STS-77 Mission Control Center 
Status Report #11

Friday, May 24, 1996 6 a.m. CDT

Halfway through the STS-77 mission, the six Endeavour astronauts spent
some time relaxing, then went back to working in the Spacehab module
and preparing to revisit a small cylindrical satellite they deployed
several days ago.

While Commander John Casper and Pilot Curt Brown monitored
Endeavour's systems, Mission Specialist Mario Runco tested an
attitude determination system using the GPS attitude and navigation
experiment called GANE.  The remaining crew members -- Mission
Specialists Andy Thomas, Dan Bursch and Marc Garneau -- monitored the
health of experiments ongoing in the Spacehab and on the middeck of
the orbiter.

Thomas monitored the Space Experiment Facility (SEF), Garneau worked
with the Commercial Float Zone Furnace (CFZF), changing samples and
videotapes, and Bursch taste tested soda in the Fluids Generic
Bioprocessing Apparatus (FGBA), which was repaired during an inflight
maintenance procedure yesterday.

The crew also conducted a health check of the Aquatic Research
Facility (ARF) which contains starfish, mussels and sea urchins.
Three separate investigations are being conducted to study embryonic
development in space, adult tissue structure and the ability to orient
to the microgravity environment of space.  The investigations are
designed to help researchers understand and improve models of human
adaptation to space and the factors that may disrupt that adaptation.

The crew will perform a small engine firing later today to refine the
distance between Endeavour and the small PAMS-STU satellite in
preparation for tomorrow's planned second rendezvous with the
spacecraft. The astronauts answered questions from the rendezvous team
in Mission Control to better understand their ability to see the
satellite and verify its orientation under different lighting
conditions.  The two spacecraft are currently about 60 miles apart.

The crew will go to sleep at 1:30 this afternoon and wakeup at 9:30
tonight.  Endeavour's 11th mission begins the second half of the
flight at a stable altitude of 175 miles with an orbital period of 90
minutes.

The JSC newsroom is open 24 hours throughout the STS-77 mission.

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