STS-80
Report # 03 
Wednesday, November 20, 1996, 6 p.m. CST
 
 While Columbia leads the ORFEUS-SPAS spacecraft by about 25 nautical
miles, the five astronauts concentrated their attention on other
activities aboard the orbiter including testing the Space Vision
System, conducting a visual checkout of the Wake Shield Facility and
working with middeck experiments that will be conducted throughout the
16-day mission.

 The Orbiting Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer
(ORFEUS), mounted on the reusable Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS) was
deployed on launch day and will remain a free flyer away from Columbia
for 14 days.  Throughout its two-week mission, the science satellite
will gather data on the origin and makeup of stars.  Columbia's
Commander Ken Cockrell and Pilot Kent Rominger will periodically fire
thruster jets on the orbiter to refine the distance between the two
spacecraft to maintain safe distances while other mission objectives
are performed, including deployment and retrieval of the Wake Shield
Facility.

  The Wake Shield is scheduled to be deployed Friday evening and
retrieved late Monday night.  The saucer-shaped spacecraft is flying
for the third time aboard the Shuttle and is designed to also fly free
of the orbiter's environment to conduct its primary mission to
create an ultravacuum in its wake to grow more perfect thin film
semiconductor materials that could be used in electronic circuits and
digital, analog, microwave and optical devices.

  The test of the Orbiter Space Vision System by Mission Specialists
Tammy Jernigan and Tom Jones is designed to use the closed-circuit
television sysem on Columbia to monitor the position and alignment of
structures in space.  The OSVS also could be used to more precisely
move equipment around the payload bay and eventually on the
International Space Station when a direct view by crew members is not
possible.

  Other activities today include activation of the CMIX-5 experiment
hardware to conduct research in areas including diabetes treatment,
tissue replacement and the growth of crystals for research into breast
cancer inhibitors.  Mission Specialist Story Musgrave concentrated
early afternoon efforts on some of the samples in this experiment.
Rominger and Jernigan activated another experiment designed to study
alternate methods for spacecraft thermal management.

  The crew began its work day at 10 this morning to the Who's
"I can see for miles". The five astronauts are scheduled to
go to sleep just before 3 a.m. Thursday.

  Columbia is orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of
218 statute miles with all systems operating normally. Orbiter and
crew are scheduled to return to Earth Dec. 5.