MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-70 Status Report #13

Wednesday, July 19, 1995, 4 p.m. CDT

The crew of Discovery, continuing a near-perfect flight, began to wrap
up their experiment work today, after a week of gathering a host of
data ranging from Earth observations to biological studies.

After final sessions with the HERCULES camera and the WINDEX
experiment, the crew has stowed them away for the trip home Friday.
Early today, the crew successfully aligned the HERCULES camera's
navigation equipment and sent the ground both live and videotaped
images of regions from the device.  Also, Commander Tom Henricks fired
Discovery's steering thrusters several times for a final observation
by the WINDEX experiment, which shares a camera with HERCULES.  WINDEX
records the environment around the spacecraft in low orbit and the
effects of a variety of events, including water dumps and larger
engine firings earlier in the flight.

Mission Specialist Don Thomas also reported success with the SAREX
amateur radio aboard the Shuttle, counting around 50 contacts with
ground radio operators a day for several days of the mission.  The
crew also spoke with students at 10 schools scattered around the
globe.

Several experiments continue on Discovery--including the evaluation
phase of the Bioreactor device, a cell culture growth experiment that
already has successfully grown colon cancer cells during the early
days of the flight.  The current portion of the study characterizes
the currents and environment inside the rotating cylinder that serves
as the cell growth chamber.

The crew began an eight-hour sleep period at 2:42 p.m. CDT and will
awaken for their eighth day in space at 10:42 p.m. CDT.  Attention
will then be turned toward the return home as the crew performs checks
of Discovery's equipment to be used during landing and starts packing
up its gear.  Discovery is scheduled to land Friday at the Kennedy
Space Center in Florida, with a touchdown at 6:54 a.m. CDT.


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