"6_2_2_3_4.TXT" (2335 bytes) was created on 01-02-89

STS-3

        Columbia was launched on its third flight at 11:00 a.m. EST, on
March 22, l982, the planned launch date.  The launch was delayed 1
hour because of the failure of a heater on a nitrogen gas ground
support line.  Columbia had spent only 70 days in the Orbiter
Processing Facility -- a record checkout time.  The two-man crew
included Jack R. Lousma, commander, and Charles G. Fullerton, pilot.

        Major objectives of the flight were to continue testing the RMS arm,
and to carry out extensive thermal testing of the Columbia by
exposing its tail, nose and top to the sun for varying periods of
time.

        In addition, in its payload bay, Columbia again carried the DFI
package, and OSS-l -- named for the NASA Office of Space Science and
Applications -- which consisted of a number of instruments mounted on
a Spacelab pallet to obtain data on the near-Earth environment and
the extent of contamination caused by the orbiter itself.  A test
cannister for the Small Self-Contained Payload program -- also known
as the Getaway Special (GAS) -- was mounted on a side of the payload
bay.

        For the first time a number of experiments were carried in the
middeck lockers.  These included a Continuous Flow Electrophoresis
System experiment to study separation of biological components and a
Monodisperse Latex Reactor experiment to produce uniform micron-sized
latex particles.  The first Shuttle Student Involvement Project
(SSIP) -- the study of insect motion -- also was carried in a middeck
locker.

        During the flight, both crew  members experienced some space
sickness, the toilet malfunctioned, one Auxiliary Pacer Unit
overheated (but worked properly during descent), and three
communications links were lost on March 26.

STS-3 was planned as a 7-day flight.  However, it was extended an
extra day because of high winds at the backup landing site, Northrup
Strip, White Sands, N.M., since the planned landing site at Edwards
AFB was too wet for a safe landing.

        Touchdown finally took place at 9:05 a.m. MST, March 30, l982, at
Northrup Strip (later renamed White Sands Space Harbor).  Columbia
had made 129 orbits and traveled 3.3 million miles, during its 8-day,
4-minute, 45-second flight.  A total of 36 tiles were lost and 19
were damaged.  It was returned to KSC on April 6, l982.