STS-107 MCC Status Report #03<br />Friday, Jan. 17, 2003 - 5 p.m. CST<br />Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas<br /><br />In their first full day in orbit, Columbia's seven crewmembers completed<br />activation of the SPACEHAB Research Double Module in the shuttle's cargo bay<br />and all of its scientific experiments.<br /><br />Red Team members Commander Rick Husband, Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla<br />and Laurel Clark and Israeli Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon were awakened at<br />4:39 a.m. CST. Following a handover with their Blue Team counterparts, they<br />took over for Pilot Willie McCool and Mission Specialists Dave Brown and<br />Mike Anderson, who began an eight-hour sleep period at 10:39 a.m. CST.<br /><br />All SPACEHAB payloads are performing well and research activities continue<br />on schedule. Specific experiment highlights so far include:<br /><br />All Fast Reaction Experiments Enabling Science Technology Applications and<br />Research, or FREESTAR, payloads have been activated and are performing well.<br />One FREESTAR experiment that measures the amount of energy coming from the<br />sun completed an initial observation, with the best sun pointing ever seen<br />on any shuttle flight. Another experiment that will perform measurements of<br />the Earth's ozone layer is operating nominally. The Mediterranean Israeli<br />Dust Experiment, or MEIDEX, which will measure small particles called<br />aerosols in the atmosphere over the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean<br />off the coast of the Sahara desert, has been readied for initial<br />observations.<br /><br />The Bioreactor Demonstration System made its initial run. The NASA-developed<br />bioreactor is being used to grow prostate cancer tissues to help scientists<br />better understand how the cancer spreads into bones and to aid in the<br />development of future treatment methods. In the first 20 hours of experiment<br />operations, a significant aggregate of tumor tissue was grown.<br /><br />The Critical Viscosity of Xenon-2 experiment has been working nominally. The<br />instrument is cooling the xenon sample to begin calibration. A preliminary<br />analysis of the flight data compares favorably with ground-based data. This<br />research in fluid physics may be important to the production of paints,<br />plastics, drugs, food and cosmetics.<br /><br />The Blue Team will be awakened at 6:39 p.m. CST to continue work on the more<br />than 80 experiments aboard Columbia. Scheduled activities include using<br />MEIDEX, consisting of a radiometric camera and a video camera, to measure a<br />Mediterranean dust plume north of the Gulf of Sidra. Human life sciences<br />experiments also are scheduled to begin.<br /><br />All systems aboard Columbia continue to function well.<br /><br />Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox,<br />Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit<br />completed their eighth week in space. Today, they unstowed a rendezvous<br />system from the Russian Progress 9 resupply ship in preparation for the<br />Progress' undocking Feb. 1. That will clear the aft port of the Zvezda<br />Service Module for the arrival of a new Progress cargo craft Feb. 4.<br /><br />The Expedition 6 crew also conducted metabolic science experiments,<br />exercised and prepared for a quiet weekend in orbit.<br /><br />The next STS-107 mission status report will be issued Saturday afternoon, or<br />earlier if events warrant.