MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-70 Status Report #2

Friday, July 14, 1995, 6 a.m. CDT

For the first time since June 1965, a human spaceflight mission is
being controlled from a different flight control room in the Mission
Control Center.  Before going to sleep late yesterday, Discovery's
crew was notified that operations had been transferred down the hall
to the new control room known as the "White FCR" (pronounced ficker),
or Flight Control Room.

The remainder of the on-orbit phase of the flight will be controlled
from the new room, except the entry and landing which will be
controlled from the old Mission Control.

The crew of STS-70 was awakened shortly after three this morning
Central time to the theme from "Woody Woodpecker," a cartoon character
adopted as the mascot for the mission when real woodpeckers plucked
holes in protective insulation on Discovery's external fuel tank last
month causing a delay in the mission.

Overnight, controllers in Sunnyvale, California, monitored the
progress of the deployment of the communications tracking satellite
called TDRS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite), which was the prime
objective of Discovery's mission.  Riding atop a solid rocket motor
called an Inertial Upper Stage, the satellite was placed in an orbit
high above the equator over the Pacific.  All of its appendages have
been deployed and command and checkout of the spacecraft has begun.

The satellite deployment followed launch of Discovery from the Kennedy
Space Center at 8:42 a.m. Central yesterday.  The five astronauts
onboard will now turn their attention to the wide variety of
experiments being flown in the crew compartment of the orbiter.

Commander Tom Henricks, Pilot Kevin Kregel and Mission Specialists Don
Thomas, Nancy Currie, and Mary Ellen Weber came on duty about 6
a.m. for their work day in space.  No problems are being tracked by
the flight control team as Discovery sails into the second day of its
21st mission in space.


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