STS-91 Day 9 Highlights

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On Wednesday, June 10, 1998, 6:00 a.m. CDT, STS-91 MCC Status Report # 16 reports:

Discovery's crew was awakened this morning to the theme from the television show "Superman," played in honor of astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz's record-breaking time in orbit aboard a Space Shuttle, a total of more than 51 days spent in orbit during six shuttle flights as of today. The previous record for individual time spent aboard a shuttle was 1,211 hours, held by astronaut Jeff Hoffman.

At 12:26 p.m. Central time today, Chang-Diaz will be interviewed in Spanish by CBS' Telenoticias and CNN's En Espanol. Now in the home stretch of the mission, other crew activities today will include using the shuttle's robotic arm to record video of water leaking from a relief valve associated with one of the electricity-generating fuel cells and continued work with onboard experiments.

Mission Specialists Wendy Lawrence and Janet Kavandi will unberth the robotic arm at 7:52 a.m. Central and use it to view the area from which water has been leaking overboard since launch. Although the leak is small and has had no impact on the mission, flight controllers want to document the condition of the valve to help understand the malfunction. The crew will move the arm into a position where the camera can see the relief valve, located in the fuselage just above the starboard wing's leading edge. Lawrence and Kavandi will keep the arm in position for 30 minutes while the pressure in one of Discovery's water tanks is decreased and then increased to observe the effect on the leak. While the arm is in use, the crew also will record scenes of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer instrument located in the aft cargo bay.

Also today, Chang-Diaz will continue work with the SPACEHAB Universal Communications System, or SHUCS, a system hoped to allow telephone, voice, fax and some video communications between scientists on the ground and an orbiting crew. No such communications have been possible with the system thus far during the flight, although engineers have seen indications that it has been able to aquire the INMARSAT communications satellites. Pilot Dom Gorie will continue studies of how fire burns in weightlessness today with sessions using the Solid Surface Combustion Experiment, or SSCE, aboard the shuttle. This is the tenth and final shuttle flight for the SSCE, an experiment that has gathered a vast amount of information about the nature of flames and combustion in space.

Mission Control is continuing to investigate a problem that was seen Tuesday with one of Discovery's flight control computers that was receiving data from Global Positioning System equipment on the Shuttle. The problem poses no issues for Discovery's continuing operations or planned landing on Friday. The computer, one of five such computers onboard the shuttle which all serve as a backup to one another, was taken out of service on Tuesday. Another flight control computer was assigned to take over the errant computer's functions and that computer has been functioning normally, as have all of the other flight control computers. Flight controllers are continuing to examine data transmitted from the problem computer before it was taken off line. Mission Control may request that Discovery Commander Charlie Precourt reboot the computer today in an effort to clear the error and regain its use.

Discovery's crew will begin an eight-hour sleep period at 7:06 p.m. Discovery is currently in a 238 by 223 statute mile orbit, 233 statute miles ahead of the Mir and continuing to separate from the station. The next STS-91 status report will be issued at about 6 p.m. Central time Wednesday.

On Wednesday, June 10, 1998, 6:00 p.m. CDT, STS-91 MCC Status Report # 17 reports:

With a history-making day behind them, Discovery's astronauts will turn their attention to Friday's planned return trip to Earth .

Today, Mission Specialist Franklin Chang-Diaz broke the previous record for time spent on board the space shuttle, as he passed the mark of 1,211 hours set by astronaut Jeff Hoffman over the course of five missions. STS-91 is Chang-Diaz's sixth space flight. In another first today, navigational data on board Discovery was updated using data from the Global Positioning Satellite system, marking the inaugural use of this satellite constellation to provide navigational information to a manned spacecraft on orbit.

The updating of Discovery's navigational data from the GPS system followed a successful test to verify equipment and operational capability of that system, which is ultimately intended to replace the Shuttle's tactical navigation aids used during landing. The test was conducted to provide additional data on a discrepancy in information between the GPS system and one of Discovery's on-board computers that was noted by flight controllers early Tuesday morning.

This morning, Mission Specialists Wendy Lawrence and Janet Kavandi maneuvered the Shuttle's robot arm into position to look for any possible ice build-up near a valve where water from one of Discovery's fuel cells is being vented overboard. Precourt informed flight controllers that the view from cameras mounted on the arm did not indicate any build-up of ice.

Precourt, Pilot Dom Gorie, and Lawrence will check out Discovery's flight control surfaces and systems tomorrow morning to ensure the vehicle is ready for its high-speed reentry through the Earth's atmosphere on Friday. All seven crew members will continue the process of stowing the equipment and other hardware they have used during the course of the mission, to ready Discovery for Friday's planned landing.

The astronauts will take a break from their landing preparations tomorrow to talk with the Associated Press and ABC Radio in an interview slated for 11:54 a.m. Central time.

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