Nov 2 1985
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(New page: At the halfway point in Space Shuttle mission 61-A in which the orbiter Challenger carried Spacelab D-1 [see Space Transportation System/Missions, Oct. 30], a slow air leak...)
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At the halfway point in Space Shuttle mission 61-A in which the orbiter Challenger carried Spacelab D-1 [see Space Transportation System/Missions, Oct. 30], a slow air leak in one of Spacelab's vacuum chambers developed, but flight controllers in Houston did not consider it serious, the NY Times reported. Terry White, a public affairs officer at Mission Control, said the oxygen leak was so slight that, "provided there are no additional fluctuations, we have enough gases to go to the end of the mission." After encountering some Spacelab equipment malfunctions during the mission's first two days, Challenger's crew indicated they had achieved encouraging success with nearly all of the Spacelab's 76 scientific experiments on the effects of microgravity on metals, biological growth, and human physiology. Mission planners in Houston and scientists at the West German science control center near Munich were studying the possibility of extending the flight by a day to permit more time for experimentation.
The crew reported preliminary results showing that, as expected, seedlings growing in the virtual absence of gravity developed roots that curved in odd directions. "The roots, lacking gravity, do not seem to know which way to go," a crew member commented. In another experiment, the Bacillus subtilis bacteria showed a higher rate of growth than anticipated. Mission control scientists said this "may be taken as an indication that bacteria do react differently in space." Most of the studies in processing metal alloys and growing crystals for electronics were still underway, so results were unavailable until completion of the mission.
Earlier in the mission, crew member Dr. Ernst Messerschmidt, a West German physicist, reported being "disoriented" when he awoke, a symptom of the space motion sickness that had plagued nearly half of all Space Shuttle astronauts. (NYT, Nov 3/85, A27)
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