STS-62 Status #22 

Mission Control Center
STS-62 Status Report #22

Monday, March 14, 1994
4 p.m. Central

As payload cameras showed the Earth vista from 140 nautical miles up, the The
STS-62 crew of Columbia sent a special goodnight message -- the Bette Midler
song "From a Distance" -- for the men and women watching over them from below
in Houston.

The message came at the end of a busy 11th day of on-orbit operations that
featured a shift in focus from United States Microgravity Payload-2 to work
with the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology-2 (OAST-2) package.

Observations in the cargo bay are now concentrating on the interaction of
Shuttle surfaces with atomic oxygen, nitrogen and other gases as they ram
through the rarified atmosphere at 17,500 miles an hour.  Early in the day,
Commander John Casper and Pilot Andy Allen lowered Columbia's orbit by 20
nautical miles to support the OAST-2 shuttle glow observations.

Mission Specialists Marsha Ivins, Sam Gemar and Pierre Thuot each took a turn
evaluating a tracking and grapple system for Columbia's robot arm.  The
Dexterous End Effector (DEE) demonstration also looked at the forces generated
by arm movements when its magnetic end effector was engaged.  The forces were
recorded by a Force Torque Sensor that also is part of the DEE equipment.

The astronauts are scheduled to awaken at 9:53 p.m. to start their 12th day of
work in space.  Columbia is in excellent condition and flight controllers have
noted no new problems with the spacecraft's systems.

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  Via FTL BBS (404-292-8761) and NASA Spacelink (205-895-0028)
