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Mission Control Center
STS-65 Status Report #3
6 p.m. July 9, 1994

Columbia and its seven-member crew conducted the first of many on-orbit shift
changes earlier today settling in for near continuous operations in the
pressurized Spacelab module gathering data for scientists in support of the
second International Microgravity Laboratory mission.

Commander Bob Cabana and Pilot Jim Halsell managed activities in the crew
compartment of the orbiter while Mission Specialist Rick Hieb and Payload
Specialist Chiaki Mukai spent their first full day in space working in the
laboratory.  Those four astronauts make up the Red Team throughout the flight.

The remaining three crew members, called the Blue Team, are made up of Mission
Specialists Carl Walz, Leroy Chiao and Don Thomas. That team is scheduled to
wake up about eight tonight.

Other than a short-lived problem with the bathroom aboard Columbia, all vehicle
systems are performing well, with no problems being tracked by flight
controllers in Mission Control.

The Waste Containment System, or WCS, experienced a problem with the solid
waste compactor piston when the unit became stuck briefly.  Halsell worked a
procedure to check the unit and it has functioned fine since.

Cabana hooked up the onboard ham radio, called SAREX for Shuttle Amateur Radio
Experiment and talked with middle school students at the Blair Middle School in
Sunrise, Florida.

The Red Team is scheduled to watch over Columbia and Spacelab until about
midnight.  The current altitude of the Orbiter is 163 nautical miles as it
circles the Earth every 90 minutes.

The Johnson Space Center Newsroom hours are 8 a.m. to 2 p.m Sunday. On weekdays
during the mission, the newsroom will be open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.