Coleman Credit - www.spacefacts.de

Personal: Female, Married. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. PhD US Air Force US Air Force

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: NASA Group 14 - 1992. Active Entered space service: 31 March 1992. Number of Flights: 2.00. Total Time: 20.86 days.

NAME: Catherine G. "Cady" Coleman, Ph.D. (Major, USAF)

NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:

Born December 14, 1960, in Charleston, South Carolina. Enjoys flying, scuba diving, sports, music. As an undergraduate, she competed in intercollegiate athletics on MIT's crew team. Her father, James J. Coleman, resides in Vancouver, Washington. Her mother, Ann L. Doty, resides in Westerly, Rhode Island.

EDUCATION:

Graduated from W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, Virginia, in 1978; received a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983, and a doctorate in polymer science and engineering from the University of Massachusetts in 1991.

ORGANIZATIONS:

Member of the American Chemical Society, the Society for Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), the American Association of University Women, and the International Womens' Air and Space Museum.

EXPERIENCE:

Coleman was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the Air Force in 1983 and began graduate work at the University of Massachusetts. Her research focused on polymer synthesis using the olefin metathesis reaction, and polymer surface modification. In 1988, Coleman entered active duty and was assigned to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. As a research chemist at the Materials Directorate of the Wright Laboratory, she synthesized model compounds to investigate the use of organic polymers for third-order nonlinear optical applications such as advanced computers and data storage. Coleman also acted as a surface analysis consultant for the Long Duration Exposure Facility (launched from STS 41-C in 1984 and retrieved during STS-32 in 1990). In addition to assigned duties, Coleman was a volunteer test subject for the centrifuge program at the Crew Systems Directorate of the Armstrong Aeromedical Laboratory. She set several endurance and tolerance records during her participation in physiological and new equipment studies.

NASA EXPERIENCE:

Coleman was selected by NASA in March 1992 and reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1992. Initially assigned to the Astronaut Office Mission Support Branch and detailed to flight software verification in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory, Coleman subsequently served as the special assistant to the Center Director, Johnson Space Center. She trained as STS-83 backup mission specialist to Dr. Don Thomas when he suffered a broken right ankle following the conclusion of a routine training exercise. Presently, Coleman is assigned to the Astronaut Office Payloads and Habitability Branch. She works with experiment designers to insure that payloads can be operated successfully in the microgravity environment of low earth orbit, and is the lead astronaut for long term space flight habitability issues, such as accoustics and living accommodations aboard the International Space Station.

From October 20 to November 5, 1995, Coleman served as a mission specialist aboard Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-73, the second United States Microgravity Laboratory mission. The mission focused on materials science, biotechnology, combustion science, the physics of fluids, and numerous scientific experiments housed in the pressurized Spacelab module. In completing her first space flight, Coleman orbited the Earth 256 times, traveled over 6 million miles, and logged a total of 15 days, 21 hours, 52 minutes and 21 seconds in space.

• 20 October 1995 Flight: STS-73. Flight Up: STS-73. Flight Back: STS-73. Flight Time: 15.91 days.

• 23 July 1999 Flight: STS-93. Flight Up: STS-93. Flight Back: STS-93. Flight Time: 4.95 days.

5 December 1992 - NASA Astronaut Training Group 14 selected.. The group was selected to provide pilot, engineer, and scientist astronauts for space shuttle flights.. Qualifications: Pilots: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics. Advanced degree desirable. At least 1,000 flight-hours of pilot-in-command time. Flight test experience desirable. Excellent health. Vision minimum 20/50 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20 vision; maximum sitting blood pressure 140/90. Height between 163 and 193 cm.

Mission Specialists: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics and minimum three years of related experience or an advanced degree. Vision minimum 20/150 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20. Maximum sitting blood pressure of 140/90. Height between 150 and 193 cm.. Four pilots and 15 mission specialists, nine civilians and ten military. Chosen from 2054 applicants, 87 of which screened in December 1991/January 1992. Five additional international astronauts.

With delays in International Space Station construction leaving ample room in the shuttle schedule, NASA made the unique decision to leave the equipment installed in Columbia and refly this mission with the same crew later in 1997 as STS-94.

The orbiter payload bay contained only the Chandra spacecraft, the IUS, and the IUS tilt tableTthe following payloads were carried in the shuttle’s cabin: STL-B (Space Tissue Loss), CCM (Cell culture module), SAREX-II (Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment), EarthKam, PGIM (Plant Growth Investigations in Microgravity), CGBA (Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus), MEMS (Micro-electric Mechanical System), and BRIC (Biological Research in Canisters) and SWUIS (the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System, an 0.18-m UV telescope to be used for airglow and planetary observations); GOSAMR (the Gelation of Sols: Applied Microgravity Research experiment) and LFSAH, the Lightweight Flexible Solar Array Hinge. MSX and SIMPLEX experiments were also to be carried out.

Chandra/IUS-27 was deployed from Columbia at 11:47 GMT July 23. Flight duration was limited; this was the heaviest shuttle (122,534 kg) and heaviest payload (19,736 kg) to that date. Columbia landed at 03:20 GMT on July 28 on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center. Post-flight inspection found the presence of holes in the cooling lines on the nozzle of SSME 2019 (engine 3) which caused a hydrogen leak. A loose repair pin in the engine broke free and caused the failure. The cause of the short was found to be chaffed wiring inside the shuttle. The entire fleet was grounded for inspection and replacement of wiring as necessary.

"We were extremely confident in the IUS system in placing Chandra in it's orbit," said NASA IUS Mission Director Representative Rob Kelso. "In addition, this mission culminated in more than three years of training for the IUS flight team at the USAF Onizuka Air Station. We couldn't be more pleased with the success of the IUS and being able to start this important observatory on it's way."

Following an eight hour sleep period, Columbia's five member crew -- Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini of the French Space Agency (CNES) -- were awakened at 6:31 p.m. CDT to begin their second day in space.

The main focus of the crew's Flight Day 2 activities will be in activating the secondary payloads and experiments being carried on the flight. Among those efforts will be the set up and first observations using the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System (SWUIS) that operates from inside the shuttle cabin. SWUIS is used to image planets and other solar system bodies in order to explore their atmospheres and surfaces in the ultraviolet (UV) region of the spectrum, which astronomers value for its diagnostic power. SWUIS, making its second flight on STS-93, will obtain ultraviolet imagery of an array of planetary and astrophysical targets. The specific targets that SWUIS will observe include Earth's moon, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter.

At 4:36 a.m. CDT Saturday morning, Collins and Coleman will take a break to do interviews with network reporters from CBS "Saturday Morning," the Fox News Network, the NBC "Saturday Today Show" and Cable News Network (CNN).

Columbia is flying smoothly on in an orbit 187 x 176 miles above the Earth, circling the planet every 90 minutes with its systems operating in excellent shape.

After two previous postponements, Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini lit up the skies at Kennedy Space Center at 11:31 p.m. Central time Thursday (12:31 a.m. Eastern time Friday), to kick off the 95th mission in shuttle program history. It was the 20th nighttime launch. About 5 seconds after liftoff, flight controllers noted a voltage drop on one of the shuttle's electrical buses. Because of this voltage drop, one of two redundant main engine controllers on two of the three engines shut down. The redundant controllers on those two engines -- the center and right main engines -- functioned normally, allowing the engines to fully support Columbia's climb to orbit. The left engine was unaffected. Main engine controllers receive commands from the shuttle's general purpose computers, and send commands to main engine components. Flight controllers and the crew continue to work to identify more precisely the cause of the voltage drop. Less than nine minutes after liftoff, the first female shuttle commander and her crew were in orbit, ready to begin a full night of work to prepare Chandra for its deployment as the third of NASA's Great Observatories. It will study the invisible, and often violent mysteries of x-ray astronomy. After the astronauts open their cargo bay doors, they will conduct health checks on the Chandra telescope and its two-stage solid-fuel Inertial Upper Stage booster. If all goes as planned, the astronauts will send commands later this morning to elevate the 56-foot long spacecraft to its deployment position behind Columbia's crew cabin. After a critical "go-no go" decision by flight controllers in Houston and at the Chandra Operations Control Center in Cambridge, Mass., cables routing electrical power to Chandra from Columbia will be disconnected; Chandra will be on internal battery power until its solar arrays are deployed. The schedule calls for Coleman and Tognini to command Chandra to be spring-ejected from its cradle at 6:48 a.m. Central time. Collins and Ashby then will maneuver Columbia to a "window protection" orientation with the belly of the shuttle pointed toward the Inertial Upper Stage booster nozzle. One hour after deployment, with Columbia about 30 nautical miles behind Chandra, the telescope's booster is scheduled to ignite in two stages, sending Chandra to its preliminary elliptical orbit. The telescope eventually will reach an oval orbit one-third of the distance to the Moon to conduct its astronomical observations. Chandra's solar arrays are to unfurl just prior to the separation of the Inertial Upper Stage's second stage, at which point telescope controllers in Massachusetts will begin several weeks of activation procedures before Chandra officially begins its astronomical investigations. Columbia's astronauts are in excellent shape, with the shuttle currently orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 178 by 175 miles.

Hawley, the resident astronomer on board, used the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System, or SWUIS instrument, to collect imagery of Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and the moon in this, its second flight into space. Hawley reported that he could not see a new comet called Lynn, but that the SWUIS may have captured imagery of the comet for investigators on the ground. The telescopic instrument is mounted on the side hatch window in the shuttle's middeck.

Coleman monitored several plant growth experiments while Tognini collected data from a biological cell culture experiment. The two astronauts collaborated on the smooth deployment of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory yesterday.

Chandra is currently orbiting the Earth in a highly elliptical orbit of about 200 statute miles by 44,000 statute miles, thanks to the successful firing of its two-stage Inertial Upper Stage booster an hour after it was spring-ejected from Columbia's cargo bay cradle. The first of five scheduled firings of Chandra's thrusters to refine its orbit is planned for 8:16 p.m. Central time tonight, a five-minute firing of the telescope's liquid-fuel propulsion system. That maneuver should leave Chandra in an orbit of about 774 statute miles by 44,600 miles. Four additional maneuvers are expected over the next two weeks.

Collins and Ashby fired Columbia's large orbital maneuvering system engines and primary reaction control system jets on several occasions to provide data for researchers in a pair of experiments designed to characterize jet thruster plumes in the space environment.

They also conducted a successful test of a procedure called the "flycast" maneuver in a rehearsal for the STS-99 mission in September, in which a 200-foot mast will be deployed from the cargo bay of the shuttle Endeavour equipped with a sophisticated radar system to study Earth's topographical features. The maneuver uses multiple thruster firings and the shuttle's autopilot system to maintain stability. The procedure will be crucial for the September mission to minimize disturbances to the radar mast.

Coleman also conducted several tests of High Definition Television equipment carried on board Columbia. HDTV gear is being tested for future use on both the shuttle and the International Space Station to conform to evolving broadcasting industry standards for television products.

The astronauts are scheduled to begin an eight-hour sleep period at 9:31 a.m. Central time this morning and will be awakened at 5:31 this afternoon to begin their third day in space.

Columbia is currently orbiting at an altitude of 177 statute miles.

Hawley, the resident astronomer of the STS-93 crew, will continue his work with the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System, or SWUIS instrument, to collect imagery of targets associated with Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and the Moon. Although small, the sensitive SWUIS system has unique attributes that make it a valuable complement to more expensive space observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope. Among these attributes are SWUIS's unusually wide field of view (up to 30 times Hubble's) and its ability to observe objects much closer to the Sun than most space observatories. This latter capability allows SWUIS to explore the inner solar system -- something few other instruments can do.

Collins and Ashby will be responsible for maneuvering Columbia in support of various experiments including observations made with the SWUIS telescope or the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX), which uses sophisticated sensors to collect ultraviolet, infrared, and visible light data of firings of the shuttle's orbital maneuvering system engines or primary reaction control system jets.

Collins also will conduct a conversation with students at the Harbor View Elementary School in Corona Del Mar, California using the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) system. She also will check experiments associated with the Cell Culture Module (CCM) and the Biological Research In Canister (BRIC) payloads.

At 4:36 a.m. CDT on Sunday, Collins and Coleman will conduct an interview with CBS Radio Network. Coleman also will be interviewed by Donna Shirley, former mission manager for the Mars Pathfinder Project, in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Arts' Mars Millenium Project.

Coleman will work with the Plant Growth Investigations in Micro-Gravity (PGIM) and the Lightweight Flexible Solar Array Hinge (LFSAH) experiments, and document on-orbit operations with High Definition Television (HDTV) equipment.

Ashby will tend to various orbiter systems and check the Space Tissue Loss (STL) experiment. STL is a payload designed to validate models of bone and muscle loss induced by the weightless environment of space.

Tognini will use the SAREX system to conduct a ham radio conversation with fellow French astronaut Jean-Pierre Haignere who is currently flying aboard the Russian Mir Space Station. That communication opportunity is planned for early Sunday morning at 12:33 a.m. CDT. He'll also help check the BRIC and LFSAH experiments, and work with experiments in the Commercial Generic Bio-Processing Apparatus (CGBA).

While the STS-93 crew presses on with the remainder of its flight, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory team at the Operations Control Center in Cambridge, Mass., is preparing for the first burn of Chandra's Integral Propulsion System. The firing is scheduled for about 8:11 p.m. CDT on Saturday, July 24. Two of Chandra's four Liquid Apogee Engines will burn for approximately five minutes. Tonight's burn will be the first of four apogee burns that will result in an increase to Chandra's perigee. Later in the mission, there will be one perigee burn to increase the spacecraft's apogee. There are four engines, two primary and two redundant. Each engine has 105-pounds of thrust and uses hydrazine as fuel with nitrogen tetroxide as the oxidizer.

Following the first Integral Propulsion System burn, the new perigee is expected to be 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) and the new apogee is expected to be 45,014 miles (72,023 kilometers). Chandra's new orbit duration will be 24 hours, 38 minutes, slightly longer than its current orbit of 24 hours, 17 minutes.

Columbia is orbiting at an altitude of 158 x 148 nautical miles circling the Earth once every 90 minutes.

Hawley collected additional data for investigators from the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System (SWUIS), which he trained on the moon and Venus. Tognini and Coleman, meanwhile, monitored the operation of bioprocessing hardware collecting data from a number of biological and biomedical experiments. Tognini and Coleman reported that a series of hinges constructed from new lightweight materials unfurled successfully in a demonstration of technology expected to be applied to the development of solar panels for future spacecraft.

Last night, at 8:16 p.m., controllers at the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Operations Control Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, reported a successful firing of the telescope's liquid-fuel thrusters, the first of five such firings which will ultimately place Chandra in its proper scientific orbit. News of the successful maneuver was relayed to the astronauts by flight controllers in Mission Control. All of Chandra's systems are functioning normally.

Midway through the astronauts' workday, Tognini and Collins took time out to talk with the three cosmonauts aboard the Russian Space Station Mir in a ham radio hookup. Travelling some 7,700 miles apart, French astronaut Tognini offered greetings to his fellow countryman, Jean-Pierre Haignere, a European Space Agency astronaut who is in the homestretch of a six-month scientific research mission aboard Mir. Haignere, Commander Viktor Afanasayev and Flight Engineer Sergei Avdeyev are scheduled to land in their Soyuz capsule in Kazakhstan on August 28.

Collins reported to flight controllers late last night that a circuit breaker associated with an electrical bus on the Shuttle had popped open during a transient short seconds after launch. Although Columbia's climb to orbit was unaffected by the short circuit, the breakers will be analyzed postflight to determine the exact cause of the problem.

Collins and Ashby also continued to provide investigators with data for a pair of experiments involving the study of exhaust vapors from the engines of space vehicles by firing reaction control system and orbital maneuvering system engines several times as Columbia passed over worldwide tracking network stations.

The astronauts will begin an eight-hour sleep period at 8:31 a.m. Central time this morning and will be awakened at 4:31 this afternoon to begin their fourth day in space. Columbia is flying smoothly, orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of 182 statute miles.

The day started off with a wake-up call sent up in honor of Pilot Jeff Ashby. It was a song called "Some Day Soon," written by Judy Collins and performed by Suzy Boguss.

The first job for Ashby and Mission Specialists Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini was to set up an exercise treadmill and the Treadmill Vibration Information System (TVIS) which will measure vibrations and changes in microgravity levels caused by on-orbit workouts. These workouts are needed to maintain astronauts' cardiovascular fitness and muscle tone, which can suffer in the absence of gravity. Each crewmember was scheduled to take a turn on the treadmill before it is put away at the end of the day.

Astronomer Hawley once again is scheduled to make observations of Jupiter, Venus and the Moon with the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System (SWUIS) as Commander Eileen Collins and Ashby put the shuttle in the proper orientation for his observations.

Tognini and Mission Specialist Cady Coleman will check on the bioprocessing experiments, and harvest mouse-ear cress plants as part of the Plant Growth Investigations in Microgravity experiment. These genetically engineered plants are expected to yield clues to the sensitive mechanisms the plants use to monitor their environment and help scientists develop plants that respond better to the stresses of space flight.

Collins and Ashby will fire the shuttle's engines so that the sophisticated sensors of the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite will be able to collect ultraviolet, infrared and visible light data on the firing. The satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in 1996. The commander and pilot also will practice landings on a laptop computer, simulation software and joystick combination called the Portable In-Flight Landing Operations Trainer (PILOT).

Meanwhile, Mission Operations' Wayne Hale reported that engineers on the ground continue to evaluate the short in one of the shuttle's electrical systems, which occurred shortly after launch as well as the slightly reduced performance of the main engines. Neither problem poses any risk to the remainder of the mission, Hale said.

Hale said the crew's discovery that a circuit breaker had popped during the climb to orbit provides reassurance that the problem has been isolated and will not affect any of the shuttle's other electrical systems used for reentry and landing. He also said that the right engine's reduced performance may have been due to a small hydrogen leak in tubes that help cool the nozzle. While it won't be confirmed until the shuttle returns to Earth, Hale said the evidence pointing to the leak includes a slightly higher than normal temperature in that engine, and launch photos showing a white streak that could be escaping hydrogen.

At this point, Columbia is flying smoothly, orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of 182 statute miles.

Commander Eileen Collins and Pilot Jeff Ashby checked out the shuttle's cockpit instruments, displays and flight control systems this evening as part of the preparations for landing. They also test-fired Columbia's 38 small steering jets, finding everything in good shape and ready for the trip back to Earth.

Also today, Collins and Ashby were joined by the rest of the crew -- Mission Specialists Steve Hawley, Cady Coleman and Michel Tognini -- for a press conference, fielding questions from reporters in Houston, Florida and Massachusetts.

All activities are focused on a landing at KSC tomorrow, the shuttle's primary landing site, and flight controllers do not plan to consider any landing opportunities at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on Tuesday. Two opportunities are available for a landing in Florida tomorrow, beginning on Columbia's 79th orbit of Earth with an engine firing at 9:19 p.m. CDT leading to a touchdown at 10:20 p.m. If Columbia lands on the first opportunity, its course toward Florida will take it above much of south central Texas and southern Louisiana and the shuttle may be easily visible to observers on the ground in those areas.

The second opportunity is on the next orbit of Earth, starting with an engine firing at 10:54 p.m. leading to touchdown at 11:55 p.m. Columbia's course toward Florida on the second opportunity would take it above southern Texas and the Louisiana coast as it closes in on the Florida peninsula. The crew is scheduled to go to sleep at 6:31 a.m. CDT and awaken at 2:31 p.m. Tuesday.

Columbia is orbiting at an altitude of 182 statute miles with all of its systems in excellent condition.

Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini completed work with the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System, a telescopic instrument mounted on the side hatch window in the middeck which has collected ultraviolet data on the moon, Jupiter and Venus. Additional work was conducted with several experiments studying the reaction of biological samples and plant growth to the absence of gravity.

Collins and Ashby fired Columbia's orbital maneuvering system engines and its reaction control system jets several times to provide more data for a pair of experiments examining how engine exhaust disturbs the molecules in the ionosphere in low Earth orbit.

Ashby, Hawley and Tognini took turns on a special treadmill set up in the middeck which was equipped with accelerometers and sensors to measure how well the device can offset vibrations induced by crew exercise. Engineering data from the treadmill may be used by technicians in the development of exercise equipment for the International Space Station designed to minimize disturbances to delicate microgravity experiments.

Tognini and Collins took time out to field questions from French Space Agency officials and students in Toulouse, France near the end of the crew's work day and Collins was joined by Ashby to discuss the progress of the mission with U.S. television networks and local television affiliates in upstate New York.

With all of Columbia's systems functioning in excellent shape, NASA managers will be discussing landing opportunities and weather forecasts for Florida in advance of the astronauts' final full day in orbit.

Current forecasts call for mostly clear skies and a possibility of thundershowers near the 3-mile long landing strip at the Kennedy Space Center for Columbia's planned touchdown tomorrow night at 10:20 p.m. Central time. A backup landing opportunity is available at the Florida spaceport 90 minutes later.

The five crew members will begin an eight-hour sleep period at 7:31 a.m. Central time this morning and will be awakened at 3:31 p.m. to begin their fifth day in space. Collins and Ashby will check out Columbia's flight control surfaces and fire the ship's reaction control system jets tonight in the routine pre-landing checkouts conducted the day before every shuttle landing, insuring that the orbiter is in good shape to support the vehicle's high-speed return to Earth.

Columbia is orbiting at an altitude of 182 statute miles with all of its systems in excellent condition.

Commander Eileen Collins flew Columbia to a textbook touchdown at 10:20 p.m. Central time on Runway 3-3 at the Cape's Shuttle's Landing Facility, swooping out of darkness to complete a mission spanning almost 1.8 million miles. Pilot Jeff Ashby, Flight Engineer Steve Hawley and Mission Specialist Cady Coleman joined Collins on the flight deck for entry and landing. Mission Specialist Michel Tognini of the French Space Agency was seated alone down in the middeck. It was the 19th consecutive Shuttle landing at the Florida spaceport and the 12th night landing in Shuttle program history.

A few minutes earlier, Columbia provided a light show for residents in Houston as it sped overhead about 15 minutes before landing, visible in the nighttime skies as an orange streak headed for Florida. Columbia was at an altitude of about 200,000 feet at the time, travelling about 15 times the speed of sound.

Left behind in orbit is the Chandra Observatory, which was released from Columbia's cargo bay last Friday morning. Telescope controllers at the Chandra Operations Control Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts say the Observatory is in excellent shape in the first week of its checkout for scientific operations.

The astronauts will be reunited with their families overnight Wednesday before holding a news conference at the Kennedy Space Center to discuss their flight. That news conference is scheduled at about 4:30 a.m. Central time and will be broadcast on NASA Television just prior to the astronauts' departure from KSC.

The crew plans to return to Ellington Field near the Johnson Space Center Wednesday morning at about 10:15 a.m. Central time, where the five astronauts are expected to be greeted by Vice-President Gore, JSC Director George W. S. Abbey and center employees. The crew return, which will occur at Hangar 276 at Ellington, will be broadcast live on NASA TV. It is open to the public.

The first major task will be the closing of Columbia's cargo bay doors at about 6:40 this evening, followed by the astronauts climbing into their launch and entry suits shortly before 8 p.m. The entry flight control team led by Flight Director John Shannon will receive updated weather forecasts throughout the late afternoon and evening before a "go-no go" decision for the deorbit burn is issued around 9 p.m.

There are two opportunities to land Tuesday night. The first begins with a deorbit burn on orbit 79 at 9:19 p.m. with a landing at 10:20 p.m. at Kennedy Space Center Florida. Columbia's orbital maneuvering engines will fire, slowing the 100-ton spacecraft by 250 feet per second, enough to drop it into the atmosphere halfway around the world. Columbia's unpowered glide through the atmosphere will heat a plasma layer around the heat-protecting tiles and creating a brilliant streak across the night sky for many ground observers. The Orbiter will cross Baja California and northwest Mexico, bisect Texas from west to east and pass over southern Louisiana on its way to Florida. Weather permitting, ground observers will be able to see the entry path about 100 miles on each side of the track. Columbia will cross Texas between 10 and 10:05 p.m. and a few minutes later will overfly Louisiana. Present plans call for a right turn to line up with runway 33, a southeast to northwest landing.

The second opportunity is one orbit later with an engine firing at 10:54 p.m. CDT and a landing at KSC at 11:55 p.m. The groundtrack is similar to the previous orbit's entry path.

Edwards Air Force Base will not be called up for support Tuesday night because of the good chances for landing at KSC.

Flight controllers will be keeping an eye on the weather in Florida. The primary threat to ending Columbia's mission at the Shuttle Landing Facility there is the possibility of thunderstorms within 30 miles, most likely to the west. Winds and cloud cover were not a concern leading up to the engine firing.

If Columbia lands at Kennedy Space Center it will be the 12th night landing in the Shuttle program's history. Five of those have been at Edwards Air Force Base in California and the rest have been at KSC. There have been 18 consecutive landings at KSC and 25 of the last 26 have been there. The last Edwards landing was in March 1996 with the STS-76 mission.

Additional opportunities for landing will be available on Wednesday at both landing sites if weather prevents Columbia from coming home tonight.

If Columbia lands this evening, the astronauts are due back at Ellington Field in Houston around mid-morning on Wednesday. An exact time for crew arrival will be firmed up after landing.

Columbia is orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of 179 statute miles with all systems operating normally.

With the Chandra X-Ray Observatory undergoing what so far has been a flawless checkout on orbit for future scientific investigations, Commander Eileen Collins and Pilot Jeff Ashby successfully exercised Columbia's aerosurfaces and fired all of its steering jets late Monday night, confirming that the Shuttle is ready to support its high speed return to Earth.

With all systems operating in good fashion, Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini stowed all of their hardware and deactivated secondary experiments in preparation for tonight's landing opportunities at the Florida spaceport.

The astronauts have two chances to land tonight, the first calling for a firing of the orbital maneuvering system engines in a braking maneuver at 9:19 p.m. Central time tonight. That will slow Columbia down by 250 feet per second, allowing it to drop out of orbit for its hour-long entry back to Earth. If all goes as planned, landing will occur on Runway 3-3 at the Kennedy Space Center at 10:20 p.m. Central Daylight time, after Collins executes an overhead right hand turn to align Columbia with the southeast to northwest approach to the 3-mile long landing strip. This will be the 12th night landing in Shuttle program history.

If weather somehow prevents a landing on the first opportunity, a backup opportunity exists 90 minutes later. The alternate landing site at California's Edwards Air Force Base will not be called up for landing support tonight.

Additional opportunities for landing will be available on Wednesday at both landing sites if weather prevents Columbia from coming home tonight. The forecast, however, looks very favorable, with only a few clouds predicted near the Shuttle Landing Facility and a slight chance of a thundershower offshore at the time of touchdown.

The astronauts began an eight-hour sleep period at 6:31 a.m. Central time this morning and will be awakened at 2:31 this afternoon to begin deorbit preparations.

The first major task will be the closing of Columbia's cargo bay doors at about 6:40 this evening, followed by the astronauts climbing into their launch and entry suits shortly before 8 p.m. Entry Flight Director John Shannon and his team of flight controllers will receive updated weather forecasts throughout the late afternoon and evening before a "go-no go" decision for the deorbit burn is issued around 9 p.m.

Assuming clear weather, the orbiter should be visible as it streaks across the night sky over Texas, Lousiana, and then Florida. In Houston, Columbia should appear in the northern sky at about 10:05 p.m. CDT before the 10:20 landing.

If Columbia lands this evening, the astronauts are due back at Ellington Field in Houston around mid-morning on Wednesday. An exact time for crew arrival will be firmed up after landing.

Columbia is orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of 179 statute miles with all systems operating normally.