STS-70 Day 7 Highlights

Back to STS-70 Flight Day 06 Highlights:

On Wednesday, July 19, 1995, 7 a.m. CDT, STS-70 MCC Status Report # 12 reports:

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.

On Wednesday, July 19, 1995, 4 p.m. CDT, STS-70 MCC Status Report # 13 reports:

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.

Go to STS-70 Flight Day 8 Highlights: