This Echo is READ ONLY !   NO Un-Authorized Messages Please!
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

STS-107
Report #05 
Sunday, January 19, 2003 - 4:00 p.m. CST 
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas 

Columbia's astronauts studied combustion properties and the response
of their own bodies in weightlessness and the behavior of soot in
space one-quarter of the way through their marathon scientific
research mission. 

Red Team members Commander Rick Husband, Mission Specialists Kalpana
Chawla and Laurel Clark and Israeli Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon
completed the first data collection sessions with the Combustion
Module in the Spacehab research module housed in Columbia's cargo bay. 
One of three experiments housed in the Combustion Module --- the study 
of Laminer Soot Processes (LSP) --- is designed to gain a better 
understanding of soot formation, oxidation and radiative properties 
within flames. 

Additional data was gleaned from the Mechanics of Granular Materials
experiment (MGM) in the Spacehab module, which is providing
information on the behavior of saturated sand when exposed to
confining pressures in microgravity. The experiment could provide
engineers with valuable data for strengthening buildings against
earthquakes. 

Work was also accomplished with a series of biomedical experiments
studying the human body's response to weightlessness --- particularly
dealing with protein manufacturing in the absence of a gravity
environment, bone and calcium production, the formation of chemicals
associated with renal stones and how saliva and urine change in space
relative to any exposure to viruses. 

Experiments continued with the MEIDEX cameras in the cargo bay
observing dust storms in the Mediterranean region and with the SOLSE
experiment, geared to studying the amount of ozone in the Earth's
atmosphere by using a special imaging spectrometer in the payload bay
to look across the limb of the Earth during specifically scheduled
orbits. 

Columbia's Blue Team science cadre --- Pilot Willie McCool and Mission 
Specialists Dave Brown and Mike Anderson --- planned to continue the 
more than 80 experiments on board Columbia following their wakeup call 
this afternoon. The Red team will begin its eight-hour sleep period 
just before 9 p.m. Central time.

Earlier today, TV cameras in the Spacehab research module captured
Ramon conducting work with the Combustion Module. He reported that the 
materials science facility was operating perfectly as are all of the 
other experiment facilities aboard Columbia. 

Aboard the International Space Station, Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight 
Engineer Nikolai Budarin and ISS Science Officer Don Pettit completed 
their second month in space by enjoying an off-duty day.  The crew 
will return to a full complement of scientific research activities, 
exercise and routine ISS maintenance work on Monday. The ISS crew is 
working a schedule, which calls for them to be awakened every morning 
at 12:00 a.m. Central time and for their 8.5 hour sleep period to 
begin at 3:30 p.m. CST. 

The ISS crew was informed that replacement parts for the Microgravity
Science Glovebox will be ready for launch on the next Progress
resupply vehicle to the ISS on February 2. With docking of that cargo
ship to the ISS planned for Feb. 4, virtually all of the science
planned for the facility during Expedition 6 will be accomplished as
initially planned. 

All systems aboard Columbia and the ISS continue to function well.

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

                               -end-
                                ###

 - End of File -
================

---