Husband Credit - www.spacefacts.de

Personal: Male, Married, Two children. Born in Amarillo, Texas, USA. Perished in Columbia shuttle disintegration during re-entry. US Air Force US Air Force

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: NASA Group 15 - 1995. Deceased Entered space service: 9 December 1994. Left space service: 1 February 2003. Number of Flights: 2.00. Total Time: 25.74 days.

NAME: Rick Douglas Husband (Lieutenant Colonel, USAF)

NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:

Born July 12, 1957, in Amarillo, Texas. Married. Two Children. He enjoys singing, water and snow skiing, cycling, and spending time with his family.

EDUCATION:

Graduated from Amarillo High School, Amarillo, Texas, in 1975. Received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Texas Tech University in 1980, and a master of science degree in mechanical engineering from California State University, Fresno, in 1990.

ORGANIZATIONS:

Member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Tau Beta Pi, Air Force Association, and the Texas Tech Ex-Students Association.

SPECIAL HONORS:

Distinguished Graduate of AFROTC, Undergraduate Pilot Training, Squadron Officers School, F-4 Instructor School, and USAF Test Pilot School; Outstanding Engineering Student Award, Texas Tech University, 1980; F-4 Tactical Air Command Instructor Pilot of the Year (1987). Military decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster, the Aerial Achievement Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal.

EXPERIENCE:

After graduation from Texas Tech University in May 1980, Husband was commissioned a second lieutenant in the USAF and attended pilot training at Vance Air Force Base (AFB), Oklahoma. He graduated in October 1981, and was assigned to F-4 training at Homestead AFB, Florida. After completion of F-4 training in September 1982, Husband was assigned to Moody AFB, Georgia flying the F-4E. From September to November 1985, he attended F-4 Instructor School at Homestead AFB and was assigned as an F-4E instructor pilot and academic instructor at George AFB, California in December 1985. In December 1987, Husband was assigned to Edwards AFB, California, where he attended the USAF Test Pilot School. Upon completion of Test Pilot School, Husband served as a test pilot flying the F-4 and all five models of the F-15. In the F-15 Combined Test Force, Husband was the program manager for the Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 increased performance engine, and also served as the F-15 Aerial Demonstration Pilot. In June 1992, Husband was assigned to the Aircraft and Armament Evaluation Establishment at Boscombe Down, England, as an exchange test pilot with the Royal Air Force. At Boscombe Down, Husband was the Tornado GR1 and GR4 Project Pilot and served as a test pilot in the Hawk, Hunter, Buccaneer, Jet Provost, Tucano, and Harvard. He has logged over 3000 hours of flight time in more than 40 different types of aircraft.

NASA EXPERIENCE:

Husband was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in December 1994. He reported to the Johnson Space Center in March 1995 to begin a year of training and evaluation. Upon completion of training, Husband was named the Astronaut Office representative for Advanced Projects at Johnson Space Center.

• 27 May 1999 Flight: STS-96. Flight Up: STS-96. Flight Back: STS-96. Flight Time: 9.80 days.

• 16 January 2003 Flight: STS-107. Flight Up: STS-107. Flight Back: STS-107. Flight Time: 15.94 days.

9 June 1995 - NASA Astronaut Training Group 15 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.. 10 pilots and 9 mission specialists, 6 civilians and 13 military officers, chosen from 2,962 applicants, of which 122 screened in June-August 1994. 4 additional international astronauts.

Work will continue today with a wide variety of science experiments on board, although at a somewhat slower pace. Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai and Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski - both physicians - will draw blood from Glenn and Mission Specialist Pedro Duque of Spain as part of the Protein Turnover Experiment, which assesses the body's breakdown and metabolism of protein before, during and after space flight.

Mukai and Glenn, each of whom wore an electrode net on their heads, as well as other measuring devices, during last night's sleep period, will complete some cognitive performance tests as part of their participation in the sleep study. The cognitive tests will include measurements of how quickly they respond to light cues on a lap-top computer.

Glenn and Mukai will don the electrode net again before turning in this evening. The electrodes are connected to a digital sleep recorder that monitors brain waves, eye movements, muscle tension, body movements and respiration. Mukai will swallow a capsule containing either melatonin or a placebo as part of the study before going to sleep.

Parazynski will check the status of components of the Hubble Space Telescope Orbital Systems Test (HOST) payload, which provides an on-orbit test bed for hardware that will be used during the third Hubble servicing mission. Parazynski and Pilot Steve Lindsey also will set up some of the tools that will be used during Tuesday's rendezvous and subsequent capture and reberthing of the Spartan satellite. Steve Robinson will use the Shuttle's robot arm to grapple Spartan tomorrow afternoon after Discovery completes its rendezvous with the sun-watching probe.

Other science activities today will include the collection of video data from the Advanced Gradient Heating Facility (AGHF) used for directional solidification and crystal growth, and from the Microgravity Glovebox (MGBX), which is used for investigations of colloids, or systems of fine particles suspended in fluid. Parazynski also will complete the 5th feeding of the bone cell culture that is part of the OSTEO experiment, an evaluation of bone cell activity under microgravity conditions.

Commander Curt Brown will spend some time this morning working with the Electronic Nose device, which was developed to detect, identify and quantify a wide range of organic and inorganic molecules and provide a comprehensive measurement of on-board air quality.

Mukai will be busy checking on the Vestibular Function Experiment Unit (VFEU), which holds two toadfish. The fish are electronically monitored to determine the effect of gravitational changes on the balance system in the inner ear. She also will monitor the Astroculture-8 facility that is designed to provide a controlled environment in which to grow plants in the weightlessness of space.

At 9:55 a.m. Central time, Brown, Duque and Glenn will receive a congratulatory call from Esperanza Aguirre, the Education Minister of Spain. Duque, the first Spaniard to fly in space, also will take questions from school children representing 17 regions of Spain.

At 4:00 p.m. Central time, Brown and Glenn will take part in unilateral interviews with the five major U.S. television networks.

Discovery is orbiting the Earth every 95 minutes at an altitude of about 349 statute miles with all systems operating in excellent condition.

After opening the hatch between Unity and the Pressurized Mating Adapter that connects it to Endeavour, the astronauts will climb aboard Unity about 1:15 p.m. CST. Once inside, Commander Bob Cabana and Mission Specialists Jerry Ross and Jim Newman will install portable fans and lights. They also will complete installation of the S-band communication system in the U.S. component. Pilot Rick Sturckow will remove some access panels inside Unity and unstow hardware that will be used by visiting astronauts on future assembly missions.

Less than 90 minutes after entering Unity, the astronauts will float into the Zarya module, where Mission Specialist Sergei Krikalev and Currie will install a new battery charging unit. One of Zarya's six batteries has experienced a problem discharging stored energy in its automatic configuration. Krikalev has swapped out an identical component during two previous flights on the Russian space station Mir. Sturckow and Currie also will remove launch restraint bolts from some of the panels inside Zarya. These bolts were installed before launch to ensure that none of the panels popped open during launch. Astronauts will remove some of these bolts today as a "get-ahead" task to expedite access to the panels during future space station assembly missions. Cabana, Ross and Newman will check out the early communications system's videoconferencing capability.

Ross, Newman and Krikalev then will begin transferring equipment and supplies from Endeavour for use by future inhabitants of the space station, including the first crew to begin a permanent human presence on the space station in January 2000.

During the entry into the International Space Station today, the crew will open a total of six hatches in the following order: the hatch on Endeavour's docking system; the hatch to Unity's mating adapter (designated PMA-2); the hatch to Unity; the hatch from Unity to the upper mating adapter (designated PMA-1); the hatch to Zarya's spherical pressurized adapter (PA); and finally, a hatch between the spherical pressurized adapter on Zarya and the main Zarya instrument module, Zarya's main compartment.

Prior to beginning the sequence of hatch openings, the crew will bring the air pressure inside Endeavour to 14.7 pounds per square inch, the same pressure as at sea level on Earth. Then, the crew will go through a procedure to equalize the air pressure on both sides of each hatch prior to opening them.

About 8:45 p.m. Central time this evening, the entire crew will gather inside the station for an interview with KNX Radio in Los Angeles and KARE-TV in Minneapolis, MN, Cabana's home town.

Endeavour and the International Space Station remain in excellent shape.

The STS-96 payload bay manifest:

• Bay 1-2: Orbiter Docking System/External Airlock
• Bay 3-4: Tunnel Adapter S/N 001
• Bay 5-7: Spacehab Tunnel
• Bay 5: Keel Yoke Device (KYD) and Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC)
• Bay 8-12: Spacehab Logistics Double Module
• Bay 13 Port: Adapter Beam (ABA) with IVHM
• Bay 13 Stbd: Adapter Beam (ABA) with SVF/Starshine
• Sill: RMS Arm S/N 303

On May 30 at 02:56 GMT Tammy Jernigan and Dan Barry entered the payload bay of Discovery from the tunnel adapter hatch, and made a 7 hr 55 min space walk, transferring equipment to the exterior of the station.

On May 31 at 01:15 GMT the hatch to Unity was opened and the crew began several days of cargo transfers to the station. Battery units and communications equipment were replaced and sound insulation was added to Zarya. Discovery undocked from ISS at 22:39 GMT on June 3 into a 385 x 399 km x 51.6 degree orbit, leaving the station without a crew aboard. On June 5 the Starshine satellite was ejected from the payload bay. The payload bay doors were closed at around 02:15 GMT on June 6 and the deorbit burn was at 04:54 GMT. Discovery landed on runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center at 06:02 GMT.

Commander Kent Rominger, Pilot Rick Husband and Mission Specialists Ellen Ochoa, Dan Barry, Julie Payette, Valery Tokarev and Jernigan will spend much of the day checking out orbiter systems and spacewalking equipment, while continuing to slowly close in on the station through a series of calculated rendezvous maneuvers.

The crew will examine and prepare the tools required to support rendezvous and docking operations, and later will spend a number of hours checking and testing the extravehicular mobility units, or space suits, that will be used during the planned spacewalk Saturday night into Sunday morning. Both suits are checked far enough ahead of the spacewalk to ensure good working condition in plenty of time to allow for any required troubleshooting work by the specialists on the ground.

Also tonight and into tomorrow, Canadian astronaut Payette will assist Ochoa in testing the mechanical arm, checking its operation while conducting a video survey of the payload bay. This procedure will make certain the arm is functioning properly to support the spacewalk. Just before the pre-sleep period, Tokarev, a Russian cosmonaut will move some logistics transfer items stored on the shuttle's middeck, into the Spacehab module to provide more room for the spacesuit checkout activities.

Discovery currently is orbiting at an altitude of about 200 nautical miles. At about 7 o'clock this evening, Central time, the shuttle was 775 nautical miles behind the station, closing in at a rate of about 60 nautical miles every 90 minutes.

The only problem of any significance on the orbiter is the apparent failure of one of the four corner cameras in Discovery's payload bay. This poses no problem with the flight as there are various other cameras available to document activities related to docking, the spacewalk and deploy later in the flight of STARSHINE.

Commander Kent Rominger, Pilot Rick Husband and Mission Specialists Tammy Jernigan, Ellen Ochoa, Dan Barry, Julie Payette and Valery Tokarev lifted off at 5:50 a.m. Central time following a flawless countdown. Less than nine minutes later, they reached orbit to begin their pursuit of the station.

At the time of launch, the ISS's two modules, Zarya and Unity, were traveling due east of the outer banks of the Carolinas northwest of Bermuda at an altitude of about 210 nautical miles. Discovery will catch up to the ISS late tomorrow night for the first docking of a Shuttle to the new orbital outpost. That will mark the start of six days of docked activities in which the astronauts plan to transfer almost two tons of supplies to the station and conduct a spacewalk to continue outfitting the fledgling facility.

Once on orbit, the astronauts began to activate shuttle systems and conducted early work in advance of their rendezvous with the ISS, which will begin early Friday evening. Having launched late in their workday, the astronauts are scheduled to begin an eight hour sleep period at 10:50 a.m. Central time. They will be awakened this evening about 6:50 p.m. Central time for the start of their second day in space - a day which will be highlighted by ongoing preparations for both the docking of Discovery to the station Friday night and the scheduled spacewalk by Jernigan and Barry late Saturday night.

Discovery is orbiting at altitude of about 170 nautical miles, with all of its systems functioning in good shape.

In preparation for Saturday's spacewalk, astronauts Tammy Jernigan and Dan Barry, assisted by Payette and Pilot Rick Husband, successfully tested three spacesuits aboard Discovery. All of the equipment was found to be in excellent condition and ready for the spacewalk, during which Jernigan and Barry will install both U.S. and Russian-built cranes to the station for use by future astronaut construction crews.

Ochoa and Payette also tested the Shuttle's 50-foot robot arm and used it to conduct a television survey of Discovery's payload bay. Jernigan and Ochoa extended the outer ring of Discovery's Orbiter Docking System in a successful test of the mechanism which will make the first contact with and capture a similar mechanism in the Pressurized Mating Adapter affixed to the ISS's Unity.

Before beginning their presleep period, the astronauts lowered Discovery's cabin pressure as a precursor to Jernigan and Barry breathing pure oxygen tomorrow night in advance of their spacewalk. This protocol helps to purge nitrogen from their bloodstreams, preventing any adverse effects from the vacuum of space during their excursion into Discovery's payload bay.

The crew will begin an abbreviated 7 ½ hour sleep period at 8:50 a.m. Central time today and will be awakened at 4:20 p.m. to begin preparations for rendezvous and docking.

Discovery is orbiting at an altitude of 230 statute miles, with all of its systems operating normally.

Rominger will then begin to descend toward the station and, at about 10:37 p.m. Central, hold position at a point about 170 feet away. Rominger will stationkeep at that distance for about 15 minutes to allow the station to move within range of Russian ground communications stations before continuing the approach. At 11:13 p.m., Rominger will again briefly hold position at a point about 30 feet from the station to ensure the Shuttle and station docking mechanisms are precisely aligned. Docking is expected about 11 minutes later with the Shuttle contacting the station at a slow rate of about a tenth of a foot per second.

During the rendezvous, Pilot Rick Husband will assist Rominger in controlling Discovery's approach. Mission Specialists Tammy Jernigan and Ellen Ochoa also will assist with the rendezvous and docking, with Jernigan operating the Shuttle's docking mechanism and Ochoa assisting with the rendezvous navigation.

After docking, Ochoa and Jernigan will perform a hatch leak check. Later, Mission Specialists Dan Barry, Jernigan and Canadian astronaut Julie Payette will prepare the middeck for Saturday's spacewalk. Discovery's crew will not open the hatch to the Unity module and enter the station until Sunday, a day after the spacewalk is completed.

Space station flight controllers planned to command the station into the orientation for docking - Unity toward space and the Zarya module toward Earth - at about 7 p.m. Central to prepare for Discovery's arrival.

Commander Kent Rominger completed a textbook rendezvous and docking with the station that Mission Control said would set the standard for future ISS assembly flights. Contact between Discovery and the station occurred right on time at 11:24 p.m. Central time Friday.

Once the two spacecraft were solidly mated together at 11:39 p.m., the astronauts performed leak and pressurization checks, then opened the hatch to Pressurized Mating Adapter 2, attached to the Unity module. Mission Specialists Ellen Ochoa and Valery Tokarev temporarily stowed docking targets and lights and checked hatch seals in the narrow passageway.

Rominger and Pilot Rick Husband removed and stowed four electronics boxes used to supply power to the docking ports around the Unity module, clearing the sides of the passageway into Unity for easy transfer of some 3,600 pounds of equipment and supplies. The briefcase-sized boxes will be kept in storage until the end of the next station assembly flight on STS-101 in December, when they will be reinstalled to prepare for the arrival of the U.S. Laboratory module, Destiny, next spring.

Mission Specialists Tammy Jernigan and Dan Barry spent the rest of the morning checking the tools they will use on their space walk, which is scheduled to begin shortly after 10 p.m. Central time. They also checked out their emergency rescue backpacks and reviewed their space walk procedures one last time.

The astronauts will be awakened at 4:50 p.m. today to begin final preparations for the 6 ½ hour excursion into Discovery's cargo bay. With Mission Specialist Ellen Ochoa operating the shuttle's robot arm to maneuver Jernigan up toward the space station modules, and Julie Payette acting as the spacewalk choreographer from Discovery's aft flight deck, Barry and Jernigan will move the two cranes from a payload bay cargo support structure to locations on the outside of the station. One crane is U.S.-built and the other is Russian-built to help move large modular components from one module to another during ISS assembly. Next, they will move two portable foot restraints from the cargo carrier to the mating adapter to which the Zarya and Unity modules are attached. Then, they'll move three bags containing handrails and tools for future space walkers to the outside of Unity. If time permits, the space walkers also will install a thermal cover on a Unity trunnion pin, inspect some peeling paint on Zarya, and survey one of two Early Communications System antennas on the starboard side of Unity.

The space walkers are scheduled to reenter the hatch about 4 a.m. Central time Sunday.

Meanwhile, all systems aboard the Discovery / ISS space complex continue to work well as the two craft orbit 240 statute miles above the Earth's surface.

The crew is scheduled to climb inside the Unity and Zarya modules mid evening to begin transferring nearly 3,000 pounds of equipment to be used by future crews on the ISS. In and around transferring operations, some maintenance tasks will be conducted - one inside Zarya and one inside Unity.

After wakeup to the notes of the US Coast Guard Band playing "Morning Colors," the crew reviewed procedures for the entry activities with both Mission Control Centers in Houston and Moscow.

Canadian astronaut Julie Payette and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev will travel to the Zarya module and begin maintenance activities on the storage batteries located under the floor board. The Zarya has six such batteries, which have been experiencing a slight loss in charging capacity during recharge. Each battery has three "charge controllers" for a total of 18 that will be changed during this procedure. Later, Mission Specialist Dan Barry and Tokarev will install some acoustic insulation around some fans inside Zarya to reduce noise levels in the module.

Meanwhile, in the Unity module, Mission Specialist Tammy Jernigan and Pilot Rick Husband will install shelving in 2 soft stowage racks. The racks themselves were launched with Unity in December 1998 for use in supporting logistics transfer activities. Later, Husband and Barry will conduct troubleshooting and maintenance activities on the Early Communications System.

In the afternoon, the third major task of the flight begins - transfer of logistics items. Ochoa will coordinate this activity and will direct and document all transfers leaving the shuttle. On the ISS side, Payette will receive the items and, along with Tokarev, will document and stow items aboard the ISS. Discovery's astronauts are scheduled to transfer almost 2,900 pounds of supplies and equipment during the next three days.

Today, most of the crew will be involved in logistics transfer activities within the Discovery/ISS orbiting complex. Husband and Mission Specialists Ellen Ochoa, Tammy Jernigan and Dan Barry have a significant portion of their day dedicated to moving transfer bags of different sizes and shapes from the Spacehab module in Discovery's cargo bay to resting places inside the International Space Station. Some 2,900 pounds of logistics items and water will be transferred before the crew bids goodbye to its orbiting work site on Thursday.

Discovery's crew will also complete maintenance activities in support of the station. Early in the workday, Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev and Canadian astronaut Julie Payette will change out the last battery recharge controller modules attached to two of Zarya's storage batteries. These recharging units, also known as microelectronic charge/discharge current integrator units, determine the battery charge level. Since mid-April, flight controllers had been monitoring a slight decrease in this level, and the on-orbit maintenance work is expected to allow the batteries to charge fully once again.

Later, Barry and Tokarev will put the remaining sound mufflers inside the Zarya module. Ambient noise from air circulating fans and equipment could be somewhat distracting to crew members spending time on orbit, so mufflers are being installed to dampen the noise. After the install, Barry will measure sound levels at different positions inside the module.

At 12:20 a.m. Tuesday, Commander Kent Rominger and Tokarev will conduct a news conference with Russian media located at the Mission Control Center in Moscow.

The day will end with a logistics transfer briefing conducted by Payette. The crew is scheduled to turn in at about 8 a.m. CDT Tuesday.

Discovery and the International Space Station are in excellent health orbiting 240 miles above the Earth.

Mission Specialists Tammy Jernigan and Russian Space Agency cosmonaut Valery Tokarev opened the hatch into the Unity module at 8:14 p.m. CDT Sunday, then continued through Pressurized Mating Adapter 1 into the Zarya module at 9:07 p.m. Commander Kent Rominger and the rest of the crew - Pilot Rick Husband and Mission Specialists Ellen Ochoa, Dan Barry and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette - soon followed.

After inspecting their expanded living quarters, the crew began transferring supplies, equipment and water that will be left aboard, an effort that was coordinated by Ochoa. The bulk of the supplies and equipment were shipped up in a double Spacehab module carried in Discovery's cargo bay.

Payette and Tokarev replaced 12 of 18 battery recharge controllers in the Russian-built Zarya module. Zarya has six batteries, which have been experiencing a slight loss in capacity during recharge. Each battery has three "charge controllers," known by the Russian acronym MIRTS. The astronauts replaced controllers for four of the batteries, and are scheduled to replace the recharge controllers for the other two later today. The work was carefully coordinated with flight controllers in the Russian Mission Control Center outside Moscow, who issued commands to turn the battery systems on and off via ground-based communication stations. Barry and Tokarev also installed a series of "mufflers" over fans inside Zarya to reduce noise levels in that module.

Barry and Husband replaced a power distribution unit and transceiver for the Early Communications System in the Unity module, restoring that system to its full capability. This supplemental communications system enables flight controllers to send commands to the station from the Mission Control complex in Houston.

Near the end of their workday, Rominger, Jernigan and Barry discussed the progress of their mission, including Jernigan and Barry's space walk and last night's entry into the International Space Station, with NBC's "Today," show, CBS "This Morning" and CNN.

The crew is scheduled to begin its sleep period at 8:20 a.m. CDT, and will awaken at 4:20 p.m. to continue their work in the ISS.

Logistics transfer activities will dominate the on-orbit day as all crew members will moves supplies from the Spacehab module to designated locations in the International Space Station. By the end of docked operations, Discovery's crew will have transferred almost 3,000 pounds of items, including clothing, sleeping bags, water, medical support equipment, maintenance spares and computer support and maintenance equipment into the orbiting complex to support future resident crews. This transfer effort is being managed by Mission Specialist Ellen Ochoa is managing this effort while Payette stands ready inside the station to receive the goods. At the start of today's work, the transfer was about 70 percent complete.

Payette and Commander Kent Rominger exchanged greetings and discussed the mission with Canada's Prime Minister Jean Cretien and Science Minister John Manley and also answered questions from students across Canada.

Later, at 11:00 p.m. CDT on NASA TV, the entire crew will answer questions from both U.S. and Canadian reporters.

Finally, at 4:20 a.m. Wednesday, Rominger, Pilot Rick Husband and Ochoa will be interviewed by Good Morning America, KFDA-TV in Amarillo, Texas and KUSA-TV in Denver, Colorado. Rominger is a native of Del Norte, Colorado and Husband is a native of Amarillo, Texas.

Near the end of the day, Ochoa again will conduct a transfer status briefing with the ground to confirm the day's completed transfer tasks. The astronauts will begin an eight-hour sleep period at 7:50 a.m. Wednesday and wake up to begin Flight Day Eight at 3:50 p.m.

Discovery and the International Space Station are in excellent health orbiting 240 miles above the Earth.

The crew was awakened at 3:50 this afternoon by the Russian song "Vasha Blagarodye" followed by "The Charleston." The tunes were played for cosmonaut Valery Tokarev and Mission Specialist Ellen Ochoa.

The early part of the evening includes the completion of transfer activities. By day's end, the crew will have transferred a total of 115 items totaling 3,718 pounds of equipment both inside and outside the space station. Those numbers include seven containers of water totaling about 84 gallons for use by future station crews.

Ochoa and Canadian astronaut Julie Payette will use the shuttle's robot arm one last time this evening to conduct a survey of the port side antenna for the Early Communications System on Unity. This survey will complete robotic arm tasks scheduled earlier in the flight.

Once that is completed, the crew will begin closing the hatches that were opened after Discovery docked with the station earlier this week. The crew will climb out of Zarya at about 12:30 a.m. central time Thursday and will move out of the Unity module at about 2:50 a.m., closing the final hatch at about 3:30 a.m.

Commander Kent Rominger and Pilot Rick Husband will begin boosting the station's altitude at about 4:30 tomorrow morning using the Reaction Control System thrusters on the orbiter. The 40-minute activity will raise the complex's altitude by about 6 miles (statute). Undocking from the International Space Station is not scheduled until late Thursday afternoon at about 5:40 p.m.

Pilot Rick Husband backed Discovery away after astronaut Tammy Jernigan commanded the shuttle's docking mechanism to release the station. Springs in the mechanism provided an initial push, and then Husband fired Discovery's jets to move to a distance of about 400 feet before beginning a two and a half-circle flyaround. Discovery spent 5 days, 18 hours and 17 minutes linked to the station.

The crew awakened this afternoon to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" in anticipation of Discovery's departure from the International Space Station. Atlantis will be the next shuttle to visit the station on a December supply mission, after the Russian launch this fall of an unpiloted living quarters that will automatically dock with the modules. The Service Module, now named Zvezda, which is the Russian word for 'Star,' is undergoing its final months of processing at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, prior to launch atop a Proton rocket.

After the flyaround, Husband fired Discovery's jets at about 7:53 p.m. Central to depart the station's vicinity. The engine firing sent the Shuttle below and ahead of the station, separating at a rate of about seven nautical miles with each orbit of Earth. Later this evening the crew will transfer the spacesuits used earlier in the flight to storage locations in the shuttle's airlock. Commander Kent Rominger will repressurize Discovery's cabin to about 14.7 pounds per square inch, a pressure identical to sea level on Earth. The cabin was depressurized slightly yesterday as part of the normal procedure for sealing hatches within the International Space Station. The crew will have time off for the last half of its day.

After Discovery has left the vicinity, station flight controllers will maneuver the complex into the standard orientation for unpiloted operations, a fuel-conserving slow spin with the Unity module pointed toward Earth and Zarya toward space. Discovery's crew will begin an eight-hour sleep period at 7:50 a.m. Central Friday and awaken at 3:50 p.m.

After moving the last items from Discovery into the station, the crew closed the final hatch on the orbiting outpost at 3:44 a.m. CDT. The astronauts spent a total of 79 hours, 30 minutes inside the station during this flight. Combined with the 28 hours, 30 minutes the STS-88 astronauts spent on board during the first ISS assembly flight last December, the total human occupation time for the new station stands at 108 hours.

During four days of transfer work, the astronauts moved more than 4,500 pounds of equipment, hardware and supplies intended for the station's first resident crew. Of that total weight, 3,567 pounds of material, including 686 pounds of water, were transferred from Discovery to the station; 18 items weighing 197 pounds were moved from the station to Discovery for a return to Earth; and 662 pounds of supplies were mounted to the station during a spacewalk by astronauts Tammy Jernigan and Dan Barry.

The crew began its carefully choreographed departure from the station, first closing Zarya's Instrumentation Cargo Compartment hatch at 1:40 a.m. Central time. The Pressurized Adapter Hatch was closed at 2:12 a.m., and the final hatch closure on Unity was complete at 3:44 a.m. Shortly after 4:30 this morning, Commander Kent Rominger and Pilot Rick Husband commanded a series of 17 pulses of Discovery's reaction control system jets to boost the station's orbit. When the reboost was complete about 37 minutes later, the station and shuttle were in an orbit of approximately 246 by 241 statute miles, within 57 feet of the original target. Flight controllers estimate the station will be at an altitude of 222 statute miles late this year when Zvezda is scheduled to be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Discovery is scheduled to undock from the station at 5:39 p.m. Central time today and will perform a 2 ½ lap flyaround of the station, before Husband fires Discovery's jets in a final burst to move Discovery away from the station, concluding six days of docked operations.

The astronauts begin an eight-hour sleep period at 7:50 a.m. today, and will awaken at 2:50 p.m.

Discovery undocked from ISS at 5:39 p.m. central time yesterday, having delivered more than two tons of water, supplies and equipment to the space station.

As Discovery departed from the station, Mission Specialists Tammy Jernigan and Dan Barry packed away the space suit gear they used during their spacewalk early in the mission, while Commander Kent Rominger and Pilot Rick Husband practiced landings on a laptop computer program. Mission Specialists Julie Payette and Valery Tokarev helped to stow gear and repressurized the shuttle's cabin to its standard 14.7 pounds per square inch.

Once they are awakened at 3:50 this afternoon, the astronauts will focus on preparing for a Sunday landing at the Kennedy Space Center. Rominger, Husband and Mission Specialist Ellen Ochoa will conduct a test to verify the performance of Discovery's steering jets. They also will activate one of three hydraulic power units to move the various aerosurfaces that will be used to control Discovery during its reentry and landing. The crew also will prepare to deploy a small, student-built payload called STARSHINE. The Student Tracked Atmospheric Research Satellite for Heuristic International Networking Equipment satellite will be ejected from a canister in Discovery's payload bay at 2:10 a.m. Saturday by Payette. STARSHINE is a 19-inch hollow sphere covered by about 800 aluminum mirrors polished to a high shine by students around the world. International student observers will visually track the reflective spacecraft during the early morning and twilight hours for several months, measuring the atmosphere's density based on the rate at which STARSHINE's orbit decays.

Discovery has two Sunday landing opportunities on Kennedy Space Center's Runway 15. The first would begin with a deorbit burn at 11:54 p.m. CDT Saturday, and end with a landing at 1:03 a.m. Sunday. The second calls for a deorbit burn at 1:30 a.m. CDT Sunday, with landing at 2:38 a.m. The weather forecast calls for generally acceptable conditions.

Weather permitting, Discovery's computers will ignite the twin breaking rockets on the tail just before midnight to slow the vehicle toward a descent through the atmosphere high above the Pacific Ocean. The ground track shows the orbiter navigating its way to its seaside home at the Kennedy Space Center from the south after crossing Costa Rica, Cuba, the Florida Everglades, and East of Lake Okechobee.

The forecast for landing still shows a chance of rain within 30 miles of the runway and a possibility of crosswind violations on the 3-mile-long concrete Shuttle Landing Facility. The runway of choice for tonight's landing is Runway 15. The final turn to align the shuttle with the runway would be out over the water with landing from the northwest to the southeast. If landing is delayed one orbit, touchdown one orbit later at 2:38 a.m. CDT.

Following crew wakeup at 4 p.m. today, the astronauts began the final preparations for landing, including closing the hatches to the Spacehab module, which has served as the cargo transfer compartment throughout the flight. The wakeup music was "The Longest Day," to commemorate what spacecraft communicator in Mission Control Mario Runco called a "landing of a different kind." His reference was to the 55th anniversary of the Allied troop landing on the beaches of Normandy during World War II that occurred on June 6, 1944.

If all goes as planned, Discovery's cargo bay doors will swing shut at 9:18 p.m., after which the astronauts will climb into their launch and entry suits and strap into their seats. Commander Kent Rominger, Pilot Rick Husband and Flight Engineer Ellen Ochoa will be joined on the flight deck for entry by Mission Specialist Julie Payette. Tammy Jernigan, Dan Barry and Valery Tokarev will be seated down on the middeck for entry.

If landing occurs on the first opportunity, Discovery will have covered 3.8 million miles during the mission. STS-96 will be the 11th shuttle mission to end in darkness. Five previous flights have ended at Edwards AFB in California and five at KSC.

Discovery swooped out of darkness as Commander Kent Rominger set the shuttle and his crewmates down on Runway 15 at the Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida to successfully complete the first shuttle mission of the year.

Rominger and Pilot Rick Husband fired Discovery's orbital maneuvering system engines just before midnight Saturday over Thailand to enable the spaceship to drop out of orbit for its high speed return to Earth.

Traveling in an almost due northerly ground track, Discovery crossed over Costa Rica, the southern Caribbean, northwest Cuba, and the Florida Everglades before honing in on the Kennedy Space Center for the 18th consecutive landing at the Florida spaceport.

Rominger and Husband were joined on the flight deck for entry and landing by Flight Engineer Ellen Ochoa and Mission Specialist Julie Payette, while Mission Specialists Tammy Jernigan, Dan Barry and Valery Tokarev were seated down in the middeck.

After landing, Discovery's astronauts were scheduled to undergo routine medical exams and be reunited with their families before spending the rest of the day relaxing in Florida.

The crew is expected to return to Houston early Monday afternoon, with their crew arrival at Ellington Field planned for about 1:30 p.m. The STS-96 crew's return to Ellington is open to the public.

Halsell along with Pilot Scott Horowitz and Mission Specialists Mary Ellen Weber, Jeff Williams, Susan Helms, Jim Voss and Yury Usachev will spend their second day inside the station as they continue the maintenance work and supply transfer activities that began yesterday. During their first day, Atlantis' crew moved 870 pounds of supplies and equipment inside the station. That material along with the 326 pounds of equipment attached to the exterior of the station by Williams and Voss during their space walk means almost 1,200 pounds of gear already have been transferred to the station. A total of 3,381 pounds of equipment and provisions will be transferred to the station before Atlantis undocks.

Maintenance work on Flight Day Six will include the third of four planned replacements of station batteries. Helms and Usachev will repeat the procedures they followed yesterday when the first two batteries were replaced. One of the batteries replaced yesterday already has been recharged and been pronounced in excellent condition. The second replacement battery will go through its charging and checkout shortly. All of the battery replacement work is carefully designed so that at least four batteries are always online and available to support station operations.

Other maintenance work on schedule today includes the installation of new smoke detectors, and replacement of fire extinguishers that are nearing the end of their design life.

The first of three planned station reboost maneuvers is scheduled to take place tonight at 7:01 p.m. CDT. The maneuver will see Atlantis' steering jets fire 27 times over a 58 minute period to boost the average altitude of the station by about nine statute miles. A similar process will be repeated tomorrow and again on Thursday to increase the station's average altitude by a total of about 27 statute miles before Atlantis departs. The higher altitude will aim the International Space Station toward the optimum orbit for a link up with the Russian Zvezda living quarters module planned for launch in July.

Late this evening, Halsell, Williams and Voss will take a few minutes to conduct a trio of interviews with reporters from the Cable News Network, Armed Forces Television and Space.Com. The interviews are scheduled to begin at 11:41 p.m. CDT.

The Atlantis and station complex continues to operate in fine fashion orbiting the Earth once every 91 minutes.

Following undocking, Atlantis will back away from the ISS to a distance of about 450 feet before completing at least a half lap fly around of the complex with its new truss segment installed before departing the station's vicinity at 10 a.m. and prepare to come home to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 10:45 Friday morning. Expedition Five's ride home is next month aboard Endeavour following its mission to deliver a mirror image truss segment to the S1.

Atlantis departs after delivering about 1,800 pounds of supplies and experiments to the station and returning about the same weight of cargo to Earth. It also leaves behind the S1 (Starboard One) Truss segment weighing almost 15 tons and spanning 45 feet. It continues the outward expansion of the truss that eventually will be 356 feet long.

The work to install the S1 was accomplished during three spacewalks totaling more than 19 hours that included hooking up power, data and ammonia lines linking S1 to the station; deploying antennas, installing TV cameras, preparing a handcar for use on the truss' railway, readying S1's three large radiators for use and installing devices to ensure quick disconnect fittings in fluid lines will work.

Later this morning, the shuttle performs its own experiment when SHIMMER is activated to measure Hydroxyl in the upper atmosphere. Hydroxyl plays a role in the ozone destroying chemical process and helps in measuring water vapor and temperature over a broad altitude range.

The day began for the shuttle and station crews with a wakeup call from Mission Control at 2:52 a.m. The Alan Parsons Project's "Prime Time" was played for Pilot Pam Melroy, requested by her husband, Chris.

Commander Rick Husband, Pilot Willie McCool, Mission Specialists Dave Brown, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark, Payload Commander Mike Anderson and Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon of the Israel Space Agency blasted off at 9:39 a.m. CST from Launch Pad 39-A. Less than nine minutes later, Columbia settled into an orbit inclined 39 degrees to the equator.

The seven astronauts will divide their duties into two teams working 12-hour shifts to conduct round-the-clock science. Aboard Columbia more than 80 experiments dealing with astronaut health and safety, advanced tehnology development and Earth and space sciences.

Husband, Chawla, Clark and Ramon comprise the Red team which will work in the pre-dawn and daytime hours, while McCool, Brown and Anderson make up the Blue team, working the evening and overnight hours.

Once in orbit, the crewmembers will begin to unstow gear and prepared for the opening of Columbia's payload bay doors, before activating hardware and experiments in a double Spacehab research module housed in the shuttle's cargo bay, which contains the lion's share of the mission's science. Other experiments housed in the cargo bay also will be activated, along with a special pallet of cryogenic fuel tanks at the rear of the cargo bay which will provide Columbia and its experiments sufficient electrical power for the duration of the flight.

Having shifted their sleep schedule to accommodate the dual-shift operations, McCool, Brown and Anderson will begin an abbreviated six-hour sleep period at 1:39 p.m. CST and will be awakened at 7:39 p.m. while Red team counterparts continue the early stages of experiment activation. Husband, Chawla, Clark and Ramon will begin an eight-hour sleep period at 8:39 p.m. and will be awakened Friday at 4:39 a.m. to handover work from the Blue team which will be continuing the initial phase of scientific studies overnight.

As Columbia was launched, the Expedition 6 crew aboard the International Space Station was orbiting over the northern Pacific Ocean south of the Aleutian island chain. Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit are in their 54th day in space, their 52nd day on board the station.

Columbia lifted off at 9:39 a.m. CST from the Kennedy Space Center in near-perfect weather after a flawless countdown. The crew opened the spacecraft's payload bay doors about 11:35 a.m. and then were given the go-ahead for on-orbit operations.

The seven-member crew is divided into two teams, each working 12 hours per day during most of the flight. Members of the blue team, Pilot Willie McCool and Mission Specialists Dave Brown and Mike Anderson, began a six-hour sleep period at 2:47 p.m. CST and will be awakened at 8:49 p.m. Red team members, Commander Rick Husband, Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark, and Israeli Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon, begin a 7-hour sleep period at 9:39 p.m.

Spacehab is a pressurized research module 20 feet long, 14 feet wide and 11 feet high. It houses equipment for 59 experiments, three of them mounted on its roof. Its activation marks the beginning of the major science activities of Columbia's mission.

All systems aboard Columbia continue to function flawlessly.

The shuttle is at an altitude of about 178 statute miles, in an orbit inclined 39 degrees to the equator. Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 6 crewmembers, Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit, received a live video uplink of the launch through the ISS Flight Control Room in the Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Red Team members Commander Rick Husband, Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark and Israeli Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon were awakened at 4:39 a.m. CST. Following a handover with their Blue Team counterparts, they took over for Pilot Willie McCool and Mission Specialists Dave Brown and Mike Anderson, who began an eight-hour sleep period at 10:39 a.m. CST.

All SPACEHAB payloads are performing well and research activities continue on schedule. Specific experiment highlights so far include:

All Fast Reaction Experiments Enabling Science Technology Applications and Research, or FREESTAR, payloads have been activated and are performing well. One FREESTAR experiment that measures the amount of energy coming from the sun completed an initial observation, with the best sun pointing ever seen on any shuttle flight. Another experiment that will perform measurements of the Earth's ozone layer is operating nominally. The Mediterranean Israeli Dust Experiment, or MEIDEX, which will measure small particles called aerosols in the atmosphere over the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Sahara desert, has been readied for initial observations.

The Bioreactor Demonstration System made its initial run. The NASA-developed bioreactor is being used to grow prostate cancer tissues to help scientists better understand how the cancer spreads into bones and to aid in the development of future treatment methods. In the first 20 hours of experiment operations, a significant aggregate of tumor tissue was grown.

The Critical Viscosity of Xenon-2 experiment has been working nominally. The instrument is cooling the xenon sample to begin calibration. A preliminary analysis of the flight data compares favorably with ground-based data. This research in fluid physics may be important to the production of paints, plastics, drugs, food and cosmetics.

The Blue Team will be awakened at 6:39 p.m. CST to continue work on the more than 80 experiments aboard Columbia. Scheduled activities include using MEIDEX, consisting of a radiometric camera and a video camera, to measure a Mediterranean dust plume north of the Gulf of Sidra. Human life sciences experiments also are scheduled to begin.

All systems aboard Columbia continue to function well.

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit completed their eighth week in space. Today, they unstowed a rendezvous system from the Russian Progress 9 resupply ship in preparation for the Progress' undocking Feb. 1. That will clear the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module for the arrival of a new Progress cargo craft Feb. 4.

The Expedition 6 crew also conducted metabolic science experiments, exercised and prepared for a quiet weekend in orbit.

Red Team members Commander Rick Husband, Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark and Israeli Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon were awakened at 4:39 a.m. CST. Following a handover with their Blue Team counterparts, they took over for Pilot Willie McCool and Mission Specialists Dave Brown and Mike Anderson, who began an eight-hour sleep period at 9:39 a.m. CST.

Specific experiment highlights today included:

·A radiometric camera and a video camera were aimed at the Atlantic and the Mediterranean as part of the Mediterranean Israeli Dust Experiment. Although no dust was detected due to heavy cloud coverage, initial analysis showed that the two cameras are working well, supplying high-quality images. The cloud patterns imaged by the cameras showed remarkable details. The intent of the experiment is to help researchers better understand how dust particles in the atmosphere affect climate.

·An experiment that looks at the movement of calcium through the body to further understanding of bone loss in space began. Astronauts took oral calcium tracers that will be monitored over the course of the mission to examine how calcium metabolism changes in an astronaut's body during spaceflight.

·In the physical sciences, the second run of the Mechanics of Granular Materials was completed. The objective of the experiment is to improve and enhance science and technology in many disciplines including earthquake engineering and soil mechanics. Results may lead to answers concerning the consequences of earthquakes, such as damage to soils and foundations.

Shortly after 2 p.m. CST, Red Team members took time out from their experiment schedule to talk with reporters from CNN, CBS News and Fox News Channel. Asked about the importance of the flight to Israel, Ramon commented that he views the mission as an "opening for great science for our nation."

-more-

The Blue Team will be awakened at 5:39 p.m. CST to continue work on the more than 80 experiments aboard Columbia. Scheduled activities include initiation of experiments in the Combustion Module. It will be used to conduct three experiments that examine soot formation, lean combustion and fire suppression.

All systems aboard Columbia continue to function well.

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit observed a milestone today as they presided over the final run of the Zeolite Crystal Growth experiment in the Destiny Lab. Experiment results may contribute to the technology used to make gasoline, products for the chemical industry and commercial film products.

The Expedition crew conducted a weekly planning conference with flight controllers in Houston and downlinked video of maintenance work performed this past week. Crewmembers have a light schedule of duties this weekend before resuming their full schedule of activities on Monday.

Red Team members Commander Rick Husband, Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark and Israeli Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon completed the first data collection sessions with the Combustion Module in the Spacehab research module housed in Columbia's cargo bay. One of three experiments housed in the Combustion Module --- the study of Laminar Soot Processes (LSP) --- is designed to gain a better understanding of soot formation, oxidation and radiative properties within flames.

Additional data was gleaned from the Mechanics of Granular Materials experiment (MGM) in the Spacehab module, which is providing information on the behavior of saturated sand when exposed to confining pressures in microgravity. The experiment could provide engineers with valuable data for strengthening buildings against earthquakes.

Work was also accomplished with a series of biomedical experiments studying the human body's response to weightlessness --- particularly dealing with protein manufacturing in the absence of a gravity environment, bone and calcium production, the formation of chemicals associated with renal stones and how saliva and urine change in space relative to any exposure to viruses.

Experiments continued with the MEIDEX cameras in the cargo bay observing dust storms in the Mediterranean region and with the SOLSE experiment, geared to studying the amount of ozone in the Earth's atmosphere by using a special imaging spectrometer in the payload bay to look across the limb of the Earth during specifically scheduled orbits.

Columbia's Blue Team science cadre --- Pilot Willie McCool and Mission Specialists Dave Brown and Mike Anderson --- planned to continue the more than 80 experiments on board Columbia following their wakeup call this afternoon. The Red team will begin its eight-hour sleep period just before 9 p.m. Central time.

Earlier today, TV cameras in the Spacehab research module captured Ramon conducting work with the Combustion Module. He reported that the materials science facility was operating perfectly as are all of the other experiment facilities aboard Columbia.

Aboard the International Space Station, Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and ISS Science Officer Don Pettit completed their second month in space by enjoying an off-duty day. The crew will return to a full complement of scientific research activities, exercise and routine ISS maintenance work on Monday. The ISS crew is working a schedule, which calls for them to be awakened every morning at 12:00 a.m. Central time and for their 8 1/2 hour sleep period to begin at 3:30 p.m. CST.

The ISS crew was informed that replacement parts for the Microgravity Science Glovebox will be ready for launch on the next Progress resupply vehicle to the ISS on February 2. With docking of that cargo ship to the ISS planned for Feb. 4, virtually all of the science planned for the facility during Expedition 6 will be accomplished as initially planned.

All systems aboard Columbia and the ISS continue to function well.

Red team members Commander Rick Husband, Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark and Israeli Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon conducted additional data takes with the Mechanics of Granular Materials experiment located in the Spacehab Research Module in Columbia's cargo bay. The MGM experiment is providing information on the behavior of saturated sand when exposed to confining pressures in microgravity. The experiment could provide engineers valuable data for strengthening buildings against earthquakes.

The Red team is working what amounts to the day shift on orbit, while the Blue team --- Pilot Willie McCool, Mission Specialist Dave Brown and Payload Commander Mike Anderson --- is working the overnight shift. The division of the two teams into 12-hour shifts assures that scientific research is conducted round-the-clock.

One of the host of experiments in the Spacehab science lab --- the Microbial Physiology Flight Experiment --- was monitored by Clark as she studied how specific fungi react to the absence of gravity for long periods of time.

Additional data was acquired by Anderson and Ramon with an experiment in the Combustion Module in the Spacehab --- the study of Laminar Soot Processes (LSP) --- designed to gain a better understanding of soot formation, oxidation and radiative properties within flames. Two other experiments studying flame properties in space in the large Spacehab furnace are to be conducted throughout the course of the flight.

Work was also accomplished with a series of biomedical experiments studying the human body's response to weightlessness --- particularly dealing with protein manufacturing in the absence of a gravity environment, bone and calcium production, the formation of chemicals associated with renal stones and how saliva and urine change in space relative to any exposure to viruses. The crewmembers also continued periodic blood draws to study how their bodies are adapting to the microgravity environment.

Experiments continued with the MEIDEX cameras in the cargo bay observing thunderstorms to capture images of sprites, which are associated with discharges from the tops of thunderclouds into the Earth's upper atmosphere, and with the SOLSE experiment, studying the amount of ozone in the Earth's upper atmosphere by using a special imaging spectrometer in the payload bay to look across the limb of the Earth during specifically scheduled orbits.

Having been awakened just after 4 p.m. Central time, McCool, Brown and Anderson planned to continue the more than 80 experiments on board Columbia. The Red team will begin its eight-hour sleep period just after 8 p.m. Central time.

This afternoon, flight controllers observed a minor electrical current spike in one of two systems designed to collect and distribute water produced from condensation buildup caused by the operation of the cooling system in the Spacehab Research Module in the cargo bay.

An identical system sprung a leak under the floorboards of Spacehab last night and was shut down. The secondary system had been operating normally until the electrical spike was observed at around 1:15 p.m. A plan was implemented to reconfigure a valve in Columbia, allowing cool air from the shuttle to flow into the science module, thus enabling the module's temperatures to remain at a level that will not require the use of Spacehab's cooling system, while preventing any further buildup of condensation. Later, an air duct was routed from Columbia to the Spacehab to increase the flow of cool air into the science facility.

Flight controllers plan to continue their analysis of the Spacehab cooling issue throughout the night, with no impact expected to science operations.

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and ISS Science Officer Don Pettit entered their third month in orbit today with a full complement of scientific research activities, exercise and routine ISS maintenance work.

The three ISS crewmembers conducted a number of cardiovascular tests, unloaded samples from a Zeolite Crystal Growth experiment in the Destiny laboratory that has completed its work for this Expedition. The Russian Vozdukh carbon dioxide removal system in the Zvezda Module, which shut down last week, is now operating normally following the weekend replacement of a valve. The U.S. segment CO2 removal system, which has been operating in place of Vozdukh, was powered down as a result of the Vozdukh revival.

All other station systems are operating normally as are all the systems aboard the shuttle Columbia, which, like the ISS, is orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes.

The Blue Team was awakened at 3:39 p.m. CDT to the sounds of "The Wedding Song" by Paul Stookey, uplinked from Mission Control especially for Pilot Willie McCool. McCool and Blue Team Astronauts Dave Brown and Michael Anderson will begin work after a handover at 5:24 p.m. The Red Team of Rick Husband, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon begins its sleep shift at 7:39 p.m.

Israel Space Agency Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon took a break from observations of thunderstorms today to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other dignitaries in Jerusalem. Ramon captured never-before-photographed lightning phenomena, known as "sprites" and "elves," in the extreme upper atmosphere using Middle Eastern Dust Experiment (MEIDEX) cameras. The experiment's primary objective is to study dust storms in the Middle East, but clouds in the region have delayed those observations thus far.

Work continued with a study of combustion in space, focusing on understanding the nature of soot. The Laminar Soot Processes experiment was operated by Ramon to burn various fuels in weightlessness and study production of soot. Weightlessness alllows the process to be studied without the interference caused by gravity-induced convection.

Other experiments run today included continued growth of prostate cancer cells in the Bioreactor Demonstration System (BDS), a device that has been shown on previous flights to grow cultures of much greater fidelity than can be produced in ground labs. The space-grown cultures may help scientists unlock lethal secrets of prostate cancer that allow it to spread through the bones and other body tissues. Mission Specialist Laurel Clark, a medical doctor, worked with the culture device today, checking its operation and photographing the tissues that have grown.

For other experiments, Commander Rick Husband steered Columbia to aim payload-bay mounted instruments to study ozone in the upper atmosphere and another experiment that studies the solar constant. The Shuttle Ozone Limb Sounding Experiment-2 (SOLSE-2) uses observations of sunlight scattering by the atmosphere to measure ozone. The Solar Constant Experiment (SOLCON) measures solar irradiance above the atmosphere.

The Blue Team will continue observations of "sprites" with the MEIDEX cameras, studies of soot with the Laminar Soot Process apparatus and examinations of bone cell activity in microgravity using the Osteoporosis Experiment in Orbit. The second half of its day will include off-duty time to help stay fresh for the extended-duration mission.

Cooling and humidity control of the Spacehab module is being managed through minor adjustments to systems aboard Columbia and the science module. The Spacehab's dehumidifiers remain off due to problems experienced in the last few days. The cooling glitch is not expected to interrupt any of the mission's ongoing research. Flight controllers are continuing to investigate options for reactivating the dehumidifiers.

The television pictures showed ants busily creating and moving about tunnels in an ant farm developed by students from Fowler High School in Syracuse, N.Y.; Garden Orb Weaver spiders beginning to construct webs in an enclosure designed by students at Glen Waverly Secondary College of Melbourne, Australia; silkworm larvae beginning to develop in an experiment designed by students at Jingshan School, Beijing, China; Medaka fish embryos developing in a tank designed by students at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Tokyo; and carpenter bees beginning to construct nests by boring tunnels in wood.

The experiments are being monitored by both teams of astronauts as they work in shifts to support the 80 different experiments aboard the space shuttle and the Spacehab Research Double Module. The Red Team -- Commander Rick Husband, Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark and Israel Space Agency Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon - enjoyed a half-day off before resuming work with a variety of other experiments.

The Red Team worked with the growth of prostate cancer cells in the Bioreactor Demonstration System, shutdown of the Laminar Soot Processes experiment, which completed 14 runs in an effort to better understand the nature of soot created by combustion in microgravity, and bacteria and yeast growth as part of the Microbial Physiology Flight Experiment. They also checked on the growth of plants in the Astroculture experiment that includes miniature roses being grown in space to produce new fragrances for perfumes.

The Red Team handed over to the Blue Team - Pilot Willie McCool, Payload Commander Michael Anderson and Mission Specialist Dave Brown - at 5 p.m. CST, and prepared for a sleep shift beginning at 7:09 p.m. The Blue Team awoke at 3:09 p.m. to the song "Hakuna Matata" by the Baja Men for Anderson from his two kids.

The Blue Team began its day with work on the SOFBALL, or Structures of Flame Balls at Low Lewis-number experiment, which scientists hope will improve their understanding of lean (low fuel) burning combustion and lead to improvements in engine efficiency, reduced emissions, and fire safety.

The overnight team also worked with the Advanced Respiratory Monitoring System, a European Space Agency experiment looking at how the human body adapts to weightlessness.

After lunch, the team was to calibrate the Mediterranean Israeli Dust Experiment (MEIDEX) and resume observations after adjusting the shuttle orientation in orbit to facilitate measurement of small particles in the atmosphere over the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Sahara desert.

Cooling and humidity control of the Spacehab module is being effectively managed through minor adjustments to systems aboard Columbia and the science module.

Highlighting the investigations today for both the Blue and Red Teams were the SOFBALL (Structures of Flame Balls) and ARMS (Advanced Respiratory Monitoring System) experiments, although both teams continued to support other experiments with a variety of activities.

Mission Specialists Michael Anderson of the Blue Team and Kalpana Chawla of the Red Team initiated runs with the SOFBALL experiment, which is creating tiny ball-shaped flames using hydrogen as the fuel. The tiny flames, which are approaching some of the leanest and longest-lasting ever, are invisible to the human eye but visible to the crew and investigators on the ground through special video equipment. Dr. Paul Ronney of the University of Southern California and his team hope to discover new properties about combustion to improve engine efficiency and fire safety, as well as reduce emissions.

Mission Specialist Dave Brown of the Blue Team and Israeli Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon of the Red Team concentrated on the Advanced Respiratory Monitoring System. The European Space Agency experiment alternated experiments targeting the human lung and circulatory system and the human muscular system as it looked at changes brought on by weightlessness.

Commander Rick Husband, leader of the Red Team, and Pilot Willie McCool, leader of the Blue Team, adjusted Columbia's attitude relative to the Earth to support the different requirements of the experiments. They continued to manage the temperature inside the Spacehab Research Double Module in the wake of problems incurred with cooling systems. No experiments have or are expected to be affected by the cooling issue.

Red Team Mission Specialist Laurel Clark, a medical doctor, worked with the Bioreactor Demonstration System, which is growing tissue samples as part of a prostate cancer study. She also beamed down data from the Astroculture experiment growing roses and rice flowers for commercial fragrance development. Clark also worked with bacteria and yeast cultures being grown as part of a Microbial Physiology Flight Experiment that looks at the effect of microgravity on antibiotics.

In honor of the combustion experiments on this flight, the Blue Team's wake-up call this afternoon was "Burning Down the House," by the Talking Heads.

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and ISS Science Officer Don Pettit spent their 61st day in space and their 59th day on the station practicing techniques with the Canadarm2 robot arm. This activity was in preparation for the March mission of Atlantis to the ISS that will involve a variety of uses for the space crane.

Columbia and the ISS are both operating in normal fashion, with the Shuttle orbiting at an altitude of 180 statute miles in an orbit inclined 39 degrees to either side of the equator and the station orbiting at an altitude of 240 statute miles in an orbit inclined 51.6 degrees to either side of the equator.

Commander Rick Husband, Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark, and Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon of the Red Team began their workday about 5 a.m. CST, focusing again on work with the SOFBALL (Structures of Flame Balls) experiment and the ARMS (Advanced Respiratory Monitoring System) human physiology experiment. Husband maneuvered Columbia into the proper positions for the various experiments.

The two teams have completed seven SOFBALL runs so far, including the first of several using methane as a fuel, which is visible to the naked eye as a faint blue flame. This evening, the Blue Team will attempt the longest planned test, lasting 2 hours, 47 minutes, while the shuttle is placed in a "free drift" configuration to eliminate thruster firings that could affect the test.

Pilot Willie McCool and Mission Specialists Dave Brown and Michael Anderson of the Blue Team were awakened about 2:30 p.m. to the sounds of "Hotel California" performed by members of McCool's family. Their duty shift was scheduled to begin about 5 p.m. after a pre-bedtime handover from the Red Team.

The Blue Team also will resume work with the Mechanics of Granular Materials experiment, looking at how sandy soil full of water behaves under pressure. Three compressions are planned over the next two days, with a final run set for later in the mission.

The study of spiral moss growth in space completed a set of time-critical fixations on several sets of moss plants, so that their growth rates can be established after the flight. Four more fixations are planned. The Astroculture experiment harvested the last of its six samples of essential oils from rose and rice flowers, which could eventually result in new perfume fragrances. Checks of all of the insects, spiders and animals aboard Columbia showed that all are healthy in their enclosures.

Flight controllers and the crew continue to manage temperatures in the Spacehab Research Double Module by periodically adjusting cooling loop settings. Columbia is in good shape, orbiting at an altitude of 180 statute miles.

Toward the end of their workday at 1 a.m. CST this morning, Pilot Willie McCool and Mission Specialists Dave Brown and Michael Anderson of the Blue Team took time out from their experiment schedule for interviews with reporters from Black Entertainment TV, WTKR-TV in Norfolk, Va., and KNSD-TV in San Diego. Following handover talks, Commander Rick Husband, Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark, and Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon of the Red Team began their workday.

Clark completed operations with the OSTEO (Osteoporosis Experiment in Orbit) investigation for STS-107. The experiment studied the activity of bone cells in microgravity by looking at normal activity and activity under the influence of various drugs. Clark also continued work on the Bioreactor Demonstration System, which is using the NASA-developed bioreactor to grow prostate cancer tissues. The objective is to learn how the cancer spreads into bones and aid in the development of future treatment methods. She also worked on a study of how bacteria and yeast develop in space and how microgravity affects their response to antibiotics.

Investigations with the Combined Two-Phase Loop Experiment were begun using a third cooling loop. Testing of this loop will continue for about 48 hours. The testing is performed to learn about the behavior of the loop in microgravity. The investigation examines three different two-phase thermal loops by transporting different amounts of heat from an evaporator to a condenser and then radiating the heat into space.

The Facility for Adsorption and Surface Tension, known as FAST, has completed the last pre-planned sequence of experiments. It is designed to measure the response of surface tension to carefully controlled changes in the surface areas of bubbles or droplets.

Ramon continued investigations with the SOFBALL (Structures of Flame Balls) experiment. The experiment studies lean combustion to help engineers design engines with better fuel efficiency and reduced emissions of pollution.

Television from the crew, narrated by Ramon, was downlinked around 11:30 a.m. showing various aspects of experiment operations conducted by both teams. Husband maneuvered Columbia today as required for any scientific activities.

McCool, Brown and Anderson were awakened at 2:39 p.m. to the sounds of "I Say a Little Prayer for You" sung by Dionne Warwick. The song was played for Anderson from his wife.

Husband ended his 10th day in space by calibrating two Israeli cameras that will be used to continue photographing dust particles, sprites and other electrical phenomena in the upper atmosphere. The crew hope to use the camera to observe a substantial plume of dust and smoke that extends from the Nigerian coast westward toward the Atlantic and an additional plume off the coast of Mauritania and Mali. Sprites in storms over Western Australia near Perth also will be observed. Sprites are electrical discharges that shoot up from the tops of thunderstorms into the Earth's ionosphere.

All of Columbia's systems continue to operate in excellent shape.

It was a quiet day on board the International Space Station, meanwhile, as Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and ISS Science Officer Don Pettit enjoyed a light workday. They will also partake in an off-duty day tomorrow before resuming normal scientific research and routine station maintenance activities on Monday.

The Red team of astronauts, working by day, and the Blue team, working by night, maintained a round-the-clock presence in the SPACEHAB Double Research Module, tending to dozens of experiments as scientists reported excellent results. Temperatures in SPACEHAB were maintained at a comfortable 73 degrees, despite the loss of two dehumidifiers earlier in the mission. All of the animals involved in life science experiments were reported to be in good shape along with SPACEHAB hardware.

Red team crewmembers Rick Husband, who is Columbia's Commander, Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark and Israeli Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon conducted more experiments involving the study of flames in space in a special Combustion Module in the SPACEHAB.

More investigations were conducted into the effect of dust storms on the atmosphere with multispectral cameras in Columbia's cargo bay. The MEIDEX experiment focused on plumes of dust in the Mediterranean region and in the Middle East as well as sprites in the targeted areas of interest. Science controllers reported the first successful digital downlink of imagery from the experiment as well as the observance of significant amounts of dust in the observed regions.

A suite of student experiments called STARS yielded the hatching of a fish in an aquatic facility and the successful emergence of a silk moth from its cocoon. STARS contains a half dozen student developed experiments ranging from the study of Australian spiders to the analysis of spaceflight's effects on carpenter bees from Liechtenstein.

The Biopack experiment involving the study of weightlessness on biological samples continued to produce what was described as excellent data for its team of researchers despite the loss of freezer and incubator capability for the storage of samples.

Blue team crewmembers Willie McCool, who is Columbia's Pilot, Payload Commander Mike Anderson and Mission Specialist Dave Brown were awakened for their night shift shortly after 2:30 p.m. Central time. They planned to conduct final combustion studies with the SOFBALL experiment tonight after which the Combustion Module will be reconfigured for the Water Mist experiment, studying fire suppression techniques in spaceflight.

The Blue team will spend some time refreshing water for 13 rodents in the Animal Enclosure Module in SPACEHAB. Data is being acquired on the effect of microgravity on the rodents' neurovestibular system. Now that SPACEHAB temperatures have cooled again, sound mufflers were reinstalled on the animal enclosure compartments.

More data will also be received tonight from the SOLSE experiment, which uses imaging devices in the shuttle's cargo bay to study the Earth's ozone layer. Earlier today, the crew downlinked digital video of the Middle East with breathtaking views of Israel, the Red Sea and the Sinai Peninsula. The video also contained scenes of life and work on orbit involving the seven astronauts. Columbia's systems continue to function perfectly as the shuttle orbits at an altitude of about 180 statute miles.

Flying slightly higher, the Expedition 6 crew aboard the International Space Station is now in its 10th week in space. Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit spent a quiet Sunday, enjoying the views of Earth from orbit while conducting a minor maintenance procedure involving a hatch window in the Unity module. Station systems are also functioning normally.

The space travelers aboard Columbia and the ISS will have a chance to talk to one another Monday in a brief ship-to-ship hookup scheduled at 11:34 a.m. Central time. At the time of the ship-to-ship call, Columbia will be orbiting over northern Brazil, while the ISS sails over southern Russia.

The Structures of Flame Balls experiment, looking at ways of improving engine combustion efficiency, was shut down after a total of 39 tests using 15 different fuel mixtures. A total of 55 flame balls were ignited, including the weakest and leanest flames ever burned. The longest-lived flame burned in space for 81 minutes, part of a total burn time for all flames of 6 1 /4 hours. Oscillating (shrinking and growing) flame balls, which had been predicted theoretically, were observed for the first time.

The Mechanics of Granular Materials test, looking for ways to better understand and deal with soil movement associated with earthquakes, completed its 10th and final run. The Microbial Physiology Flight Experiment expended its eighth and final set of samples looking at yeast and bacteria growth in microgravity. The Canadian-developed Osteoporosis in Orbit also completed its operations.

The Red team, or day shift - Commander Rick Husband, Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark and Israel Space Agency Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon - took time out from microgravity experimentation about 11:30 a.m. CST to chat with the other three spacefarers on orbit - Commander Ken Bowersox, NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin. At the time, the space station was some 240 miles above Southern Russia while the shuttle was over northern Brazil.

The Expedition Six crew aboard the station concentrated on loading new software on the EXPRESS experiment racks, working with Russian and American experiments and preparing the old Progress for its undocking this week to make room for a new supply craft, scheduled to launch Feb. 2 from the Baikonour Cosmodrome in Khazakstan and dock with the station Feb. 4.

After a 2:39 p.m. CST wake-up to the sounds of "Slow Boat to Rio" by Earl Klugh, the Blue team of astronauts - Payload Commander Michael Anderson, Mission Specialist Dave Brown and Pilot Willie McCool was scheduled to enjoy half a day of rest before resuming research activities concentrating on the Mediterranean Israeli Dust Experiment, which yesterday captured its first observations of dust over the Atlantic. Scientists with the Israel Space Agency reported that preliminary data looks promising.

Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla reported a good leak check of the Combustion Module-2 Facility about 4 p.m. after five hours of work. She and Commander Rick Husband sent down video of the recovery procedures for the Water Mist Fire Suppression Experiment (MIST) around 2 p.m. to give engineers on the ground an opportunity to visually inspect the equipment. The combustion facility, which provides control, containment, diagnostics and communications for fire-related experiments, worked flawlessly in support of the two previous combustion experiments, but failed its initial leak checks when MIST was installed Monday.

Payload Commander Michael Anderson of the Blue team is scheduled to begin work with the MIST experiment overnight. Designed by the Center for Commercial Applications of Combustion in Space at the Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colo., the experiment will investigate how water mist inhibits the spread of flames. Scientists hope to apply what they learn to designs for improved, lighter-weight fire suppression systems on Earth, as well as for spacecraft-based systems that won't require ozone-damaging chemicals such as Halons.

Husband, Chawla and Red team colleagues Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon enjoyed some time off for the first half of their day, then moved ahead with other experiments in the Spacehab Research Double Module. Clark retrieved samples associated with the Bioreactor Demonstration System, which Project Scientist Tom Goodwin reported today has grown a bone and prostate cancer tumor tissue sample as large as a golf ball, the largest grown in space to date. She also collected blood and urine samples from her crewmates for the Physiology and Biochemistry (PhAB4) suite of experiments. Ramon also conducted observations of dust off the African coast for the Mediterranean Israeli Dust Experiment (MEIDEX).

After a 2:39 p.m. CST wake-up to the Beach Boys singing "I Get Around," the Blue team of Anderson, Pilot Willie McCool and Mission Specialist Dave Brown resumed work with the tests of their breathing, hearts and muscle associated with Advanced Respiratory Monitoring System. Anderson was scheduled to check on the condition of the animals on board, which has continued to be good.

Commander Rick Husband, Pilot Willie McCool, Mission Specialists Dave Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Michael Anderson and Laurel Clark, and Israel Space Agency Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon fielded questions about how their shuttle was performing as a research laboratory, their work in support of the STS-107 mission's 80 different experiments and preparations for Saturday's planned landing.

"The science we're doing here is great and it's fantastic," said Anderson, the payload commander, "it's leading edge. But I think once we get a seven-member crew on board the space station you're really going to see some outstanding science in space. A lot of experiments that we have are really just being demonstrated and developed. Once they're fully developed they'll reside on board the space station and the scientists ... will have years to conduct the experiments that we're trying to do here in a relatively short period of time."

Ramon reported that dust storms off the east coast of Africa were scarce for the first week of the flight, but that a giant dust storm kicked up over the Atlantic and lasted three days, providing ample observations for the Mediterranean Israeli Dust Experiment. He voiced wishes for peace in his area of the world from 180 miles above.

"The world looks marvelous from up here, so peaceful, so wonderful and so fragile," Ramon said. "The atmosphere is so thin and fragile, and I think all of us have to keep it clean and good. It saves our life and gives our life."

After a 2:39 p.m. CST Blue Team wake-up to the sounds of John Lennon singing "Imagine," McCool and Ramon said their observations from orbit reveal no borders on the Earth below and reiterated in both English and Hebrew their hopes for peace in the world.

Initial tests in the Combustion Module Facility with the newly revitalized Water Mist Fire Suppression Experiment took center stage today, with 14 sample runs completed after Chawla fixed a balky seal in the combustion module yesterday. Another 20 runs are planned before the end of the mission on tests designed to learn exactly how the water interacts with flames as it is extinguishing them.

Most of the 80 experiments already have completed their data collection, and today was the last day for the remaining investigations, in particular the Water Mist Fire Suppression Experiment (MIST), the Mediterranean Israeli Dust Experiment (MEIDEX) and the Advanced Respiratory Monitoring System (ARMS).

MIST, which got a late start due to problems setting up the test chamber, is nearing its 30th run as it studies the effectiveness of fog-like water droplet concentrations in putting out flames. The experiment is sponsored by the Center for Commercial Applications of Combustion in Space at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden as part of continuing program to design replacements for environmentally hazardous chemicals such as Halons.

MEIDEX will be recording its final data takes of lightning "sprites" and "elves," after successfully imaging a major dust concentration in support of its primary objective to study how fine dust particles, or aerosols, affect the Earth's environment. MEIDEX was sponsored by the Israeli Space Agency and Tel-Aviv University in association with Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon's first space flight for an Israeli.

Crewmembers also began wrapping up and storing the final blood, urine and saliva samples they are providing for studies of human physiology associated with the ARMS cardiovascular experiments and the Physiology and Biochemistry Team experiments. The samples will be kept at appropriate temperatures in refrigeration systems in the Spacehab module for return to Earth and further study.

And the Biotube experiment, which was activated Wednesday, looked at flax seeds as they grew in the presence of strong magnetic field. Scientists on the ground used video downlinks to monitor the length of root growth to ensure appropriate fixation times.

Commander Rick Husband and Flight Engineer Kalpana Chawla of the day shift took turns simulating landing on the PILOT computer-based training system. Pilot Willie McCool of the night shift will get in his practice session overnight. Landing is scheduled for 8:16 a.m. CST Saturday and preliminary forecasts show excellent conditions at the Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida. If weather decides not to cooperate, there are plenty of supplies to support the crew until conditions are favorable.

Husband also peeked under the floor of the Spacehab module to look for water that might have leaked out of the balky air-conditioning system earlier in the mission. He reported finding no moisture that could contaminate Spacehab systems if jostled during Saturday's re-entry and landing, but covered several holes in the water sub-assembly with tape as a precaution.

Commander Rick Husband, Pilot Willie McCool, Mission Specialists Dave Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Michael Anderson and Laurel Clark, and Israeli Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon wrapped up final experiment runs, taking a final look at electrical activity above thunderstorms with the Mediterranean Israeli Dust Experiment (MEIDEX). They also shut down the Bioreactor Demonstration System where prostate cancer and bone cells were grown during much of the mission. Tonight the crew will deactivate the Spacehab Research Double Module in the cargo bay. The SPACEHAB will be closed for the final time early Saturday.

This morning, Husband, McCool and Chawla checked out the flight control surfaces of Columbia after activating one of the orbiter's three auxiliary power units in a routine pre-landing test of the Shuttle's systems. A little later, the crew test-fired the reaction control system jets that will regulate Columbia's attitude as it begins its fiery re-entry through the Earth's atmosphere. Opposing jets were fired simultaneously to avoid affecting the spacecraft's orientation.

Two Kennedy Space Center landing opportunities are available to Columbia on Saturday. The first, on orbit 255, would see a deorbit burn at 7:15 a.m. CST and a landing at KSC at 8:16 a.m. to wrap up a flight of 6,649,757 statute miles. A second landing opportunity is available at KSC on the subsequent orbit. That would see the deorbit burn beginning at 8:50 a.m. and a landing at 9:50 a.m.

Florida weather is forecast to be excellent on Saturday. Columbia has enough consumables to remain aloft for several additional days, if necessary.

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 6 crewmembers, Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit, completed loading the Russian Progress supply vehicle for a planned undocking from the Zvezda Service Module Saturday at 9:59 a.m. Central time (1559 GMT). A new Progress bringing fuel, equipment and supplies to the station will be launched from Kazakhstan Sunday and will dock with the station on Tuesday.

Communications were lost with Columbia and its crew at around 8:00 a.m. CST, while the shuttle was traveling about 18 times the speed of sound at an altitude of 207,000 feet. Columbia was 16 minutes from landing at the Kennedy Space Center when flight controllers at Mission Control lost contact with the vehicle. Columbia was returning from a 16-day scientific research mission, its 28th flight, which launched on January 16.

Aboard Columbia were Commander Rick Husband, completing his second flight, Pilot William McCool, wrapping up his first mission, Mission Specialists Dave Brown, also completing his first mission, Kalpana Chawla, on her second flight, Laurel Clark, a first-time space traveler, Payload Commander Mike Anderson, ending his second flight, and Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon of the Israel Space Agency, on his first flight.

Prior to the loss of communications with Columbia, the shuttle's return to Earth appeared perfectly normal. After assessing some wispy fog near the shuttle's three-mile long landing strip at KSC before dawn, Entry Flight Director LeRoy Cain gave approval for the firing of the shuttle's braking rockets to begin its descent from orbit.

Husband and McCool began the deorbit burn to allow Columbia to slip out of orbit at 7:15 a.m. CST. There was no indication of anything abnormal with Columbia's reentry until the last communications between Mission Control and the crew.

At Columbia's intended landing site, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe and Associate Administrator for Space Flight William Readdy met with the families of the astronauts to offer their condolences, vowed to uncover the cause of the accident and press ahead with the Shuttle program.

"This is indeed a tragic day for the NASA family, for the families of the astronauts who flew on STS-107, and likewise is tragic for the nation," said O'Keefe.

"We have no indication that the mishap was caused by anything or anyone on the ground," O'Keefe added.

In a briefing, Chief Flight Director Milt Heflin said that around 7:53 a.m. CST, just minutes before communications were lost with Columbia, flight controllers detected indications of a loss of hydraulic system temperature measurements associated with Columbia's left wing, followed three minutes later by an increase in temperatures on the left main gear tires and brakes. At 7:58 a.m., flight controllers noted a loss of bondline temperature sensor data in the area of the left wing followed a minute later by a loss of data on tire temperatures and pressures for the left inboard and outboard tires.

After several attempts to try to contact Columbia, Cain declared a contingency, whereby flight controllers began preserving documentation regarding the entry phase of the flight. Recovery forces fanned out from Texas to Louisiana to try to recover debris that will be pertinent to the mishap investigation.

Space Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore said several teams have been organized to gather data for analysis and will report to an external investigation board that was appointed by Administrator O'Keefe. Dittemore added that no specific orbiter debris or crew remains have been positively identified at this time, and that there is no leading theory for the cause of the accident.

Dittemore said the processing of other shuttles at the Kennedy Space Center for future launches has been temporarily halted to enable engineers to review data regarding vehicle processing and to focus attention on capturing all pertinent information involving Columbia's prelaunch preparations.

NASA managers will be meeting on a regular basis to begin reviewing data associated with Columbia's investigation. The next status briefing from the Johnson Space Center is tentatively scheduled from the Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX at 12:00 p.m. CST Sunday. It will be seen on NASA Television with two-way question and answer capability for reporters from NASA centers.

NASA TV can be found on AMC-2, Transponder 9C, vertical polarization at 85 degrees West longitude, 3880 MHz, with audio at 6.8 MHz.

On the International Space Station, Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit were informed of the loss of Columbia and its crew shortly after a Russian Progress resupply vehicle undocked from the ISS. Filled with discarded items no longer needed on the ISS, the Progress was commanded to deorbit by Russian flight controllers and reentered the Earth's atmosphere.

A new Progress cargo ship will be launched Sunday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:59 a.m. CST (1259 GMT) filled with supplies for the Expedition 6 crew. It is scheduled to dock to the ISS Tuesday morning. ISS program officials say, if necessary, the current resident crew could remain in orbit until late June with the supplies being ferried to the station on the new Progress.

Space Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore told an afternoon briefing that a Mishap Response Team is gathering data from numerous engineering teams in the early stages of the investigation and is receiving assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local law enforcement agencies, among others.

Dittemore said that as Commander Rick Husband, Pilot William McCool, Mission Specialists Dave Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Mike Anderson, Laurel Clark and Israeli Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon are mourned, the recovery of debris from Columbia and human remains is being coordinated at Barksdale Air Force Base, La.

Dittemore thanked residents in the areas where debris fell after Columbia's breakup for cooperating in the recovery effort but cautioned them not to handle debris that could contain toxic substances.

Dittemore reconstructed the final minutes of Columbia's flight before communications was lost. He reiterated the failure of four temperature sensors associated with the shuttle's left hand elevons at 7:53 a.m. CST Saturday amidst a 20-30 degree rise in left hand bondline and strut temperatures over a five-minute period near the left wheel well of the orbiter. Columbia was flying over California at the time at an altitude of about 220,000 feet traveling 21 times the speed of sound.

One minute later, over the region of eastern California and western Nevada, Columbia's mid-fuselage bondline temperatures above the left wing experienced an unusual temperature increase. It rose 60 degrees over a five-minute period. No such temperature increase was noted on the right side of Columbia or in the Shuttle's cargo bay. Columbia was about 212,000 feet above the Earth, flying at Mach 20.

At 7:58 a.m. over New Mexico, telemetry showed a larger than normal drag on the left side of the shuttle, and an indication of an increase in pressure in the left main landing gear tires. Dittemore said the data suggests the tires remained intact. Columbia's altitude was 209,000 feet.

At 7:59 a.m. over west Texas, the data showed Columbia continuing to react to an increased drag on its left side, trying to correct the movement by rolling back to the right. Dittemore said the response of the orbiter was well within its capability to handle such maneuvers.

At that time, seconds before 8 a.m. CST, all communications was lost with Columbia as it flew at an altitude of 207,000 feet, 18 times the speed of sound.

Dittemore indicated that ground computers may contain an additional 32 seconds of data which could provide additional information in the analysis of Columbia's breakup.

He added that the loss of some foam insulation from Columbia's external fuel tank, which struck the shuttle's left wing about 80 seconds after launch was "inconsequential" based on video imagery review conducted by engineering specialists. However, he said nothing has been ruled out as a possible cause for the accident.

Robert Cabana, the Director of Flight Crew Operations at the Johnson Space Center, relayed thanks from the families of the astronauts for the outpouring of support received from around the nation and the world.

Cabana said that the Expedition 6 crewmembers aboard the International Space Station are "grieving" for the loss of Columbia's crew, but are in good spirits as they continue human spaceflight and scientific research aboard the orbital outpost. Cabana said Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit are preparing for Tuesday's arrival of a Russian Progress cargo ship. Progress 10 was launched this morning from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

On Tuesday, Feb. 4, President and Mrs. Bush will join NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe at the Johnson Space Center to pay tribute to Columbia's astronauts during a special memorial service. The ceremony to honor Columbia's seven crewmembers is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on NASA Television. The service is not open to the public.

The next STS-107 Accident Response briefings are on Monday, Feb. 3 at NASA Headquarters in Washington at 11:30 a.m. EST and at the Johnson Space Center at 4:30 p.m. EST.

Space Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore told an afternoon briefing that several teams of engineers are making progress in their study of data and video from Columbia's launch and entry, but cautioned that it is a "massive job" requiring round-the-clock efforts to piece together the events that led to a loss of communications with the Shuttle over north central Texas 16 minutes prior to touchdown.

Still, Dittemore said NASA would pause Tuesday for a memorial ceremony at the Johnson Space Center at 1:00 p.m. EST to honor the lives and the memory of Columbia's astronauts, Rick Husband, William McCool, Dave Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Mike Anderson, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon. President and Mrs. Bush will join NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe at JSC for the memorial which is closed to the public, but which will be broadcast on NASA Television.

Dittemore said the memorial represents an opportunity to take time to remember the sacrifice of the astronauts, to mourn them and to "remember our friends."

Dittemore offered additional and refined information regarding the timeline of events that led to Columbia's breakup on Saturday (all times CST): ·At 7:52 a.m. CST, three-left main gear brake line temperature sensors showed an unusual rise in the left wheel well area.·At 7:53 a.m., a fourth left brake line strut actuator temperature sensor showed a 30-40 degree rise in temperature over a five-minute period, slightly higher than reported yesterday.·At 7:55 a.m., A fifth left brake line main gear sensor showed a sharp rise in temperature.·At 7:57 a.m., left wing temperature sensors failed "off-scale low", meaning no further data was being received on the ground.·And at 7:59 a.m., just before communications was lost with Columbia, there was evidence of drag on the aerosurfaces of the left wing, causing two out of four yaw steering jets in that area of the Shuttle to fire for 1.5 seconds to counteract the increased drag.

Dittemore said more time will be needed to retrieve an additional 32 seconds of data acquired by ground computers after communications was lost with Columbia to see if it is useful to the inquiry. He said engineers would go directly to the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System ground station hub in White Sands, New Mexico to collect and analyze that data in its pristine form.

Although the investigative teams have a "high interest" in the left hand wheel well area of Columbia, Dittemore cautioned that a temperature increase there does not indicate that a structural problem occurred as a factor in the vehicle's breakup. In fact, Dittemore said the data suggests that "something else" may have been happening at the time, not indicative of a structural breach.

Responding to inquiries regarding a piece of foam insulation which fell off Columbia's external fuel tank about 80 seconds after launch that struck the left wing of the Shuttle, Dittemore said imagery analysis showed that the foam measured about 20 inches by 16 inches by 6 inches and weighed about 2.67 pounds. He reiterated that engineering analysis conducted during the flight concluded for NASA managers that although the foam might have caused some structural damage to the wing area, it would not have been sufficient to cause a catastrophic event.

"There is some other missing link contributing to this event," Dittemore said. We are extremely interested in seeing any debris that may have fallen upstream of the main impact area," referring to any additional debris which might be recovered in an area to the west of Texas.

Earlier today, former President George H.W. Bush and Mrs. Barbara Bush visited the International Space Station flight control room at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX to pay their respects to the flight controllers and to the Expedition 6 crew aboard the orbital complex.

The former president told Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit that President Bush relayed his "full confidence in the space program" in a conversation with the elder Bush Sunday. The former president told the crew the men and women of NASA were showing "great courage" in the wake of the accident.

Bowersox, Budarin and Pettit spent the day preparing for the docking of a Russian Progress resupply vehicle to the ISS Tuesday at 9:50 a.m. EST. The new cargo ship, which contains a ton of food, fuel and supplies for the crew, was successfully launched Sunday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA TV coverage of the Progress docking to the ISS begins at 9 a.m. CST Tuesday.

The next STS-107 Accident Response briefing will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 4 at NASA Headquarters in Washington at 4:30 p.m. EST.

President and Mrs. Bush joined NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe in honoring astronauts Rick Husband, William McCool, Dave Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Mike Anderson, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon in a ceremony at the Johnson Space Center, Houston. President Bush said the nation was "blessed" to have such men and women serving the space program, and although NASA is being tested at this time, "America's space program will go on."

In an afternoon briefing, Michael Kostelnik, NASA's Associate Administrator for International Space Station and Space Shuttle said several engineering teams continue to work round-the-clock to reconstruct the timeline of the final minutes of Columbia's flight from extensive data that is being analyzed.

Kostelnik said the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, chaired by retired U.S. Navy Admiral Harold W. Gehman, Jr., is on scene at Barksdale Air Force Base, La. where the recovery of debris and human remains is being coordinated.

Kostelnik reported that larger and denser pieces of debris have been found in Louisiana, possibly including parts of Columbia's main engines. He said recovery teams have been dispatched to California and Arizona, where debris has been reported. Kostelnik indicated debris recovered from areas farthest to the west would be critical, possibly providing information about the early stages of Columbia's breakup.

Earlier today, a Russian Progress resupply ship successfully docked to the International Space Station at 9:49 a.m. EST, delivering a ton of food, fuel and supplies to Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit. The Progress has given the Station resident crew a "solid" supply of consumables, enough to sustain operations through at least late June, according to Kostelnik.

Bowersox, Budarin and Pettit opened the hatches between the ISS and the Progress this afternoon and will begin unloading its supplies on Wednesday.

Asked about contingency planning for the Station for the rest of the year, Kostelnik said all options to sustain a human presence on board in the temporary absence of Shuttle flights are being explored. The next Shuttle flight aboard Atlantis in March was to have brought the Expedition 7 crew to the ISS and returned to Earth the current resident crew.

Two STS-107 Accident Response briefings will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 5 and will be broadcast on NASA Television with multi-center question and answer capability for reporters at NASA centers. The first briefing is from NASA Headquarters in Washington at 11:30 a.m. EST. The second with Space Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore from the Johnson Space Center is at 4:30 p.m. EST.