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STS-107
Report #09
Thursday, January 23, 2003 - 5:00 p.m. CST
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
The STS-107 scientific research mission aboard Columbia passed the halfway mark
today as the 80 microgravity investigations continue on schedule.
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.
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