MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report #27

Wednesday, March 15, 1995, 4:30 p.m. CST

Endeavour's astronauts successfully tested their ship's flight control
systems today in preparation for Friday's scheduled landing at the
Kennedy Space Center.

Commander Steve Oswald, Pilot Bill Gregory and Mission Specialist
Wendy Lawrence fired up one of Endeavour's auxiliary power units to
test the Shuttle's aerosurfaces as part of the routine prelanding
tests to insure that Endeavour is ship-shape for its high-speed return
to Earth.

After a short break in data-gathering to accommodate the flight
control system test, Mission Specialist John Grunsfeld and Payload
Specialist Ron Parise resumed ultraviolet studies of distant celestial
objects with the trio of ASTRO-2 telescopes housed in the Shuttle's
cargo bay.

Oswald, Gregory, Grunsfeld and Parise also answered questions from the
Cable News Network as their marathon mission nears its end. The
astronauts will begin to deactivate and stow equipment Thursday in
preparation for their planned homecoming Friday.


NASA managers will meet Thursday morning to discuss entry and landing
issues and to review predicted weather conditions in Florida and
California for landing day.  Endeavour presently is scheduled to touch
down at 1:54 PM CST Friday wrapping up a Shuttle record 15 and
one-half day astronomy mission.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, shuttle veteran Norm Thagard,
along with crewmates Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennadiy Strekalov, will
dock with Russia's orbiting Mir space station. Their Soyuz capsule is
scheduled to arrive at Mir about 1:45 a.m.  central time Thursday,
with hatch opening between the two spacecraft set for 3:14 a.m.
Thagard and his cosmonaut crewmates, designated the Mir 18 crew, will
then begin their three-month stay on the space station. The three
cosmonauts currently on board Mir will remain on the space station for
about one week before returning to Earth.

The regular JSC Newsroom operating hours are 8 a.m. -5 p.m. weekdays,
but the newsroom will reopen at midnight to support Thursday morning's
scheduled Mir docking and hatch opening activities. The newsroom will
be open from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. weekends throughout the mission.  NASA's
MSFC Newsroom is open from 6 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m.-2
p.m. weekends. MSFC's Code-A-Phone is updated twice daily and can be
reached by calling 205-544-6397.