Bill Readdy and Payload Specialist Ulf Merbold --
continued their work with experiments in the International
Microgravity Laboratory-1 aboard Discovery throughout the
night, undisturbed by any mechanical problems with the
spacecraft.

Discovery remains in a 160 by 163 nautical mile orbit,
circling Earth every one hour, thirty minutes and thirty
seconds at a 57-degree inclination to the equator. The
spacecraft continues to maintain a gravity gradient
orientation, nose pointed to space and tail to Earth. The
position is designed to keep the spacecraft stable with
minimum firings of the shuttle's small steering thrusters,
saving fuel and avoiding disturbances to onboard experiments.

One brief problem was reported by the crew when an overhead
storage locker in the spacelab module became temporarily
jammed open. However, Merbold managed to close the locker
easily after realigning it on sliding tracks. The contents of
the locker were removed to avoid opening and closing it
during the remainder of the flight, although Merbold reported
he was confident the items could be stowed in the locker for
landing and it could be closed again without difficulty.

Discovery's use of fuel, water, oxygen and other consumables
on board is in line with pre-flight predictions and also
presents no problems for the mission.

The Blue Team aboard Discovery -- Commander Ron Grabe, Pilot
Steve Oswald, Mission Specialist Norm Thagard and Payload
Specialist Roberta Bondar -- was awakened at 3:58 a.m. CST to
prepare to relieve their fellow crew members. The Red Team is
scheduled to go to sleep at 8:53 a.m. CST.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

MCC Status Report #3 was not available

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-42 Mission Control Status Report #4

Thursday, January 23, 1992

5:30 p.m. CDT


As the Blue Team ends its day and the Red Team gets ready for
another day of science activities, Discovery continues to
perform very well.

Currently, the orbiter is in a tail-to-Earth, payload bay-
north attitude. This "cold soak" attitude was taken as part
of the thermal management of the orbiter. When the payload
bay faces south of the groundtrack, the top side of Discovery
is exposed to the sun. This causes orbiter surfaces to heat
up and systems to cool at a slower rate. The roll to the
payload bay north attitude will enhance the efficiency of the
cooling system. This attitude will be maintained for five
and 1/2 hours before Discovery returns to a bay south
position.

Prior to the roll maneuver, reaction control system jet F5L
gave a "failed leak" indication due to cooler than normal
jet temperatures. Flight controllers requested that the crew
reselect the jet which subsequently fired normally during
the maneuver. The firing brought jet temperatures back into
the normal range.

Also just prior to the roll maneuver, crew members activated
one of the Getaway Special canisters riding in the payload
bay. Like the rest of the International Microgravity
Laboratory mission, the GAS canisters represent and
international collection of experiments. STS-42 is carrying
10 canisters with experiments and two loaded with ballast.

Payload crew members performed an in-flight maintenance
procedure on the rotating chair used for the Microgravity
Vestibular Investigations. The chair tripped a circuit
breaker while in use earlier today. After the IFM, the
circuit breaker was reconfigured and MVI operations
continued.

Discovery continues to circle the Earth once every 90 minutes
in a 163 by 161 nautical mile orbit.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

IML-1 Mission Status Report #03
6:30 p.m. CST, January 23, 1992
1/9:37 MET
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center

"Fourteen of the 16 experiment facilities aboard the IML-1 Spacelab
are up and operating quite well," reported Mission Scientist Bob
Snyder at a press briefing on the second afternoon of the
international space science mission.  The other two facilities are
scheduled to be turned on later in the mission.

The Critical Point Facility got high praise from Dr. Daniel Beysens
of the French Atomic Energy Commission, who provided two of its
experiments.  "This is the first time in space for the Critical
Point Facility, and it works very well thanks to ESA," he said,
refering to the European Space Agency which developed the
equipment.  A 16-hour run of Beysens' first experiment was
completed this afternoon.

The IML-1 crew had a busy day as they added new pieces to the
puzzle of how the space environment affects life.  From plant cells
to the astronauts themselves, life forms were scrutinized under a
variety of test conditions.  Scientists must have a much deeper
understanding of the impact of microgravity and radiation on life
before people can live in space for extended periods or attempt
long voyages of exploration.  Analysis of subtle factors that are
masked by gravity may provide keys to understanding life functions
on Earth as well.

The crew carried out a number of investigations from the Canadian
Space Agency's group of Space Physiology Experiments.  Two dealt
with the proprioceptive system, which provides the sense of
position and movement to the body and limbs.   Payload Specialist
Roberta Bondar (a Canadian astronaut) and NASA Mission Specialist
Norm Thagard took turns seated in the Space Adapatation Syndrome
Experiment sled, located in the center aisle of the Spacelab.
After being blindfolded, they attempted to point at memorized
targets on a grid supsended in front of them.  Commander Ron Grabe
and Thagard took turns positioning the other's arm and leg at
various angles, and the test subjects tried to mimic the positions
with their eyes closed.

Pilot Steve Oswald captured some of the sled activities on film
with the large-format IMAX camera.  Footage will be incorporated
into an upcoming film on the challenges and opportunities of space
exploration.  This was the first time IMAX has filmed activities
inside NASA's Spacelab.

Three other Canadian experiments were carried out by the orbiter
crew in the mid-deck area.  Both Grabe and Oswald participated in
one which measures the amount of energy expended living and working
in space.  Throughout the mission, they are drinking water labeled
with non-radioactive isotopes.  Water samples from the galley water
supply and urine samples are being collected regularly, and the
astronauts keep a daily log of what they eat and drink.  The two
also measured the circumference of their lower legs to determine
the volume of blood in their veins.  The measurements will be
repeated later in the mission to check for changes after several
days' exposure to weightlessness.  It is thought that loss of blood
volume and body fluids in space may contribute to dizziness or
other symptoms astronauts sometimes feel as they return to Earth's
gravitational force field.  Oswald tended the Canadian phase
partitioning experiment, an investigation of a process used to
separate different kinds of molecules and cells out of complex
mixtures of substances.  Phase partitioning is used to separate
biological materials such as bone marrow cells for cancer
treatment.

Near the end of their shift, the crew began another round of NASA's
Microgravity Vestibular Investigation.  Last night, a mechanical
overload detector in the base of the experiment's rotating and
oscillating chair termininated the first experiment set.  According
to Principal Investigator Dr. Millard Reschke, the dectector
setting was too sensitive for microgravity.  "It will preclude us
from using some motions of the chair, but the majority of our
science is unaffected.  We're still in good shape," he said.
Astronauts in the chair are subjects of experiments to test optic
and inner ear responses to head and body movements in
weightlessness.  On Earth, the stimulus of the gravity and
motion-detecting organs of the inner ear provide orientation
signals to the brain.  The IML-1 test series measures the extent of
confusion to these signals when gravity is no longer a factor.
Repeated experiments throughout the mission will track how the crew
adapts to the new environment, and results will aid in designing
appropriate measures to counteract neurosensory and motion sickness
problems on future space flights.

Bondar activated several experiments in the European Space Agency's
Biorack facility to study much smaller forms of life.  Identical
samples for each experiment were placed in two Biorack chambers:
one at zero-gravity and one with a centrifuge that simulates Earth
gravity.  In addition, scientists at Kennedy Space Center are
duplicating each Biorack experiment on the ground.  When the
samples are compared, investigators should be able to differentiate
between effects caused by microgravity and those caused by
radiation.

One of the Biorack experiments studies plant cells stripped of
their cell walls, called "protoplasts," to gain basic knowledge
about the development of plant cells under microgravity
conditions.  The cells are from carrots and a fodder plant called
rape, but as protoplasts they behave more or less like animal
cells.

Grey duct tape and a piece of wire proved to be useful flight
hardware when Norm Thagard set up the Biorack microscope/camera to
photograph the cells.  The electrical engineer used them as a handy
substitute for a small mounting pin which had turned up missing.
"It was a very good indication of the usefulness of people in
space, and we are very thankful he did it," said Biorack Project
Manager Peter Genzel.

Bondar also activated a Biorack experiment which uses common
brewers yeast to measure the effects of microgravity and radiation
on chomosomes and DNA, as well as one that measures the growth of
bacteria spores.  On previous flights, bacteria have tended to
reproduce more rapidly in microgravity than on Earth.

The crew took care of their gardening duties, tending wheat and oat
seedlings in the Gravitational Plant Physiology Facility.  Bondar
proudly displayed a group of wheat seedlings, planted just before
launch and already over an inch tall, for on-board TV cameras.  She
planted a group of oat seedlings today, the second group the IML-1
crew has planted in orbit.  The aim of the experiment is to
evaluate separately the responses of plants to light and gravity.

Scientists for the Mental Workload Performance Evaluation were
pleased to get an unexpected extra run for their experiment early
this morning.  Mission Specialist Thagard completed a set of timed
memorization experiments on a lap-top computer.  The experiment
tests mental function, reaction times and physical responses in
microgravity.

MCC STATUS REPORT #5, 4:30 a.m. CST Jan. 24, 1992

Discovery has continued to function extremely well with no
significant mechanical problems reported by crew members or
flight controllers during the night.

The red team of crew members -- Mission Specialists Dave
Hilmers and Bill Readdy and Payload Specialist Ulf Merbold
continued a hectic pace of scientific investigations into the
effects of weightlesness on materials and living organisms,
remaining on their planned schedule. Only normal spacecraft
housekeeping duties -- a wastewater dump and the daily fine-
tuning of the Inertial Measurement Units, Discovery's main
navgation equipment -- were required in addition to the
scientific research.

Readdy, celebrating his 40th birthday today, took a brief
break from work to watch the Russion space station Mir pass
within 39 nautical miles of Discovery at about 3:30 a.m.

Mir looked as bright as the planet Mercury looks when seen
shortly after sunset from Earth, Readdy told flight
controllers. He compared the sun's reflection off of the
Russion spacecraft to the glint from a high-flying airplane.

The blue team of crew members was awakened shortly before 5
a.m. CST to begin their third day in space. Discovery remains
in a 162 nautical mile high circular orbit, completing a
revolution of Earth every 90 minutes.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

IML-1 Mission Status Report #04
6:30 a.m. CST, January 24, 1992
1/21:30 MET
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center

A busy, productive night aboard the International Microgravity
Laboratory (IML-1) began as the last two of the 16 experiment
facilities were activated by Payload Specialist Ulf Merbold.  He
installed the ampoule containing a mercury iodide seed crystal,
which was grown on Earth, into NASA's Vapor Crystal Growth System
facility;  then turned on the facility heater to warm the ampoule
to begin the growth process of the crystal.  As he monitored the
growth of this crystal and reported his findings to Principal
Investigator Dr. Lodewijk van den Berg, there was a great deal of
interest due to the fact that several small crystallites were
growing around the primary seed crystal.   Dr. van den Berg, a
payload specialist on Spacelab 3 where the Vapor Crystal Growth
System was first used, watched intently, then decided to have Ulf
Merbold adjust the temperature in the facility in an effort to
disolve the small crystallites, leaving the original mercury iodide
seed crystal to grow.

The last facility to be activated was NASA's Fluids Experiment
System, containing a laser system for making holograms of samples
and a video camera for recording the fluid around the crystal
samples.  Although two separate experiments will take place in this
facility during the mission, only one was to be activated during
this shift.  This experiment involves the study of solution crystal
growth in low-gravity.  Triglycine sulfate crystals which can be
used as improved, room-temperature infrared detectors, are grown
from an original seed crystal which is initially immersed in a
solution of triglycine sulfate, heated, then cooled.  Soon after
the experiment began, the facility experienced a problem with a
circuit breaker, which is being resolved during scheduled facility
operation times.

During the course of any mission, subtle movements caused by
low-level accelerations, crew activities, or equipment vibrations
can cause the results of an experiment to be altered.  STS-42 is
equipped with the Space and Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS),
designed to measure and record these movements.  Information
obtained from SAMS during the night will be extremely important to
fully analyze the results of the crystals growing in the Fluids
Experiment System and the Vapor Crystal Growth System because they
take several days to develop and are sensitive to low-frequency
acceleration.

While these material science activities were taking place in the
Spacelab, engineers at Johnson Space Center and Marshall Space
Flight Center were busy resolving  a problem with the Microgravity
Vestibular Investigations chair system.  As Mission Specialist Norm
Thagard went through a sequence of tests on his visual and
vestibular responses, a circuit breaker on the rotating chair
tripped.  Adjustments to the chair will be performed during the
next 12-hour shift.

As the crystal experiments continued in NASA's facilities aboard
Spacelab, Mission Specialist David Hilmers and Payload Specialist
Ulf Merbold performed life science experiment maintenance. From the
glove box of the Biorack facility, video showed the progress of
plant growth, cell cultures, and fruit fly experiments begun
earlier in the mission.

Payload Specialist Ulf Merbold performed one of the Space
Physiology Experiments involving the mini-sled.  Here, he gathered
information concerning the spontatenous eye movements associated
with positional changes of the head.  The results of this
experiment, as well as results from other physiological studies,
will help scientists understand how space travel affects
astronauts.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mission Control Status Report #6

                    MISSION CONTROL CENTER
                   STS-42 Status Report #6


Friday, January 24, 1992, 4 p.m. CST

President George Bush sent his greetings to the STS-42 crew
today during a special phone call to the orbiting Discovery.

Bush, who was meeting with a group of Young Astronauts, gave
a few of the children the rare opportunity to talk with
Commander Ron Grabe, Pilot Steve Oswald and Mission
Specialists Norm Thagard and Bill Readdy and payload
specialist Roberta Bondar during the 12-minute event.

Earlier today, crew members completed an inflight maintenance
procedure on the orbiter's Waste Collection System due to a
problem with the mechanical linkage that performs the space
equivelant of flushing the toilet.  The procedure, which has
been used on previous missions, uses vice grip pliers to
operate the valve.

Maintenance also was performed on the Microgravity
Vestibular Investigations rotating chair. The chair
subsequently was successfully tested at the 120 degree per
second rate.

Crew members also are being asked to investigate a short in
the Fluid Experiment System. Controllers suspect the short
may be caused by a piece of insulation over the top of some
pressure switches. Sometime since the payload was loaded the
insulation may have rubbed through to the aluminum tape
covering it.

With those minor problems successfully fixed, Discovery is
operating extremely well giving the orbiter crew time to
assist in the payload activities. Houston flight controllers
are not tracking any major systems problems at this time.

Discovery continues to orbit the Earth once every 90 minutes
at an altitude of 163 x 161 nautical miles.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-42 MISSION CONTROL STATUS REPORT #7, 5 a.m. Jan. 25, 1992



The crew of Discovery continued to work with investigations
of weightlessness in the Spacelab, performed a student
experiment, and remotely activated various research equipment
in Get Away Special (GAS) canisters in the cargo bay during
the night.

Discovery remains in excellent health, and Red Team crew
members -- Mission Specialists Bill Readdy and Dave Hilmers
and Payload Specialist Ulf Merbold -- reported no problems
with the spacecraft overnight.

Readdy activated a student experiment, Zero-G Capillary Rise
of Liquid Through Granular Media, on Discovery's middeck
while student investigator Constantine Costes watched from
Mission Control. The experiment featured water flowing throgh
tubes filled with various sizes of glass beads. Its studies
may assist in understanding the behaviour of fluids in
filters, hydroponics and agriculture, heat pipes and
propellant tanks on future spacecraft. Costes submitted the
experiment to NASA while he was a student at Randolph High
School in Huntsville, Ala. He is now a doctoral student in
mathematics at Harvard University.

After Readdy activated one GAS canister experiment, the
Australian Space Telescope, the lid to the GAS canister did
not open. Payload investigators are doublechecking the
procedures and troubleshooting the problem. The ultraviolet
telescope is planned to look at several scientific targets
during the mission.

The blue team of crew members was awakened shortly before 5
a.m. to begin their fourth day in orbit and are scheduled to
relieve the red team at about 6:20 a.m. Discovery remains in
a 162 by 160 nautical mile high orbit, circling Earth every
90 minutes.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

IML-1 Mission Status Report #05
6:30 p.m. CST, January 24, 1992
2/9:37 MET
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center

IML-1 crew members took a break from their schedule of science
experiments today for a phone call from President George Bush and a
group of Young Astronauts gathered at the White House.  "You're on
the cutting edge, and you're setting a great example for the rest
of the country and the rest of the world," Bush told the
international Spacelab crew.

As the mission entered its third day, astronauts carried on
experiment activities already underway.  Payload Specialist Roberta
Bondar continued activities with the Gravitational Plant Physiology
Facility and Biorack experiments.  She also started a Biorack
experiment to test the growth in microgravity of two strains of a
small plant.  On Earth, the roots of one strain grow down and its
shoots grow up, but the roots and shoots of the other grow in any
direction.  Scientists are interested in how weightlessness will
affect both growth patterns.

Mission Specialist Norm Thagard drew on his ingenuity and skills
this afternoon to implement a troubleshooting procedure from the
ground to eliminate a problem with the Microgravity Vestibular
Investigation's rotating chair.  Early runs of the experiment,
designed to test visual and inner ear responses to head and body
movements in weightlessness, were constrained by an over-sensitive
motion sensor.  Thagard wedged a strip of Velcro tape in front of a
pendulum in the base of the chair.  The pendulum, one of several
safety devices which guard against chair overspeed, was set to be
more sensitive than proved necessary in microgravity.  Payload
Specialist Roberta Bodar and Thagard resumed the regular schedule
for the experiment, where they were subjected to different
frequencies and directions of rotation in the test chair, while
their eye motions were recorded with a tiny video camera mounted in
a special helmet.

Bondar, Commander Ron Grabe and Pilot Steve Oswald took part in a
Canadian experiment to evaluate back pain in astronauts.  In
migrogravity, the vertebrae in the back spread slightly apart, and
the spine stretches by as much as 2.76 centimeters -- often
creating painful tension.  Stereo photographs made of the crew
members' backs today will be compared with similar pictures taken
before launch, later in the mission and after landing.  Scientists
will use the comparison to determine whether elongation continues
throughout the flight or levels off after a few days.


Throughout the morning, Fluids Experiment System engineers and
scientists from the triglycine sulfate experiment worked with
controllers in Huntsville and at Johnson Space Center to devise
aprocedure to determine what caused a circuit breaker to trip in

the system when it was activated last night.  A decision will be
made after the procedure is carried out about adjustments to the
experiment schedule.

Mission Specialist Norm Thagard and the Vapor Crystal Growth System
team in Huntsville continued to observe the mercury iodide crystal
inside that facility, which was activated last night.  Unwanted
crystallites which had formed on the original seed crystal were
dissolved, and crystal growth was resumed this afternoon.  "We
think we've found the right balance of conditions where the crystal
won't evaporate away but it won't grow out of control, either,"
said experiment scientist Don Nason.

Thagard, Grabe and Oswald each completed scheduled sessions at the
Mental Workload and Performance Evaluation computer workstation,
for a total of five thus far in the mission.  "It is interesting to
note," said mission scientist Bob Snyder, "that the most
comfortable position seems to vary from one astronaut to another."

Payload Specialist Ulf Merbold worked a little overtime at the end
of his shift this morning, accomplishing a bonus run of a Space
Physiology Experiment where, seated in a stationary sled, he stared
into a rotating unbrella-shaped device with a pattern of spots. The
experiment aims to determine the relative importance of visual and
balance organ information in determining body orientation.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

IML-1 Mission Status Report #06
6:00 a.m. CST, January 25, 1992
2/21:00 MET
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center

The crew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery demonstrated the need for
manned space flight tonight as they performed hands-on maintenance
and analysis of scientific equipment located within the Spacelab
module.  Coordinating with teams from Marshall Space Flight Center
and Johnson Space Center, the crew was able to identify and correct
a circuit breaker problem involving one of the test cells in the
Fluids Experiment System.   Rudolph Ruff, Project Manager for the
Fluids Experiment System, stated, "We have high confidence that the
casting and solidification experiment  will go as scheduled as well
as the second run of solution crystal growth."

Another area of material science was the focus of tonight's
activities as members of the Vapor Crystal Growth System
investigation team kept a watchful eye on their growing crystal.
Previously, smaller crystals had formed around the base of the
larger crystal.  The science team instructed the IML-1 crew to
reverse the growth process to a point where the smaller crystals
evaporated, leaving only the larger crystal to continue growing in
the NASA experiment facility.  Dr. Lodewijk Van den Berg, Principal
Investigator for this experiment, said, " Spirits are way up,
concerning the growth of this crystal now."  He went on to say,
"This process has been done many times in laboratories on Earth,
but it's a tricky procedure each time."

The Science Operation Team for the Microgravity Vestibular
Investigation exparessed growing satisfaction tonight following
repairs to the experiment's oscillating/rotating chair.  Mission
Specialist David Hilmers and Payload Specialist Ulf Merbold
demonstrated the effectiveness of Norm Thagard's repair procedure
and science experiments were continued.  Howard Better, of MVI
Science Operations, pointed out that, "The crew is doing an
excellent job, and we're very pleased with the data we've been able
to gather up to this point."

Life science investigations also continued to go well as video was
sent to Earth showing the movements in the Biorack slime mold
experiment (SLIME).  The intent of this experiment is to discover
how a cell works and interacts with its environment since all
performances of man, animals, and plants are based on the activity
of cells.  Andreas Wolke, one of the science investigators for this
experiment, stated that he was, "Very satisfied with the movements
of the SLIME sample."  Data from this mission will be compared with
results from Spacelab D1 to understand more about the adaptation of
living organisms to weightlessness during space flight.

Further experiments in the European Space Ageny's Biorack facility
included feeding the fruit flies involved in the FLY experiment,
illuminating seeds of the thale cress plant to induce germination
and injecting thymidine into Hybridoma cells before freezing them
for analysis on Earth.   Each of these investigations is being
conducted to further our understanding of living things in a
weightless environment.

    KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - FRIDAY, JAN. 24, 1992  11 AM

 
        STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - FLIGHT DAY 3

     The right hand STS-42 solid rocket booster arrived at Hangar
AF this morning where is being hoisted out of the water and  into
its stand.  The Freedom Star and the left hand booster are due at
Hangar AF this morning.  Workers will wash the boosters and  safe
them  today and will take the weekend off.  A thorough inspection
will be conducted on Monday.   The boosters will be  disassembled
and  shipped back to Thiokol in Utah for refurbishment.  The for-
ward and aft skirts will be refurbished here by USBI.

     Discovery is scheduled to land Wednesday, Jan. 29 at Edwards
Air Force Base, Calif. at approximately 11:06 a.m. EST.

 

STS-42  MCC Status Report 8

                       MISSION CONTROL CENTER
                       STS-42 Status Report #8


Saturday, January 25, 1992, NOON CST

The Discovery astronauts are midway through their 4th day in
orbit, continuing their investigations in plant and animal
life sciences, and materials sciences.

A stable, undisturbed environment is vital to microgravity
processing of materials in space - and much effort is being
made on this flight to provide such an environment, and to
develop techniques for future missions aboard the Space
Station Freedom.

A key part of that effort involves the use and evaluation of
two exercise devices - a cycle ergometer and a rowing
machine - which are designed to minimize noise and vibration
in the crew cabin.  The crew reported earlier today that the
cycle ergometer showed some potential, but that at slow
speeds, they encountered jerky motion, vibration, and some
noise.  Engineers on the ground are working to provide the
crew with some alternate techniques that may improve the
stability of the cycle.  The rowing machine, however, appears
to work very well, showing good stability and minimal noise.
The crew will continue to use and evaluate these devices
throughout the flight.

Discovery made three daytime passes over the United States,
this morning.  Orbiting southwest to northeast, Discovery and
crew traveled up the eastern seabord, then, an orbit later,
across the central U.S., and on a third pass, over the
western U.S.  The crew trained cameras on the scenes below
which were afforded by clear skies over much of the country.

Also, this morning, a second attempt was made to open the
lid on the canister containing the Australian Space Telescope
without success.  Flight controllers are continuing to
assess the problem and are developing plans to try it again
later, tonight.

The Space Shuttle Discovery, however, continues to perform
extremely well, with no systems problems to speak of, and the
crew is continuing to perform equally
as well.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-42 Mission Control Status Report #9
January 25, 1992
5 p.m. Central

Discovery crew members passed through darkness for the last time this afternoon
as STS-42 continued to progress smoothly through its fourth flight day.

Typically, space shuttle crews see 16 sunsets and 16 sunrises every 24 hours,
but due to the inclination and time of year, the orb iter will be in continuous
sunlight for the remainder of the mission.

In January, the sun is over the Earth's southern hemisphere, about 20 degrees
south of the equator.  Coupled with the mission's 57-degree inclination orbit
and the 165-nautical mile altitude, the result is a series of orbits in which
the shuttle does not pass into the shadow of the Earth.

This is a thermally challenging condition for flight controllers and extensive
pre-flight planning was done to accommodate the phenomenon.  Later today
Discovery will be maneuvered to an attitude in which its tail points to the
Earth and its payload bay door points north of its ground track.  The orbiter
will stay in the bay north attitude for about 5 1/2 hours before rolling once
again to point the payload bay doors south of the ground track.  In the bay
south attitude, orbiter surfaces facing the sun heat up and systems cool at a
slower rate.  Moving to the bay north attitude for a time enhances the
efficiency of the cooling procedures.

Earlier today reaction control system jet F5L had a leak indication due to
temperatures below the normal operating range.  Flight controllers asked the
crew to reselect the jet, which has since been operating normally.

The Red Team woke for its next day shortly before 4 p.m.  CST. After handing
over to the Red Team, the Blue Team will begin its eight-hour sleep shift
shortly before 9 p.m.  CST.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

IML-1 Mission Status Report #07
6:30 p.m. CST, January 25, 1992
3/9:37 MET
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center


"We are now half way through a really successful first
International Microgravity Laboratory mission," reported Mission
Manager Robert McBrayer at today's press conference.  "I don't
think I've ever seen so many smiling scientists in one place," he
said, referring to the busy group of international scientists
overseeing their experiments from Spacelab Mission Operations
Control in Huntsville.  Over the last several hours, several of
them have taken advantage of the control center's communications
capability to talk directly with the astronauts about their
experiments.

McBrayer reported that all the experiments except one, scheduled
for later in the mission, have been started, and "the crew has been
doing a magnificent job keeping everything on schedule."

Early in the day, one group of scientists at Spacelab Mission
Operations Control anxiously watched as Mission Specialist Norm
Thagard successfully started up an experiment aimed at
understanding alloy solidification using the Fluids Experiment
System, the last of sixteen science facilities activated aboard the
IML-1 Spacelab.  The Casting and Solidification Technology
experiment solidifies a salt and water solution to mimic the
behavior of metal alloys as they cool.  A few hours into the
30-hour experiment session, Principal Investigator Dr. Mary Helen
McCay reported, "The crystals are a lot more uniform than we had
expected.  We're very pleased with their growth; it's better than
we had expected at this point."  McCay, now of the University of
Tennessee Space Institute, was an alternate payload specialist for
Spacelab 3 in 1985.

"Casting is one of the oldest technologies, dating back to 5000
B.C.  But the equipment that enables us to understand the process
-- holograms, computers and space-based laboratories -- have only
recently come together," observed McCay.  "Up until now, most alloy
casting has been done by trial and error," she added, "but higher
technologies now demand more sophisticated materials."  The
sensitive optics of NASA's Fluids Experiment System allow
scientists to monitor the flow of transparent fluids during
crystallization.  A laser system makes three-dimensional holograms
of samples, and a video camera records images of fluid flows.
Post-flight, CAST holograms will be reconstructed so scientists can
analyze crystal formation during cooling.

Dr. Antonious Michels and other University of Amsterdam scientists prepared for
their experiment to be removed from the Critical Point Facility after a
successful 52-hour run. "This ex periment was designed to rely heavily on
optical observation techniques, without speculating much on what we were going
to see.  But we are very happy about the quality of the data we are getting
down," said Michels.

Payload Specialist Roberta Bondar, Biorack team members in
Huntsville, and the experiment scientist at Kennedy Space Center
shared in the excitement of seeing "real science right before their
eyes," as Bondar prepared slides of protoplast samples.  The
protoplasts -- carrot cells which were stripped of their cell walls
before flight -- had been regrowing walls since the experiment was
set up Thursday.  Thus far, cell wall regeneration in the two
environments appears to be quite different.

Unfortunately, about half of the 480 flies in another Biorack
experiment have died.  In a ground-based simulation of the
experiment ongoing since the beginning of the mission, a comparable
number of the insects perished.  Mission scientists agree that the
problem was caused by contaminants in the container in which they
were housed due to a shortened lead time for sterilization
procedures.  As for the remaining flies, "We will compare flight
results and ground results, and should get some data," said Mission
Scientist Bob Snyder.

Clear weather over Canada allowed the orbiter crew to film the St.
Lawrence River and the Manicouagan Crater, an impact crater in
Quebec, with the large-format IMAX camera.

Bondar and Pilot Steve Oswald also worked with Canada's Phase
Partitioning Experiment, an investigation of a process used to
separate different kinds of molecules and cells out of complex
mixtures of substances.  On Earth, gravity inhibits effective
separation and purification.  The crew members vigorously shook a
container made up of transparent chambers filled with different
solutions.  Then they photographed the solutions throughout the
20-minute de-mixing process.  Phase partitioning is of interest to
medical researchers as it applies to separation and purification of
cells for use in transplants and the treatment of disease.

Payload Specialist Ulf Merbold and Mission Specialist Dave Hilmers
will take turns operating the casting and solidification experiment
throughout the next 12-hour shift.  It will be concluded early
tomorrow afternoon.  They will revisit Biorack's slime and fly
experiments, monitor the mercury iodide crystal in the Vapor
Crystal Growth System, and continue tending wheat and oat seedlings
in the Gravitational Plant Physiology Facility.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

IML-1 Mission Status Report #08
6:00 a.m. CST, January 26, 1992
3/21:00 MET
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center

Scientists watched with great anticipation over night as their
experiments were developing aboard Spacelab's International
Microgravity Laboratory (IML-1).

Mission Specialist David Hilmers held plants up to a Spacelab
camera, allowing science investigators from the University of
Pennsylvania to have a better look at oat seedlings which have been
growing in space for the past three days.  These oat plants have
been exposed to different levels and durations of gravity to see
how a plant responds to different gravitational fields and how
microgravity affects a plant's structure.

The effects of microgravity on living things were examined further
as David Hilmers worked in the Biorack facility glove box to feed a
sample group of fruit flies and collect their newly laid eggs.
Scientists from the Institute of Biomedical Investigations CSIC, of
Madrid, Spain, will analyze data from this mission to determine
what changes, if any, occur in the development of the fruit fly
embryos exposed to the weightless environment of space.  About half
of the 480 flies have died since this mission began.  The flies may
have died due to contamination of the containers housing them.

Investigators from the Institute for Flight Medicine, Germany,
watched video downlink to observe movements of slime mold.  For two
hours, slime mold was microscopically analyzed within the glove box
of the European Space Agency's Biorack facility.  As part of IML-1
life science activities, scientists are searching for a better
understanding of how cells react to the absence of gravity.

While life science investigators recorded information from their
experiments, scientists in the material sciences discipline enjoyed
images from a hand-held camcorder operated by Payload Specialist
Ulf Merbold.  Shortly after Merbold began the experiment dealing
with casting and solidification technology (CAST), he held the
camera close enough to the Fluids Experiment System equipment to
permit investigators from the University of Tennessee Space
Institute to witness the growth of dendrites (tree-shaped
formations) as the salt and water solution solidified.  The
transparency of these salt solutions, which model the
solidification of metal alloys, allowed scientists at Marshall
Space Flight Center to monitor the experiment from the ground.

Using the camcorder once more, Ulf Merbold gave Dr. Lodewijk van
den Berg something to smile about as he provided the first color
images of the mercury iodide crystal, which has been growing in the
Vapor Crystal Growth System facility for approximately 30 hours.
Since mercury iodide crystals have practical uses as low-power,
room-temperature energy detectors, scientists are hoping to grow
larger, nearly flawless crystals in space.

The next 12 hours will see the crew tending to two of the Biorack
experiments and performing Microgravity Vestibular Investigations.
Payload Specialist Roberta Bondar will water lentil seeds as part
of the ROOTS investigation into the transmission of the gravity
stimulus in the lentil root.  After she places these seeds into an
incubator, she will set up the equipment to photograph PROTO
cells.  These protoplast cells will be the study of microgravity on
cell wall regeneration, cell divisions and growth.  Later, Mission
Specialist Norm Thagard and Payload Specialist Bondar will perform
three positional runs in the Microgravity Vestibular Investigation
oscillating/rotating chair to test optic and inner ear responses to
head and body movements in weightlessness.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-42 Mission Control Status Report #10
January 26, 1992
5 a.m. CST


Discovery continued shuttle mission STS-42 with a clean bill
of mechanical health during the night, allowing the crew to
concentrate on a hectic schedule of weightless research.

One problem was experienced with the Text and Graphics
System, a specially designed type of facsimile machine for
the shuttle, when the device indicated a paper jam. Mission
Specialist Bill Readdy cleared the jam indication, however,
test transmissions from Mission Control appeared washed out,
he reported. Flight controllers are continuing to
troubleshoot the problem, and a backup system, an onboard
teleprinter, was used to send the Blue Team their morning
mail.

Discovery remains in permanent sunlight, following a course
parallel to the terminator, the line that separates the
sunlit side of Earth from the night side of the planet. The
spacecraft is not expected to be shaded from the sun for the
remainder of the flight.

Consumables on board, such as water, electricity, fuel and
air, are in excellent shape, with the actual amounts used by
the crew somewhat less than what was predicted prior to the
flight. The Blue Team was awakened for their fifth day of
work in space at about 5 a.m. CST.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-42  MCC Status Report #11


MCC STATUS REPORT
Sunday, Jan. 26, 1992
11 am CST


On their fifth day in orbit, the Discovery astronauts were
told by ground controllers that there may be a chance to
extend their science investigations in space one full day.

Flight controllers in Houston have been carefully assessing
Discovery's consumption of electricity, water, air and fuel
and found it to be well under budget so far.  Should the
trend continue, mission managers could have the option as
early as tomorrow to keep the international crew aloft one
additional day.

Discovery and crew continue their nightless revolutions
around the Earth, as the orbiter's flight path keeps it in
constant sunlight.  At about 1p.m. today, the crew will
maneuver Discovery to point its payload bay away from the
Sun to cold-soak its heat-rejecting radiators one more time
before entering a critical phase of science that requires
maneuvers to be restricted.

Beginning about 8:30 p.m. CST, Discovery will be kept in
a constant bay-south gravity-gradient attitude for up to 45
hours while delicate triglycine sulfate crystals are developed
in the laboratory module.  The crystal growth study is a part
of the Fluids Experiment System, and is sponsored by Alabama
A&M University.

The cold-soak maneuver has been moved up to 1p.m. from
2:30, in order to thoroughly cool the orbiter before turning back
toward the Sun for the extended period.

Discovery continues to perform virtually without flaw.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-42 MCC STATUS REPORT #12
Sunday, Jan. 26, 1992
6 p.m. CST

Members of the STS-42 crew demonstrated a coin toss in
microgravity during a live television link-up with CBS Sports
in Minneapolis during NFL Super Bowl pre-game activities.
Commander Ron Grabe and Pilot Steve Oswald also "flipped"
Canadian Payload Specialist Roberta Bondar as she and
Mission Specialist Norm Thagard took a brief break from
work in the Spacelab module. The crew members returned
immediately to their science activities.

Earlier in the day, the Discovery astronauts were
told by ground controllers that there may be a chance to
extend their science investigations in space one full day.

The Mission Management Team will meet at 8 a.m. CST
Monday to decide whether Discovery's supply of electricity,
water, air and fuel are adequate and whether the scientific
benefits to be gained are sufficient to warrant another
day of Spacelab experiments.

Discovery and crew continue their nightless revolutions
around the Earth, as the orbiter's flight path keeps it in
constant sunlight.  At about 1p.m. today, the crew maneuvered
Discovery to point its payload bay away from the Sun to
cold-soak its heat-rejecting radiators before entering a critical
phase of science that requires maneuvers to be restricted.

Beginning about 8:30 p.m. CST, Discovery will be kept in
a constant bay-south gravity-gradient attitude for up to 45
hours while delicate triglycine sulfate crystals are developed
in the laboratory module.  The crystal growth study is a part
of the Fluids Experiment System, and is sponsored by Alabama
A&M University.

Discovery continues to perform virtually without flaw.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

IML-1 Mission Status Report #09
6:30 p.m. CST, January 26, 1992
4/9:37 MET
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center


Just before lunchtime today, Mission Specialist Norm Thagard
completed a 30-hour run of the casting and solidification
experiment, which principal investigator Dr. Mary Helen McCay and
her husband Dr. Dwayne McCay termed "awesome."

"Every one of our 11 test runs worked," said Mary Helen McCay.
"Luck was on our side, but it was really impressive how the crew
members and the NASA organization got together to make it happen."
Fluids Experiment System optics captured 296 holograms of the
transparent salt and water solution, which models the
solidification of metal alloys.  The McCays will study the
holograms over coming months to increase fundamental knowledge of
how alloys solidify so better methods can be designed for
processing them on Earth.

The McCays had high praise for the value of crew initative in
operation of their experiment, as well as for the Spacelab itself.
"You really can't study microgravity or produce the same kind of
effect that you get in something like Spacelab by any other kind of
technique," observed Mary McCay.  "And believe me, I've been
working on it for something like 20 years."

The crew reactivated the Fluids Experiment System within an hour,
this time installing a triglycine sulfate seed crystal.  "Oh, joy
and delight; it stays up!" exclaimed Thagard as he powered up the
experiment.  "Fantastic," replied alternate payload specialist Ken
Money from Huntsville.  "There's a lot of cheering down in
triglycine sulfate team," he added, referring to Dr. Ravindra Lal's
experiment team in the science operations area.  Problems in the
first experiment test cell prevented the crew from heating on an
earlier run, although holographic images were made of the unheated
crystal.  The Alabama A&M University experiment aims at growing a
high-quality crystal of transparent triglycine sulfate.  The
crystals have potential as infrared detectors that can be used at
room temperature with small cooling devices.  In addition,
holographic images from the Fluids Experiment System will help
scientists determine how solution crystal growth takes place in
space.

"We've had some smiles this morning," reported Dr. Bob Gammon of the University
of Maryland. He had been monitoring NASA's thermal equilibration experiment,
which was installed in the Critical Point Facility last night.  The experiment
studies the behavior of a fluid a million times more compressible than water
(roughly like the contrast between squeezing a marshmallow and a rock) as it
nears the critical point.  This particular fluid was chosen because its
critical temperature (where the liquid and vapor phases are indistinguishable)
is near room temperature. "However, it is a general property that happens in
all fluids," said Gammon. "In order to understand thermodynamics, we to have
get our models of critical point phenomena right.  It's a whole chapter in the
book, and we are trying to write that chapter."

Payload Specialist Roberta Bondar activated the next to last
experiment to be set up in Biorack, watering lentil seedlings in a
test of how plant roots are able to sense gravity.  As of
mid-afternoon, about 36 of the original 480 insects in the Biorack
fruit fly experiment survived.  Samples frozen earlier in the
mission should provide some data for the experiment.

Bondar and Thagard took spins in the Microgravity Vestibular
Investigation chair, adding more data on the adaptation of
astronauts to weightlessness.  "This science is in its infancy, and
there is still very little data taken in a laboratory environment
like Spacelab available," said principal investigator Dr. Millard
Reschke of Johnson Space Center. "So all the information we collect
will be extremely important to understanding the causes of space
adaptation syndrome, then designing countermeasures to alleviate
it."

IML-1 managers and scientists in Huntsville conferred today about
the best uses for bonus hours during a possible extra day of the
flight.  "We're looking at the science benefits, and we're making
sure there are no negative impacts on science if we extend the
mission," said Mission Manager Bob McBrayer.  "It appears now that
both life science and materials science would benefit, but we have
not completed our poll of the scientists."  A decision on extending
the mission will be announced sometime tomorrow.

Crew activities for the next shift include space adaptation tests
aboard NASA's Microgravity Vestibular Investigation chair and
Canada's Space Physiology Experiment sled.  France's Mercury Iodide
Crystal Growth team will watch closely as Payload Specialist Ulf
Merbold removes their crystal from the experiment chamber where it
has been growing since the first day of the mission.

Mission Status Report #13
Monday, Jan. 27, 1992
5 a.m. CST



Flight controllers spent a quiet night monitoring Discovery's
health as the crew continued a busy shift of weightless
research. No problems were reported by the crew or seen by
controllers, and the spacecraft continues to be in excellent
condition.

The main focus of the evening was on maximizing the
efficiency with which electricity is used onboard. Power
usage has been well below levels predicted preflight due to
the conservation efforts on the part of the crew and
controllers. Other consumables, including fuel, air, water
and food, are also in good supply, and shuttle managers are
expected to decide later this morning whether to attempt to
extend the mission by one day.

Overnight, Mission Specialist Bill Readdy filmed the
activities of his fellow crewmen in the spacelab module using
the IMAX camera, a special, large-format movie camera.

The Blue Team of crew members was awakened for their sixth
day in space shortly before 5:30 a.m. CST.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

IML-1 Mission Status Report #10
6:00 a.m. CST, January 27, 1992
4/21:00 MET
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center

The Payload Operations Control facility at Marshall Space Flight
Center was active overnight as scientists here received audio and
video reports of their experiments.

Payload Specialist Ulf Merbold described conditions in the Fluids
Experiment System to experiment investigators as the second run for
the study of solution crystal growth in low-gravity began.
Principal Investigator Dr. Ravindra B. Lal, of Alabama A & M
University, also watched camcorder images as the triglycine sulfate
solution was heated in an effort to dissolve unwanted crystals
which formed during stowage.

Merbold also removed three quartz ampoules from the Mercury Iodide
Crystal Growth facility and placed three new containers into the
furnace.  This facility, provided by the French National Center for
Space Studies, was activated shortly after the mission began and
runs virtually unattended throughout the flight.  Dr. Robert
Cadoret, of Aubiere, France, expects to grow high-quality mercury
iodide crystals, unhampered by gravity-related convection.

To continue the study of life processes in a microgravity
environment, Mission Specialist David Hilmers and Payload
Specialist Merbold conducted Space Adaptation Syndrome Experiments
on the mini-sled.  This mini-sled, provided by the Canadian Space
Agency, is installed in the center aisle of the Spacelab module.
Principal Investigator Dr. Douglas G.D. Watt, Montreal, Canada,
will analyze the results of this experiment which stimulates the
nervous systems of the crew members to learn more about how humans
adapt to weightlessness.

David Hilmers took another ride in the Microgravity Vestibular
Investigations oscillating/rotating chair last night. Dr. Millard
F. Reschke, senior scientist of Johnson Space Center, is the
principal investigator.  He is one of the 20 investigators
representing major universities and research facilities from five
countries involved in this study of the parts of the inner ear
responsible for maintaining balance, both on Earth and during
spaceflight.  By removing the influence of gravity, scientists can
learn more about the function of the organs of the inner ear.  This
information will benefit people here on Earth who suffer from
dizziness and other inner ear problems, as well as future space
travelers.  IML-1 is the first time the MVI chair has been used to
such an extent.  It is also the first time that video and computer
recordings have provided documentation of the crew's responses to
the chair movements.

While these activities were taking place in the Spacelab module,
Mission Specialist William Readdy was moving throughout the Space
Shuttle Discovery taking motion pictures with a 70 millimeter IMAX
(maximum image) camera, developed by IMAX Systems Corp., Toronto,
Canada.  The IMAX project is a collaboration between NASA and the
Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum to document
significant space activities.  Footage from IML-1 will be used in a
film entitled "Destiny In Space," focusing on mankind's future in
space.

The next 12 hours will include continuation of the Microgravity
Vestibular Investigations involving Mission Specialist Norm Thagard
and Payload Specialist Roberta Bondar.   Additionally, Bondar will
work on Biorack investigations by photographing protoplasts cells
and lentil roots.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

                         MISSION CONTROL CENTER
                        STS-42 STATUS REPORT #14


Monday, January 27, 1992, NOON CST


The astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery were
granted a one-day flight extension to their flight today to
continue their investigations in the International
Microgravity Laboratory.

Plans for the return trip home have been pushed back to
Thursday when they will maneuver out of orbit just after 9 am
central time and land at Edwards Air Force Base about an hour
later.

The extension was made possible due to the efficiency of the
Orbiter and crew in making use of their fuel, electricity,
water, and air.

German payload specialist Ulf Merbold and crew commander Ron
Grabe received a special phone call from Cologne, Germany,
this morning.  Just before 10:00 am central time, they were
contacted by Jean Marie Luton, the Director General of the
European Space Agency, Dr. Alfred Gomolka, the President of
the Council of the Federal Republic of Germany, and Dr. Heinz
Riesenhuber, German Minister of Research and Technology.

Greetings were exchanged in both English and German with
Merbold and commander Grabe, who spoke fluent German as well.

Just before mid-day, today, the crew reported that the
makeshift commode lever which they crafted earlier in the
flight crew now seems to require a much greater turn than normal
to operate the system.  Flight controllers suspect
some degradation in the valve that is opened and closed by
the handle and are working to provide the crew with another means
of operating the system.

With that exception, Discovery is in excellent condition.
  

IML-1 Mission Status Report #11
6:30 p.m. CST, January 27, 1992
5/9:37 MET
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center

The crew aboard the IML-1 Spacelab today tended Biorack experiments
on brewers yeast and lentil seedling roots, planted more wheat
seedlings in an experiment to test the reaction of plants to light
in the absence of gravity, and monitored the mercury iodide crystal
growing in the Vapor Crystal Growth System.  Payload Specialist
Roberta Bondar and Mission Specialist Norm Thagard went through the
longest round yet of Microgravity Vestibular Investigation
experiments, a test of the factors which influence orientation both
in space and back on Earth.  In the Shuttle mid-deck, the orbiter
crew took a second set of vein-capacity measurements for Canada's
Space Physiology Experiments.  Findings will be used to design
better antigravity suits, worn by Shuttle crews during reentry.

The Fluids Experiment System's triglycine sulfate crystal team
chose to terminate the second test cell run, after attempts to
dissolve unwanted crystalites proved unsuccessful.  Instead, they
reinserted their first test cell into the experiment system.  An
insulation problem that had prevented heating of the solution in
the test cell earlier was overcome, and the experiment team is
watching closely as the cell slowly heats to about 131 degrees
Fahrenheit.  After the heating is completed this evening, growth of
the seed crystal from solution can begin.

IML-1 mission managers and experiment scientists in Huntsville have
been busy deciding on the best uses for bonus hours of scientific
research that will be afforded by an extra mission day announced
this morning.  The additional activities will be inserted into
tomorrow's mission timeline.

"The crystal growth experiments can just keep on going, giving us
larger crystals and hopefully greater perfection, and the life
science teams will have opportunities to gather more information,"
said Mission Scientist Bob Snyder.  "This will also give us an
opportunity to make up science time lost during repair of two
facilities -- the Microgravity Vestibular Investigation and the
triglycine sulfate crystal experiment."

Provisions will be made to minimize any impact of the extension on
some Biorack samples that had already been preserved in
anticipation of a Wednesday landing.  The hard-working crew will
have a less intense schedule than on previous days.

One group of experiments aboard the Spacelab which has required
almost no crew attention will be a beneficiary of the extra time.
The five IML-1 radiation experiments, which have been tracking
radiation in the Spacelab throughout the mission, will collect
about 15 percent more data than originally planned.

Germany's Biostack package, which alternates sheets of plastic
radiation detectors with layers of biological samples, is located
in various parts of the Shuttle.  After the mission, scientists can
track paths of radiation particles and determine if they altered
the samples.  Japan's Radiation Monitoring Container Device is
mounted on the end cone of Spacelab, which has somewhat lower
radiation protection than other areas in the module.  Enclosed on
all sides by gauges which measure radiation dosages, it also layers
radiation detectors and biological samples.

Three of Biorack's 17 experiments are radiation detectors.  One,
which flew previously on Spacelab D1 in 1985, studies the influence
of radiation and/or low gravity on stick insect eggs at early
stages of development.  Another employs microscopic roundworms to
"capture" mutations which may be caused by cosmic rays, while a
third is a mechanical dosimeter which will document the actual
nature and distribution of the radiation inside Biorack.

Minutes after hearing official confirmation this morning that their
mission would be extended one day, the multi-national IML-1
Spacelab crew received a telephone call from the Director General
of the European Space AGency and two officials of Germany.  Payload
Specialist Ulf Merbold, an ESA astronaut and member of the German
astronaut office based in Cologne, responded to their well wishes.
"From my personal point of view, it is good for us to work together
on a global scale.  I've had the opportunity to fly in space with
some of the finest astronauts in the United States of America.  I
feel we should intensify our cooperation.  If we pool our
potential, I think we can accomplish a lot."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-42 MCC STATUS REPORT # 15
Monday, Jan. 27, 1992
5:30 p.m. Central Standard Time

On its sixth day in orbit, Discovery continues to perform
extremely well allowing crew members to devote their time to
the International Microgravity Laboratory-1 experiments.

Discovery is currently orbiting the Earth in an attitude in
which the orbiter's payload bay doors face south of the
ground track. This attitude, which provides a stable platform for the
microgravity experiments, is thermally challenging for flight
controllers. Houston flight controllers continue to monitor
their systems and, in coordination with payload community,
will prepare any necessary attitude adjustments.

Flight controllers also are troubleshooting problems with the
waste collection system commode lever. Just before mid-day
today, the crew reported that the makeshift commode lever
which they crafted earlier in the flight crew now seems to
require a much greater turn to operate the system than
normal. Flight controllers suspect some degradation in the
valve that is opened and are preparing procedures for the crew.

Discovery continues to orbit the Earth once every 90 minutes
at an altitude of 161 x 158 nautical miles.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

IML-1 Mission Status Report #12
        6:00 a.m. CST, January 28, 1992
        5/21:00 MET
        Spacelab Mission Operations Control
        Marshall Space Flight Center

        Overnight activities for the International Microgravity Laboratory
        (IML-1) crew involved a great deal of interaction with science
        teams and payload managers at Marshall Space Flight Center.  Amid
        all the activity, Commander Ron Grabe and Mission Specialist David
        Hilmers took a moment to honor the memory of Captain Manley L.
        (Sonny) Carter, a member of the IML-1 crew until he was killed in a
        commercial plane crash April 5, 1991.

        Payload Specialist Ulf Merbold was kept busy performing important
        scientific functions in the Biorack facility.  Here, he
        photographed samples of the lentil root, cell cultures, and thale
        cress plants. In order to show how these life forms developed
        periodically during the flight, he injected the samples with a
        solution to stop their growing process. Results from these
        experiments will help scientists understand more about how
        weightlessness effects growth, cell division and regeneration.

        In another area of the Spacelab module, Payload Specialist Merbold
        moved a group of wheat seeds into the illumination area of the
        facility called the mesocotyl suppression box.  In the
        Gravitational Plant Physiology Facility, these recently planted
        seeds will be exposed to pulses of blue-light to determine how
        light stimulation affects curving of these plants.  Mission
        Specialist David Hilmers also spent time at this facility when he
        moved oat plants to a culture rotor where they were exposed to
        different levels of gravity.

        Merbold continued the Mental Workload and Performance Evaluation
        studies last night when he used the computer and adjustable work
        station to do his daily planning activities.  This experiment will
        help scientists design a more comfortable and efficient work area
        for a weightless environment.  Earlier in the evening, Principal
        Investigator Dr. Harold L. Alexander, of the Massachusetts
        Institute of Technology, had an air-to-ground conversation with
        Mission Specialist William Readdy as he performed the same
        activity.  "It was a highly productive two minutes," Dr. Alexander
        said.  "Using crew reactions and equipment measurements, we have
        added about 50% additional data to what we've already learned."

        During an earlier Microgravity Vestibular Investigation chair run
        for Payload Specialist Roberta Bondar, a problem involving the
        video relay system was experienced.  Analysis of the situation
        revealed that particles and debris had collected in the Helmet
        Interface Box.  Located on the back of the oscillating/rotating
        chair, this interface box controls the relay of data from the
        helmet to the computer during the activity.   After Hilmers used a
        vacuum cleaner to remove these particles, he and Merbold served as
        test subjects for more MVI experimentation.

        Mission Specialist Hilmers and Payload Specialist Merbold took
        turns on the mini-sled, located in the center aisle of the Spacelab
        module.  As part of the life sciences experiments onboard
        Discovery, this activity stimulates the nervous systems of the crew
        members to learn more about how humans adapt to weightlessness.

        Throughout the night, Merbold made several observations of the
        Fluids Experiment System triglycine sulfate crystal experiment,
        which had unwanted crystals in the solution.  Dr. Lavindra B. Lal,
        of Alabama A & M University, monitored the slow, careful heating
        process going on in the test cell by air-to-ground communications
        and video downlink.  Merbold's observations of the material
        sciences also included accounts of the continuing growth of a large
        mercury iodide crystal in the Vapor Crystal Growth System.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                     MCC STATUS REPORT 16
                            STS-42
                     5 a.m. Jan. 28, 1992

Discovery maintained a clean bill of health overnight as
flight controllers focused on planning events for an added
day in space for shuttle mission STS-42.

The schedule of activities planned pre-flight for the crew
has been slightly altered to allow the crew's sleep periods
to move in line with the new landing time. Also, the
rescheduling reflects more research that can be accomplished
with an extra day in space.

Discovery's crew will hold a 30-minute press conference this
morning beginning at 8:28 a.m. CST. Crew members will answer
questions from news media at the Johnson Space Center in
Houston, Texas; the Marshall Spaceflight Center in
Huntsville, Alabama; and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

All members of the crew, both those on the blue work shift
and red work shift, will participate. Discovery is currently
in a 159 x 160 nautical mile orbit, circling earth every 90
minutes. The spacecraft remains in constant sunlight as it
has for the past two days due to its high-inclination, polar
orbit and the time of year.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

                             MCC STATUS REPORT 17
                                    STS-42
                            12 NOON JAN. 28, 1992


The Discovery astronauts talked with reporters from around
the world this morning in a special televised press
conference from space.  All seven crewmembers participated,
fielding questions in three different languages ranging from
space flight experience in general to the importance of
international cooperation in space exploration.

Later, this evening, Canadian payload specialist, Roberta
Bondar, will speak with her country's Prime Minister and
Minister for Science in a three-way long-distance phone call
from Toronto and Ottawa.

The red team will be awakened tonight just before 7 p.m.
central time to begin their final full day of science before
closing down the laboratory tomorrow night.  The Blue team
will be going to sleep tonight at about 8:30.

Tomorrow's agenda will include a thorough checkout of the
space ship's flight control systems and attitude control
thrusters to verify them for landing operations, Thursday.
The checkout is scheduled to get underway just before 7 a.m.
central time.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-42 MCC STATUS REPORT 18
Tuesday, Jan. 28, 1992
5:30 p.m. CST

After more than 100 orbits, Discovery, on this its 14th
flight, continues to perform very well allowing orbiter crew
members time to assist in the payload activities.

Flight controllers are not tracking any major systems
problems at this time, but propulsion controllers are
keeping an eye on a small, slow leak in reaction control jet
L3A. The leak, which was first seen at about 3 p.m. CST,
did not require any action by crew members and does not
impact the nominal plan for deorbit.

For a short time, payload crew members and orbiter crew
members shared the same air-to-ground frequency while ground
controllers tracked down a high-pitched squeal on A/G-1. For
this mission, communications between the payload crew and
the Payload Operations Control Center occurrs on A/G-1
while the orbiter crew talks to the Mission Control Center
on A/G-2. The cause of the squeal was eliminated and both
loops are operating normally.

Flight Controllers in Houston also have begun preparing and
reviewing messages for Thursday's planned deorbit and
landing. Such messages are produced at this stage in every
mission so all is ready for what is typically a very busy
day for controllers and astronauts.

Tonight, Payload Specialist Roberta Bondar is scheduled to
receive a special phone call from Canadian Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney and Minister of Science William Winegard. The
three-way link is scheduled for 6:53 p.m. CST.

The red team will be awakened tonight just before 7 p.m.
to begin its final full day of science before
closing down the laboratory tomorrow night.  The Blue team
will be going to sleep at about 8:30 p.m. CST.

Wednesday's agenda includes a checkout of Discovery's flight
control systems and attitude control thrusters to verify
them for landing operations Thursday.  Landing is currently
scheduled for 10:07 a.m. CST with the deorbit burn
occurring at 9:08 a.m. CST on Orbit 128.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

IML-1 Mission Status Report #13
6:30 p.m. CST, January 28, 1992
6/9:37 MET
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center


The international character of the IML-1 mission was underscored
this morning as the members of the orbiting Spacelab crew answered
questions from the press in three languages.  Speaking in French to
a reporter from Quebec, Canadian Payload Specialist Roberta Bondar
referred to the science flight as "the biggest open-book exam of my
life."  Then in English, she explained: "When you first start up
the Spacelab, you work with sweaty palms because you know how much
work the scientists have put into bringing it all together.  We are
in hopes that the data we bring back from the mission will be
reflective of all the caring and effort we put in up here.  In
terms of the open-book exam, we hope when we get back, they'll give
us all A's!"

Early this morning, Mission Specialist David Hilmers changed out
experiments in the Critical Point Facility, installing the second
of two designed by Dr. Daniel Beysens.  The experiment traces the
dynamics and speed of thermal motion as a pure fluid passes the
critical temperature and makes the transition to the liquid state.
Experiment scientists are controlling the 21-hour experiment
directly from their posts at Spacelab Mission Operations Control in
Huntsville.

This afternoon, Mission Specialist Norm Thagard attempted to start
a stirring motor in the triglycine sulfate experiment by giving the
test cell a good, hard shake.  The motor still failed to start, but
Thagard reported that most of the unwanted crystallites the team
had been trying to melt last night had disappeared.  Dr. Ravindra
Lal's science team chose to proceed with the experiment.  "The
principal investigator thinks they'll get good science data," the
Huntsville communicator reported to the crew.  "We've got our
fingers crossed," replied Thagard.

More Microgravity Vestibular Investigation runs added to the
growing baseline of data the science team is collecting on the crew
and their adaptation to the space environment.  Principal
investigator Dr. Millard Reschke says crew responses in the
experiment, which records eye movements during rotation with a
helmet-mounted video camera, have been about what the team
expected.  "The data we have received has been excellent," he
reported.

Bondar, Thagard and Commander Ron Grabbe tested their sense of
orientation and body position in the absence of both gravity and
vision during activities from Canada's space adaptation
experiments.  Two exercises evaluated their sense of active and
passive motion.  Results will be compared with similar tests
completed the second day of the mission, as well as those taken
before and after the flight.  Bondar and Thagard kept their
blindfolds on for another exercise to measure tactile sensitivity
in their fingers and toes.  The tactile test acts as a control for
the first two.  It will help scientists determine whether any loss
of motion sensation is caused by the lack of gravity alone, or if
elongation of the spine in weightlessness creates partial nerve
blocks which would also dull those senses.

Biorack's glovebox video camera gave the scientist team in
Huntsville a good view as Bondar photographed and fixed samples in
the shoots and protoplast experiments for later analysis back home.

Two science teams at Spacelab control in Huntsville have been
closely monitoring temperatures of facilities which have been
growing protein crystals since the first day of the mission.
NASA's Protein Crystal Growth experiment, mounted in the orbiter
mid-deck, is on its eighth Shuttle flight.  During previous
missions, this experiment produced several crystals of better
quality than any grown on Earth.  One-hundred twenty crystals of 15
different proteins are being grown by the vapor diffusion method in
the facility.

Germany's Cryostat is growing protein crystals by liquid diffusion
in two thermostat chambers.  An earlier version of the experiment
flew on Spacelabs 1 and D1.  Maria Roth of the German Space Agency
reports, "Our temperature measurement points have been on-line
throughout the mission, exactly where we planned for them to be."
Germany sponsors two of the facility's three investigations: one
using a key enzyme which aids in the digestion of milk, and the
other studying a protein that converts light energy to voltages in
the membranes of certain microorganisms.  The third experiment,
from the United States, involves a protein and a virus that are
also among the samples in NASA's Protein Crystal Growth facility.

At 8:23 p.m. CST Jan. 27, the following tribute to Manley L.
"Sonny" Carter Jr. who died 4/5/91 in a commercial airliner crash,
was read by two members of the crew of STS-42, the mission on
which he was to have flown:

CDR RON GRABE:      The late Captain Manley L. Carter -- or
                    Sonny as we all knew him -- was a member of
                    our crew until his tragic death. The gold star
                    shining brightly on our crew patch represents
                    the way we will always remember Sonny, -- a
                    radiant figure, illuminating everyone who met
                    him with his warmth, charm and love. His
                    multitude of talents and incomparable joy for
                    life will never be forgotten.

MS DAVE HILMERS:    Sonny shared with us the unique experience
                    of glimpsing the splendor of Earth from space.
                    And for a precious few days the exhilaration
                    of being liberated from the bondage of
                    gravity. No one ever returned from a flight
                    with a greater sense of awe and wonder than
                    Sonny.  He was convinced that it was vital
                    for our country and for the generations which
                    will follow us to maintain a manned presence
                    in space. And no one ever worked harder to
                    make a flight a success than Sonny after he
                    was assigned to IML-1. We can only hope that
                    he would have been proud of the way that we
                    have carried on this mission after him.

GRABE:              Houston. Thanks for letting us take this
                    moment to remember Sonny.

CAPCOM RHEA SEDDON: Ron, all of us who knew Sonny echo your
                    sentiments and thank you for those memories of
                    him.
 

I read in the paper that (most of?) the rest of the fruit flies died, and the
PI is declaring that experiment a total loss.

Burns

    Down safely! But ...
    
    Having watched many shuttle landings, I have always been disturbed by
    (and curious about) the handling of the shuttle after main gear
    touchdown. After looking through the conference and finding nothing
    on this subject, I'd like to pose the following question:

    Why after main gear touchdown is the nose gear 'held-off' for so long,
    followed by allowing the gear to drop heavily onto the runway? Once the
    main gear are down, would it not be 1) more controllable; 2) easier on
    the nose gear to 'fly' the nose down to the runway instead of allowing
    it to drop? It appears that the nose drops when there is no longer
    enough lift/pressure on the elevons to hold the nose off.

    The action might make sense if the logic was to help destroy lift over
    the wings, but in a nose-down attitude, I'd think there would be less
    effective lift than in the nose-high attitude the shuttle remains in
    headed down the runway. Furthermore, I wouldn't think that the drag
    chute and/or brakes can be applied before the nose gear has touched
    down.

    Has the bouncing nose gear bothered anyone else here?

    Carl
    

    The reason for holding the nose up is that that attitude creates more
    drag than a nose down attitude. Shuttle stops faster. Also, by the time
    the mains hit, the wings should be stalled out (or close to it). 
    So that high angle of attack does not create greater lift. 
    
     Also, the nose gear is designed to handle only so much stress. It can
    handle stress in the Z direction (up and down) MUCH better than it can
    handle side forces. So they must slow the shuttle down sufficiently so
    that the side forces on rollout are reduced.
    
    Gregg

I was under the impression that the nose-high attitude was to get more braking
from the atmosphere before having to use the frequently-troubled-but-now-
hopefully-fixed wheel brakes.  Note that this is pure guesswork...

Burns

  Aircraft are great at flying through the air but are terrible at moving on
the ground. When taking lessons, instructors always teach students to bleed off
as much air speed as possible between the flare and touchdown and to hold back
on the stick as long as possible before allowing the nose wheel to touch down.
Basically the idea is to have the aircraft going as slow as possible before any
given set of wheels has to be used. 

  As mentioned, keeping the nose up helps to slow down the aircraft (which is
what the shuttle is at that point). Also, the aircraft is easier to control at
high ground speeds with the nose up because at high speeds the rudder gives
much better yaw control than the front wheel. Shortly after the ailerons won't
keep the nose up, the rudder looses it's effectiveness and the nose wheel
lands and takes over steering. Using the breaks on one side of the main gear
at a time also helps with steering during the transition, but that is not as
effective if the breaks are both on anyway to help slow down the aircraft.

  George

   KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - WEDNESDAY, JAN. 29, 1992  10 AM


 
        STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - FLIGHT DAY 8

     Landing is planned on Thursday at 11:07 a.m.  EST at Edwards
Air Force Base, Calif., on orbit 129.

      The STS-42 boosters are being prepared for disassembly and
shipment  back to Thiokol in Utah for refurbishment.  The forward
and aft skirts will be refurbished here by USBI.


 

  KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - THURSDAY, JAN. 30, 1992  11:30 AM


 
       STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - FLIGHT DAY 9  - DRYDEN

     Discovery landed this morning ending the STS-42  mission  at
11:07 a.m.  EST at Edwards Air Force Base,  Calif., on orbit 129.
Main gear touchdown was on concrete runway 22 at mission  elapsed
time of 8 days, 1 hour, 14 minutes, and 45 seconds.

     Discovery's  stay  in  California will be extended about one
week while the orbiter Columbia is ferried from Palmdale,  Calif.
to Florida.  The ferry flight is scheduled to begin on Feb. 11. A
nominal two-day cross-country flight will  bring  Discovery  into
KSC on Feb. 12.

     KSC's Shuttle recovery team is at the Dryden Flight Research
Facility  to  prepare the orbiter for the return trip to Florida.
Later today,  the orbiter will be towed to the Mate Demate Device
where  technicians  can  gain  access  to  various  areas  of the
vehicle.

     Hydrolasing activities are underway at Hangar AF to prepare
the STS-42 boosters for disassembly and shipment back to  Thiokol
in  Utah  where  they  will  be refurbished.  The forward and aft
skirts will be refurbished here by USBI.


 

   KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - FRIDAY, JAN. 31, 1992  10:30 AM


 
           STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - DRYDEN

     KSC's Shuttle recovery team at the  Dryden  Flight  Research
Facility in California is preparing Discovery for the return trip
to Florida.  Yesterday,  the orbiter was towed to the Mate Demate
Device where technicians can gain access to various areas of  the
vehicle.

     Middeck  experiments have been removed.  Post-flight inspec-
tions of the tiles  are  underway.  Technicians  are  hooking  up
ground  power to the vehicle.   Drying operations are underway on
the shuttle's three main engines.

     Discovery's stay in California will be  extended  about  one
week while the orbiter Columbia is ferried from Palmdale,  Calif.
to Florida.  Discovery's ferry flight is scheduled  to  begin  on
Feb.  11.  A nominal two-day cross-country flight will bring Dis-
covery into KSC on Feb. 12.  Several refueling stops are required
along the way due to the weight of the International Microgravity
Laboratory payload still in Discovery's payload bay.

     Hydrolasing  activities  are  continuing at Hangar AF on the
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to prepare the  STS-42  boosters
for  disassembly  and shipment back to Thiokol in Utah where they
will be refurbished.  The aft skirts are scheduled to be  removed
later tonight. Technicians will take the weekend off and continue
operations  next week.  The forward and aft skirts will be refur-
bished here at KSC by USBI.

 

   KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - MONDAY, FEB. 3, 1992  10:30 AM


 
           STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - DRYDEN

     Work is progressing well at Dryden Flight Research  Facility
in  California  to  prepare  Discovery  for  the  return  trip to
Florida.   Residual  hypergolic  propellant  was  offloaded  this
weekend.   Today,  the tail cone is scheduled to be installed and
all areas of the vehicle will be buttoned up.

     Discovery's stay in California will be  extended  about  one
week while the orbiter Columbia is ferried from Palmdale,  Calif.
to Florida.  Discovery's ferry flight is scheduled  to  begin  on
Feb.  11.  A nominal two-day cross-country flight will bring Dis-
covery into KSC on Feb. 12.  Several refueling stops are required
along the way due to the weight of the International Microgravity
Laboratory payload still in Discovery's payload bay.

     Booster  disassembly  operations are continuing at Hangar AF
on the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.  The  segments  will  be
shipped  back  to Thiokol in Utah where they will be refurbished.
The aft skirts are being  removed  today.  The  forward  and  aft
skirts will be refurbished here at KSC by USBI.

 

   KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - TUESDAY, FEB. 4, 1992  10:30 AM

 
             STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - DRYDEN

     With Discovery essentially prepared for  the  ferry  flight,
most  of  the KSC recovery team has departed Dryden.  Discovery's
stay in California will be extended about one week while the  or-
biter  Columbia  is  ferried  from Palmdale,  Calif.  to Florida.
Discovery's ferry flight is scheduled to  begin  on  Feb.  11.  A
nominal  two-day  cross-country  flight will bring Discovery into
KSC on Feb.  12.  Several refueling stops are required along  the
way   due   to  the  weight  of  the  International  Microgravity
Laboratory payload still in Discovery's payload bay.

     Booster disassembly operations are continuing at  Hangar  AF
on  the  Cape  Canaveral Air Force Station.  The segments will be
shipped back to Thiokol in Utah where they will  be  refurbished.
The  right  nozzle  was  removed yesterday and the left nozzle is
scheduled to be removed today. The forward and aft skirts will be
refurbished here at KSC by USBI.

 

[Sorry for the delay, but I was at KSC during the final days of the flight,
 and haven't had time to take care of the backlog....  For our complete 
 archives, here are the remaining status reports.... -dg]


MCC STATUS REPORT 19
STS-42
5 a.m., Wednesday, Jan. 29, 1992


The Red Team of crew members aboard Discovery -- Mission
Specialists Bill Readdy and Dave Hilmers and Payload
Specialist Ulf Merbold -- continued research during their
eighth work shift in space overnight.

Discovery remains in excellent mechanical condition, with no
problems seen during the night. Later this morning, Commander
Ron Grabe and Pilot Steve Oswald, who were scheduled to
awake with the Blue Team for their eighth shift at about 4:30
a.m.  CST, will perform a standard day-before-landing
checkout of Discovery's systems needed for the return home.

A small, slow oxidizer leak seen yesterday afternoon in one
of the Discovery's 38 primary steering thrusters cleared
during the night and the jet is now back in operation.
The leak apparently was the result of cool temperatures
experienced by the thruster from Discovery's orientation
yesterday, and the leak cleared when the spacecraft
eventually changed position and the thruster's injector
warmed in the sunlight.  The jet, a rear-firing jet on the
left Orbital Maneuvering System pod, was then switched back
into operation by Readdy.

Discovery is in a 159 by 158 nautical mile orbit in constant
sunlight, completing one orbit every 90 minutes, 18 seconds.

                          # # #


IML-1 Mission Status Report #14
6:00 a.m. CST, January 29, 1992
6/21:00 MET
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center

The International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-1) crew made working
in orbit look easy last night as they went about their daily tasks
for the sixth day of the mission.  Earlier in the evening, Canadian
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney spoke with Payload Specialist Dr.
Roberta Bondar.  Dr. Bondar, the second Canadian citizen and first
Canadian woman  to fly in space, responded to the Prime Minister's
query about seeing Canada from space by saying, "It's just
absolutely fantastic!"

Mission Specialist Norm Thagard demonstrated the need for human
presence on spaceflights last night when he removed a test cell
from the Fluids Experiment System and agitated the triglycine
sulfate solution.  Unwanted crystals, which could disrupt the
growth of the seed crystal, had formed in the test cell during
stowage.  Thagard's stirring dissolved the small crystals allowing
the experiment to continue.  Overnight, Dr. Ravindra B. Lal, of the
Alabama A & M University, watched video images of the original seed
crystal during its growth process. He said, "We feel like we can
get some pretty good science from this run."  During the run, the
experiment achieved transition from a phase where the primary
objective was to dissolve unwanted crystals in the test cell to the
point where the desired triglycine sulfate crystal began to grow.

Several experiments were conducted to gather late-mission data on
the adaptability of humans to a weightless environment.  Mission
Specialist David Hilmers and Payload Specialist Ulf Merbold,
wearing a camera-equipped helmet, rode in the Microgravity
Vestibular Investigations oscillating/rotating chair.  These
activities have been done throughout the mission to study the
motion-detecting organs of the inner ear.  Dr. Millard F. Reschke,
senior scientist at the Johnson Space Center, watched as video
downlink showed the reaction of Hilmers and Merbold to the
movements of the chair.  Because the inner ear cannot be physically
examined, this experiment removes the effects of gravity to better
understand the workings of these organs.  On Earth, this
information will benefit people who suffer from vertigo and inner
ear diseases.

When they had finished their run in the MVI chair, Hilmers and
Merbold conducted Space Physiology Experiments.  Here, both crew
members took a turn being strapped onto the stationary mini-sled,
located in the center aisle of the module.  They had to keep their
eyes fixed on a pre-determined target while moving their heads, and
also gaze at a series of targets projected on a screen, to study
the coordination between eye and head movements.

After Hilmers and Merbold completed all experiments dealing with
the effects of weightlessness on humans, Merbold placed oat and
wheat seedlings into the observation area of the Gravitational
Plant Physiology Facility.  This facility has been used for the
first time on IML-1 to provide biological investigations into how
plants respond to gravity and light.

In the Biorack facility, provided by the European Space Agency, Ulf
Merbold placed slime mold into the glove-box to watch the rythmic
behavior of this cell through a microscope to see if it maintains
its biological rythms in space.  He also exposed bacteria, which
has been growing during the flight, to an antibiotic.  After the
mission, Dr. Rene Tixador, of the National Institute of Health and
Medical Research, Toulouse, France, will analyze the results of
this experiment to determine the ability of the antibiotics to
destroy bacteria in microgravity. This medical science is necessary
for future space travelers to overcome illness or infections during
their flights.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

                            MISSION CONTROL CENTER
                           STS-42 Status Report #20


Wednesday, January 29, 1992, 11:30 a.m. CST

The crew aboard Discovery is midway through its final full
day in orbit and have already begun deactivating some
payloads and preparing the vehicle for the trip home.

Commander Ron Grabe and pilot Steve Oswald took position in
their cockpit seats to check out Discovery's flight control
systems and displays for entry and landing.  After activating
one of three auxilary power units, Grabe and Oswald tested
each system and reported everything to be in order.

Grabe reported that during the checkout, while Discovery was
out of range of communications with the ground, they heard
and felt a tremor through the vehicle.  After careful review
of the Orbiter data recorded at that time, flight controllers
found all Orbiters systems to be in excellent condition with
no sign of any problems.  Previous Spacelab crews have
reported similar sensations attributed to thermal expansion
and contraction of the tunnel connecting the module to the
crew cabin. While flight controllers remain interested in
this phenomena, it is not considered a problem.

Also this morning, Grabe set up the IMAX camera in a
flight deck window to film a pass over the northwest region
of our continent.  Photography targets including San
Francisco, Canada's Lake Winnipeg, and the Belcher Islands in
the Hudson Bay.

The Red Team will begin its final sleep shift this
afternoon at 1 pm and then awaken at 9 tonight to begin
deactivating the spacelab module.

The Blue Team will head for bed about 7:30 tonight, and awaken
at 3:30 am to start deorbit preparations.

The current plan is for the deorbit OMS burn at 9:05 am cst
with a landing about an hour later at 10:07 on Edwards
concrete runway 22.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-42 MCC STATUS REPORT 21
5:30 p.m. CST
Jan. 29, 1992

After eight busy days in space, the STS-42 crew is preparing
Discovery for its deorbit and trip home.

Crew members have been deactivating the International
Microgravity Laboratory experiments and stowing laboratory
and orbiter equipment. The final deactivation of the lab
module is scheduled for later tonight.

Discovery will begin its return to Earth with a three-minute
orbital maneuvering engine burn at 9:04 a.m. CST. The
burn will change the orbiter's velocity by 308 feet per
second and result in a landing on Edwards Runway 22 at 10:07
a.m.  CST.

After 118 orbits around the Earth, Discovery continues to
perform very well. Commander Ron Grabe and Pilot Steve
Oswald, however, performed some minor trouble shooting
with the waste collection system while controllers watched
over their shoulders via camcorder. The procedure required
that Grabe realign a valve control to the zero-point. Grabe
completed the realignment but depressurization of the system
is slightly slower than normal. With the exception, WCS
operations are normal.

The Blue Team will turn in for the night at about 7:30 p.m.
tonight, and rise at 3:30 a.m. to start deorbit preparations.
The Red Team will wake at about 9 p.m. for the task of
deactivating the Spacelab module.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

IML-1 Mission Status Report #15
6:30 p.m. CST, January 28, 1992
7/9:37 MET
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center


"Awesome," said Mission Manager Robert McBrayer as he described the
STS-41/IML-1 Spacelab mission at today's press briefing.  "It's
great to see a good plan come together, and that's exactly what
happened."

"The cooperative spirit of the NASA team, all our foreign partners
and the scientific community should encourage those who have worked
so diligently to design our future in space," McBrayer observed.
"The cooperation they have envisioned for Space Station Freedom is
now more than just words -- we have demonstrated that cooperation
with the first International Microgravity Laboratory mission."

The fifth science mission aboard NASA's Spacelab laboratory module
drew to a close as the IML-1 crew completed their last experiment
activities at about 5:30 CST this afternoon, but results from their
eight-day excursion in the unique laboratory of space promise to
impact science for years to come.

Science teams for the four Critical Point Facility experiments
observed phenomena never seen before, as they monitored fluids at
the critical temperature where liquid and vapor phases become
indistinguishable.  Experiment scientists were particularly pleased
with the performance of the European Space Agency facility, on its
first space flight.  Subtle adjustments to experiments were
commanded by scientists from the ground.  They had expected to be
able to send around 100 commands during the mission; instead, they
sent over 1,000.

Eleven runs of the casting and solidification experiment, completed
mid-mission in NASA's Fluids Experiment System, were flawless.
After they complete analysis of almost 300 three-dimensional
holograms, the University of Tennessee Space Institute experiment
scientists plan to make their results available to technology
developers of sophisticated alloys.

In spite of several setbacks in activating triglycine sulfate
crystal growth in the Fluids Experiment System, Alabama A&M
University experimenters got an unexpected extra opportunity to
track the effects of fluid motion on crystal growth in space.
Early in the mission, they took holograms of particle movement in
their first test cell at room temperature, since an insulation
problem prevented them from heating it.  Later in the mission, they
repeated the holograms during an 15-hour crystal growth session
with the same test cell.  Comparisons of the two, along with motion
records made by the Space Acceleration Measurement System, will
provide new insights on how Shuttle maneuvers and crew motion
affect the movement of fluids or solidification of crystals
onboard.

The mercury iodide crystal in NASA's Vapor Crystal Growth System
grew for 132 hours, instead of the scheduled 96.  Its final size
was more than twice as great as one grown aboard Spacelab 3 in 1985
by principal investigator Lodewijk van den Berg, a payload
specialist on that mission.

The first set of crystals in France's Mercury Iodide Crystal Growth
facility had nearly doubled in size when Payload Specialist Ulf
Merbold removed them yesterday, and the science team chose to speed
up the growth of the second set in hopes of obtaining even larger
crystals.

"Just perfect" was the reaction when Germany's Cryostat team got
their first look at four protein crystals which had been growing in
the facility for 161 hours -- 19 more than originally planned.
Throughout the flight, temperatures in the facility exactly
paralleled pre-mission predictions.

This mission provided the longest growing time yet for proteins in
the refrigerated mode of NASA's Protein Crystal Growth facility, on
its eighth Shuttle flight.  Just after landing, the crystals will
be returned to the University of Alabama in Birmingham for
preliminary analysis.

Also benefiting from the extra growing time was Japan's Organic
Crystal Growth Facility experiment.  The experiment, which will fly
again later this year aboard Spacelab J, grows organic
superconductor crystals.

NASA's Microgravity Vestibular Investigations lost some time early
in the mission to mechanical problems, but in-orbit repairs and the
extended mission allowed them to capture a substantial amount of
new information on human adaptation to the absence of gravity.  The
experiment team, made up of 19 co-investigators from five
countries, was delighted with the quality of the data the
hard-working crew accumulated on 33 separate runs.

Canada's Space Physiology Experiments team also expressed great
enthusiasm for research accomplished by the crew in tests of human
adaptation to the space environment.  In addition to completing all
their scheduled test runs, the team got an extra stereo photography
session today in the study of back pain in astronauts.  Previous
studies indicate maximum height change is reached by the seventh
day of weightlessness, so this additional measurement on the eighth
flight day is of special interest.

Crew members completed more sessions than planned with NASA's
Mental Workload and Performance Experiment, the first comprehensive
study of the ability of space crews to perform tasks requiring
interaction with a computer workstation.  Experiment designers from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were interested to
observe that favored positions varied among the four crew members
who participated in the experiment.

University of Pennsylvania scientists who designed experiments to
study the responses of plants to gravity and light in NASA's
Gravitational Plant Physiology Facility were surprised to find
their plants sprouted much sooner in space and grew about 30
percent more rapidly than their ground-based counterparts.
Advanced "telescience" monitoring capability enabled them to modify
their procedures almost immediately in response.

European Space Agency Biorack scientists report that their facility
-- which allowed study of the effects of microgravity on small life
forms such as cells, tissues, slime mold and yeast -- performed
flawlessly during the mission, and they were lavish in praising the
crew for the many complex operations they performed to carry out
Biorack's 17 experiments.

The extra day of the mission gave Germany's Biostack and Japan's
Radiation Monitoring Container Device about 15 percent more data on
radiation in the Spacelab than science teams had expected.

Activities inside the Spacelab module during this international
science mission and Earth views from the orbiter were recorded by
the large-format IMAX camera for a movie which, appropriately, will
commemorate the International Space Year of 1992.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mission Control Status 22

MCC STATUS REPORT 22
4:30 a.m. CST Jan. 30 1992

Discovery's crew prepared for today's trip home during the
night, stowing gear in the cabin, powering off experiments
and shutting down the International Microgravity Laboratory-1
module.

The crew also repowered all systems onboard that had been
powered off during the mission as an energy-saving measure.
All preparations have continued without difficulty.

During the night, a leak was spotted in one of Discovery's
steering jets, an upward-firing jet located on the right-hand
Orbital Maneuvering System pod. The leak was first discovered
when Mission Specialist Bill Readdy reported seeing a stream
of ice crystals coming from the area. Although television
views of sunlight reflecting off the leaking oxidizer were
spectacular, flight controllers confirmed that the leak was a
small, slow leak. Controllers believe the leak was caused by
cool temperatures experienced by the thruster and have
decided to let the oxidizer leak continue rather than
shut off the fuel feed to the jet.

Because of Disovery's orientation during the flight, several
steering jets have become very cool and a similiar leak
occurred earlier in the mission in a jet on the left-hand OMS
pod, but cleared itself after several hours. Flight
controllers believe a similiar circumtance may occur with the
current leak. The amount of oxidizer that has leaked from the
jet during the night has not appreciably affected the
quantity of propellant available, and the leak should have no
impact on today's landing.

Weather at Edwards Air Force Base, California, remains
favorable and touchdown is scheduled 10:07 a.m. CST on
Edwards runway 22, a concrete runway. Ignition of the
deorbit burn that will slow Discovery by about 208 miles an
hour, or 308 feet per second, is planned for about 9:05 a.m.
CST.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

IML-1 Mission Status Report #16
6:00 a.m. CST, January 30, 1992
7/21:00 MET
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center

The curtain descended quietly on the International Microgravity
Laboratory-1 (IML-1) mission, marking the end of more than a week
of around-the-clock activity in the Payload Operations Control
Center at Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Ala., last
night. Space Shuttle Discovery's payload bay doors closed on
another chapter of man-tended science in space.  A sense of pride
and accomplishment was realized as the experiments of the first IML
were deactivated and stowed for the trip home.

Even though the experiment facilities, located within Discovery's
Spacelab module, were turned off in preparation for their return to
Earth, the science is far from over.  Several of the principal
investigators involved in IML-1 have left Marshall Space Flight
Center in route to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., to retrieve
their life science and materials science data and payloads. They
will spend the next several months analyzing the wealth of data
gathered throughout the last eight days and compare it to the
findings of backup control experiments conducted here on Earth.

Within hours after Discovery rolls to a stop, perishable samples
will be removed from the mid-deck.  Samples from the Biorack, Space
Physiology Experiments, Protein Crystal Growth, Cryostat and
Gravitational Plant Physiology Facilities must be recovered soon
after landing.  Later, the payloads from the Fluid Systems
Experiment, Vapor Crystal Growth System and Mercury Iodide Crystal
Growth Facilities will be removed from the Space Shuttle.

The off-loading of the Space Shuttle's payload involves teamwork
and coordination.  For example, scientists from the Biorack
facility are anxious to take possession of the 7.2 million
nematodes, 3 billion yeast cells, 10 billion spores, 584 million
other cell cultures and 3,942 insect eggs that were part of their
experiment facility.  Also, representatives for the Gravitational
Plant Physiology Facility will remove 396 oat seedlings and 150
wheat seedlings planted before and during the mission.

Materials science payloads to be retrieved from the Shuttle include
120 chambers with crystals grown in the Protein Crystal Growth
Facility, 14 chambers of protein crystals grown in the Cryostat
facility, a triglycine sulfate crystal from the Fluids Experiment
System, a mercury iodide crystal from the Vapor Crystal Growth
System, six mercury iodide crystals from the Mercury Iodide Crystal
Growth facility, and organic crystals from the Organic Crystal
Growth facility.

Discovery's international crew is scheduled to continue to
participate in life sciences experiments by undergoing post-flight
examinations.  Scientists for the Microgravity Vestibular
Investigations, Mental Workload Performance Experiment and Space
Physiology Experiments will continue collecting data on the payload
crew after landing.  When added to the pre-flight and in-flight
data, this information will show scientists how the astronauts
adapted to the weightless environment during orbit and have
adjusted to gravity again since returning to Earth.

Mr. R. Wayne Richie of the Office of Space Science and
Applications, NASA Headquarters, served as Program Manager for this
international mission.  He summed up the last eight days by saying,
"NASA's strategic goal is the conquest of space.  Given the clear
status of the U.S. and world economy, it is clear that
international cooperative missions that share the costs and the
scientific results may be one of the best bets to tackling such
enormous undertakings.  IML-1's success makes it an outstanding
blueprint for future international cooperative programs."

--------------------------------------------------------------------

1/30/92: STS-42 LANDING STATEMENT

Discovery, its seven-member International Microgravity Laboratory-1
crew, and its IML Spacelab module crammed with materials and
biological samples, landed this morning at 11:07 am EST on
concrete runway 22 at California's Edwards Air Force Base.
The morning's orbiter activities to prepare the vehicle for reentry and
landing went without a hitch and the landing, in the crystal-clear
Edwards' morning, was just as smooth.  The IML ground team is now
in the process of removing the materials and biological samples from
the returned laboratory.  There are hundreds of crystal samples
and literally billions of biological samples which will be turned
over to the more than 200 participating scientists.  The crew is
also undergoing a post-landing life science medical examination as part
of NASA's continuing human performance and space medicine studies.

The only event which caught either the Discovery crew or its Houston
ground team's attention was the visually spectacular but practically
unimportant slow leak of oxidizer to an upward-firing jet located
on the righthand orbital maneuvering system pod.  The crew relayed
video of the leak, which showed a geyser-like spray, but the ground
team opted to allow the leak to continue and attributed the cause to
cool temperatures on the thruster.  This phenomenon occurred
earlier in the flight and was expected due to the unusual cooling
attitude of the orbiter during this mission.  Over the weekend,
Discovery will be prepared for its ferry-flight back to the Kennedy
Space Center with the trip expected to occur next week.

     KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT - FRIDAY, FEB. 7, 1992  10 AM

 
           STS-42/IML-1 - DISCOVERY (OV 103) - DRYDEN

     Discovery is staying at Dryden an additional week while  the
orbiter  Columbia  is ferried from Palmdale,  Calif.  to Florida.
Discovery's ferry flight is scheduled to  begin  on  Feb.  11.  A
nominal  two-day  cross-country  flight will bring Discovery into
KSC on Feb.  12.  Several refueling stops are required along  the
way   due   to  the  weight  of  the  International  Microgravity
Laboratory payload still in Discovery's payload bay.

This KSC Status Report was prepared at 11:30 a.m. Monday, Feb. 10.


 
                           STS-42

     The 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft departed this morning at 11
a.m. bound for NASA's Dryden Flight Research Facility at Edwards Air
Force Base. Onboard are the ferry flight doors and some other ferry
flight hardware which will also be used for Discovery's ferry flight.
At Dryden work will begin tomorrow to mate Discovery to the 747, and
departure from Edwards is planned for sunrise on Wednesday.  There
will be a refueling stop at Biggs Army Air Field in El Paso, Texas
and an overnight stop at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio Texas.
On Thursday morning there will be a final enroute refueling stop at
Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida panhandle before continuing on to
KSC, arriving about mid-afternoon.  The reason for the additional
refueling stops is the additional weight of the IML Laboratory in
Discovery's payload bay.

 

KSC SHUTTLE STATUS  -  TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1992  -- 10:00 A.M.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

 
     STS-42 - DISCOVERY (0V 103)  --  DRYDEN FLIGHT RESEARCH FACILITY, CA.

     Discovery could not be mated with the 747 Shuttle Carrier
Aircraft as scheduled yesterday due to the intense rain in the
southern California region. Mating operations will resume when
the rain subsides sufficiently to allow engineers to attach the
aft compartment ferry flight doors. The earliest possible
departure from Dryden is Wednesday morning with a tentative
arrival at KSC Thursday. Another 24 hour weather delay is
possible, however, as rains are forecast to continue today.
  

 KSC SHUTTLE STATUS - WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1992 -- 11:00 A.M.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

 
     STS-42 --  DISCOVERY (0V 103)  --  DRYDEN FLIGHT RESEARCH FACILITY, CA.

     Plans are underway to begin the process to mate the orbiter
Discovery to the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft today. Managers at
Dryden will continue to assess the weather situation throughout
the day and tonight. Rain remains prominent in the forecast. The
earliest time Discovery can depart from the California landing
site is tomorrow afternoon, if the weather holds. If the
orbiter/SCA is able to leave California tomorrow, the earliest
possible arrival at KSC is late Friday afternoon. An enroute
overnight stop is tentatively planned for Biggs Army Air Field,
El Paso, Tx. Additional refueling stops are planned between Biggs
and KSC.
 

  KSC SHUTTLE STATUS - FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1992 -- 10:00 A.M.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

 
               STS-42 - DISCOVERY (0V 103) 
        -- DRYDEN FLIGHT RESEARCH FACILITY, CA.--

     The orbiter was mated to the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
last night at about 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Managers at Dryden
hope for a departure today at about 11:00 a.m. EST. Managers plan
to fly Discovery and the 747 to Biggs Army Air Field, El Paso,
Tx. for a refueling stop. If weather allows, the vehicle may
continue on to Kelly Air Force Base, San Antonio, Tx. where it
will remain overnight. The trip will continue on Saturday with
another refueling stop at Columbus Air Force Base, Ms. The
vehicle will likely remain there Saturday night, though there is
a possibility of getting as far as Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. At
this point it is unlikely the shuttle will arrive back at Kennedy
Space Center before Sunday mid-day.
 

From:	DECPA::"[email protected]" "VOLCANO" 26-FEB-1992 16:13:18.46
Subj:	Good photographs of volcanoes/volcanic provinces from Space Shuttle

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
The Space Shuttle mission STS-42 (late January) was able to take some
pretty spectacular photographs of some northern volcanic provinces.
The snow cover and low light accents morphology. Below I summarize
some of the most notable photographs.  They are available from the
USGS EROS Data Center and Technology Applications Center (New Mexico).

STS 42-72-80: Merapi, Java with a steam plume and a dusty-looking summit 
(taken 1/23, near midnight, GMT, within hours of reported activity) 

STS-42-72-87:  Mt Pinatubo, oblique, taken from east. Shows well the
entire area impacted by eruption, including all of the clogged drainages. 

STS 42-79-46: wide angle view of Kamchatka, from Shiveluch  south to
Tolbachinsky. 

STS-42-72-14: Shiveluch, Kamchatka

STS-42-77-004: Kluchevskaya and Tolbachinsky, Kamchatka

STS-42-84-42: Shiveluch to Kluchevskaya (with dark summit)

STS-42-84-93:  Mt Ararat and Lake Van, Turkey

STS-42-96-74:  Katmai area and Augustine Island.

STS-42-74-73:  Katmai area on Alaskan P.

STS-42-74-80:  Augustine Island

STS-42-82-43:  Reunion I.

In addition to the above, a couple of good digital images were
collected of Tolbachinsky (ESC02031) and Kluchevskaya (ESC02032). 
These images have been added to the small inventory of digital images
which are download-able from the database maintained by our office.
The database also contains descriptive information about all of the
Earth-viewing photography taken from Space Shuttle missions. Searches
for photography over specific geographic areas can be performed. 

If you are interested in the database, please send me your name and
address, and I will make sure a flyer with all of the particulars is
sent to you. 

Cindy Evans
Space Shuttle Earth Observations Project
[email protected]

from .74

>During STS-42, Discovery will maintain a "gravity gradient"
>attitude with the orbiter's tail facing the Earth. In this
>attitude, the orbiter does not need the reaction control system
>jets to maintain position and thus provides a stable platform for
>the microgravity experiments.

Am I right in thinking that to achieve this attitude, Discovery actually
rotates with a period equal to its orbital period?

If so, presumably the small constant (in magnitude) force that this exerts on
the experiments is considered more desirable than the 'bursty' forces when the
RCS is used.

Article: 21063
From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro
Subject: Endeavour Telescope Update (Feb. 1992)
Date: 17 Mar 92 06:35:44 GMT
Organization: University of South Australia
 
This is reprinted from CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organisation) Space Industry News, No. 44, p. 2, Feb. 1992.
The story is about the Endeavour telescope that was carried on
Discovery in STS-42. 
 
ENDEAVOUR LAUNCHED: RESULTS UNCERTAIN
 
The NASA shuttle flight carrying the ultraviolet space telescope
Endeavour on 23 January gave Australia a big start to 1992, the
International Space Year. 
 
Endeavour, which was part of the cargo manifest of the space shuttle
Discovery on flight number STS 42, is probably the most significant
indigenous space payload since Australia's home-grown satellite WRESAT
went aloft in 1967. 
 
The Endeavour project was developed by astronomers at the Mount
Stromlo and Siding Springs Observatory, with the primary purpose of
testing the Australian- developed, low light detector array. Endeavour
was built by Canberra company Auspace Limited, with contributions from
a large number of other Australian companies. The Endeavour program,
which cost about $4.5 million, was funded by the Australian Space
Office of the Department of Industry, Technology and Commerce. 
 
About half-way through the shuttle mission, observations were
terminated when the Endeavour's own computer refused to allow the lid
of the Get-Away Special (GAS) canister housing the telescope to open.
This problem was detected during the third of four planned observation
periods, but it is not known as yet whether the canister opened during
the first two observation periods. 
 
Industry, Technology and Commerce Minister Senator John Button said
that while he was disappointed that the experiment was cut short, he
was delighted that Endeavour had at last made it into space. He said
that there was no firm indication that there was any problem with the
payload itself, and that it appeared that '... the Endeavour's
computer detected that the temperature in the cargo bay had risen to
an unsafe level, and initiated a safety procedure designed to protect
the telescope from damage'. 
 
Press reports, including a press release by the Shadow Minister for
Science Mr. Peter McGauren, had been critical of the choice of this
particular Shuttle flight for the Endeavour mission. Some astronomers
had predicted that it would be unsuitable for a space telescope.
Senator Button, however, dismissed these assertations in a media
release from his office commenting that they '... appear to arise from
a misunderstanding of the flight description, which refers to a
"tail-down, gravity stabilised" orientation. In this mode, the
spacecraft is oriented with its tail end towards Earth's surface.
The telescope is aligned with its optical axis perpendicular to the
roll axis, and thus points into space for the whole mission'. 
 
The ultimate success or otherwise of Endeavour's mission must await
anaylsis of the data on the magnetic tapes brought back to Earth. 
-- 
Steven Pietrobon, Australian Space Centre for Signal Processing
School of Electronic Engineering, University of South Australia
The Levels, SA 5095, Australia.  [email protected]