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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.

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.

The next STS-107 status report will be issued Friday afternoon, or
earlier, if events warrant. 

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