MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-70 Status Report #12

Wednesday, July 19, 1995,  7 a.m. CDT

  Discovery began what promised to be another trouble-free day on orbit,
obtaining a successful alignment of the HERCULES geolocating camera
and evaluating the manual setup procedures for the rotating wall
bioreactor.

  Pilot Kevin Kregel downlinked both live and videotaped images from
the HERCULES camera following the successful alignment of the camera's
navigation equipment, which earlier in the flight had been
troublesome. The crew kept the camera out longer than planned in an
effort to record additional images.

  Mission Specialist Don Thomas activated and deactivated the
Microencapsulation in Space experiment, a device that will attempt to
produce a timed-release antibiotic medication in weightlessness. The
lack of gravity allows the encapsulation process to be performed with
much greater purity than can be achieved on the ground, according to
experimenters. Thomas also made contacts with ham radio operators on
the ground with the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment.

  Mission Specialist Nancy Currie checked on the status of the
Commercial Protein Crystal Growth Experiment, helped Commander Tom
Henricks and Kregel operate HERCULES and conducted a photo survey of a
debris impact on one of the Shuttle's windows. The film was tucked way
in a bag marked for return to Houston after the flight. The debris
impact poses no hazard for the Shuttle.

  Mission Specialist Mary Ellen Weber continued her work with the
Bioreactor Development System and reported no problems with the manual
setup procedures.

  The crew will continue its workday until 2:42 p.m. CDT before
beginning an eight- hour sleep period that will end with a wake-up
call at 10:42 tonight.

-end-