STS-80
Report # 34 
 8:30 a.m. CST December 4, 1996 
 
Columbia's five astronauts were notified this morning that their
16-day mission would end as originally scheduled with a landing at
6:33 a.m. central time Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center.

That news followed todays successful rendezvous and retrieval of the
ORFEUS-SPAS astronomy spacecraft, which completed its two-week
free-flight mission away from Columbia. The satellite was gently
captured by the shuttle's remote manipulator system, or robot arm, by
Mission Specialist Tammy Jernigan at 2:26 a.m.central time after
Commander Ken Cockrell and Pilot Kent Rominger maneuvered Columbia
within 35 feet of the satellite.  The retrieval occurred as the
orbiter approached Central America from the southwest on the 230th
orbit of the flight.

The decision to plan for a Thursday landing came at the conclusion of
this morning's Mission Management Team meeting and reflected the less
than favorable weather predictions for a Friday landing at both the
Kennedy Space Center in Florida and at Edwards Air Force Base in
California. In addition to the 6:33 a.m. opportunity, there is one
additional opportunity to KSC at 8:10 a.m., and one to Edwards at 9:38
a.m.

About 3:30 a.m. today, one of Columbia's three navigation units was
taken offline due to an apparent failure in the attitude platform
electronics. The failure of Inertial Measurement Unit 1 has no effect
on Columbia's mission duration or reentry activities, with the
remaining two IMUs performing well.

Following the capture of ORFEUS-SPAS, the satellite was maneuvered
through a planned profile to allow data to be gathered in support of
the Orbiter Space Vision System experiment.  OSVS is designed to
evaluate the use of onboard television cameras and a series of
strategically placed targets to provide the astronauts with precise
measurements during retrieval activities.  Jernigan, along with fellow
Mission Specialists Tom Jones and Story Musgrave used these cues to
perform about four hours of robot arm operations with ORFEUS-SPAS
prior to locking the satellite in the payload bay at 7:14 a.m.

The STS-80 crew wraps up its last planned full day in space at 10:30
a.m. and will wake up at 6:26 p.m. to begin final preparations for
their return trip home.  Those preparations include checking the
orbiter's flight control and reaction control systems for their
readiness to support the entry and landing.



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