Mission Control Center
STS-66 Status Report #1

Thursday, Nov. 3, 1994  5 p.m. CST

The Space Shuttle Atlantis and its crew of six rocketed into orbit at 11
a.m. Central today to start NASA's latest Mission to Planet Earth, an
investigation of the atmosphere and the effects of the Sun and human
beings on its chemical composition. 

Commander Don McMonagle, Pilot Curt Brown, Payload Commander Ellen Ochoa
and Mission Specialists Jean-Francois Clervoy, Scott Parazynski and Joe
Tanner immediately began configuring Atlantis and its Atmospheric
Laboratory for Applications and Science-3 payload for 11 days of
scientific investigations that should provide clues on how the environment
is changing and how humans contribute to those changes. 

The astronauts were given a "go" for orbit operations at 12:33 p.m.
Central, and immediately began activation of the Spacelab pallet and its
experiments. Ochoa and Tanner successfully checked out the 50-foot robot
arm, and at 3:54 p.m. Central Ochoa reported that she had grappled the
German-built Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS) and was beginning to power up
its systems. 

Using the Canadian-built remote manipulator system, Ochoa will lift SPAS
out of the payload bay Friday morning and deploy it for eight days of
free-flying observations with its primary instruments -- the Cryogenic
Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere and the Middle
Atmosphere High Resolution Spectrograph Investigation. The instruments
will be measuring a variety of gases in the middle atmosphere and lower
thermosphere. Also onboard SPAS will be the Surface Effects Sample
Monitor, which will measure the decay of surfaces in the near-Earth
environment of space. 

The astronauts are split into two teams to provide around-the-clock
support for the scientific investigations. The Red Team of McMonagle,
Ochoa and Tanner worked the first duty shift, while the Blue Team of
Brown, Clervoy and Parazynski began a six-hour sleep shift at 3 p.m.
Central that will put the astronauts on a night-shift schedule by Houston
standards. 

All of Atlantis' systems are functioning well in support of the scientific
investigations as the shuttle circles the world every 90 minutes at an
altitude of 164 nautical miles. 

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