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STS-107
Report #17 
Friday, January 31, 2003 - 5:00 p.m. CST 
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas 
 
Columbia crewmembers deactivated experiments and began stowing gear
to prepare for their scheduled Saturday landing at the Kennedy Space
Center. 

Commander Rick Husband, Pilot Willie McCool, Mission Specialists Dave
Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Michael Anderson and Laurel Clark, and Israeli
Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon wrapped up final experiment runs, taking 
a final look at electrical activity above thunderstorms with the 
Mediterranean Israeli Dust Experiment (MEIDEX). They also shut down 
the Bioreactor Demonstration System where prostate cancer and bone 
cells were grown during much of the mission. Tonight the crew will 
deactivate the Spacehab Research Double Module in the cargo bay.  The 
SPACEHAB will be closed for the final time early Saturday. 

This morning, Husband, McCool and Chawla checked out the flight
control surfaces of Columbia after activating one of the orbiter's
three auxiliary power units in a routine pre-landing test of the
Shuttle's systems. A little later, the crew test-fired the reaction
control system jets that will regulate Columbia's attitude as it
begins its fiery re-entry through the Earth's atmosphere. Opposing
jets were fired simultaneously to avoid affecting the spacecraft's
orientation. 

Two Kennedy Space Center landing opportunities are available to
Columbia on Saturday. The first, on orbit 255, would see a deorbit
burn at 7:15 a.m. CST and a landing at KSC at 8:16 a.m. to wrap up a
flight of 6,649,757 statute miles. A second landing opportunity is
available at KSC on the subsequent orbit. That would see the deorbit
burn beginning at 8:50 a.m. and a landing at 9:50 a.m. 

Florida weather is forecast to be excellent on Saturday. Columbia has
enough consumables to remain aloft for several additional days, if
necessary. 

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 6 crewmembers,
Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS
Science Officer Don Pettit, completed loading the Russian Progress
supply vehicle for a planned undocking from the Zvezda Service Module
Saturday at 9:59 a.m. Central time (1559 GMT). A new Progress bringing 
fuel, equipment and supplies to the station will be launched from 
Kazakhstan Sunday and will dock with the station on Tuesday. 

The next STS-107 status report will be issued after landing, or as
events warrant. 

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