MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-70 Status Report #14

Thursday, July 20, 1995, 7 a.m. CDT

  The crew of Discovery overnight wrapped up its experiment work and
checked out the systems that will be used for landing at Kennedy Space
Center Friday.

  Discovery's orbital maneuvering system engines are currently
scheduled to be fired for the deorbit burn at 5:54 a.m. CDT Friday,
resulting in a touchdown in Florida at 6:54 a.m. CDT. The weather
forecast was favorable enough for mission managers to decide not to
call up landing support at Edwards Air Force Base in California and to
press for landing in Florida on either Friday or Saturday.

  The second half of the crew's last full day on orbit will be spent
packing up the experiments and stowing gear in preparation for
landing. Earlier, Mission Specialists Don Thomas, Nancy Currie and
Mary Ellen Weber completed the final data takes on the middeck
experiments, and Commander Tom Henricks and Pilot Kevin Kregel
successfully checked out the flight control surfaces and hot-fired the
reaction control system steering jets they will use to pilot Discovery
to a safe touchdown.

  The crew is scheduled to begin its sleep shift at 2:42 p.m. CDT, and
awaken at 10:42 p.m. CDT.

  Flight controllers are once again working out of the old Mission
Control Center following an orderly midnight transition from the new
control center so that it can be used for a simulation. Launches and
landings are scheduled to be controlled out of the old MCC for the
next several flights until the new facility can be certified for the
most dynamic flight phases.

-end-