STS-107 MCC Status Report #14<br />Tuesday, January 28, 2003 -- 5 p.m. CST<br />Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas<br /><br />The Red team of astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia accomplished<br />repairs on the third and final combustion experiment of STS-107 this<br />afternoon, and support scientists on the ground were looking forward to<br />working with the Blue team on the first scientific runs.<br /><br />Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla reported a good leak check of the<br />Combustion Module-2 Facility about 4 p.m. after five hours of work. She and<br />Commander Rick Husband sent down video of the recovery procedures for the<br />Water Mist Fire Suppression Experiment (MIST) around 2 p.m. to give<br />engineers on the ground an opportunity to visually inspect the equipment.<br />The combustion facility, which provides control, containment, diagnostics<br />and communications for fire-related experiments, worked flawlessly in<br />support of the two previous combustion experiments, but failed its initial<br />leak checks when MIST was installed Monday.<br /><br />Payload Commander Michael Anderson of the Blue team is scheduled to begin<br />work with the MIST experiment overnight. Designed by the Center for<br />Commercial Applications of Combustion in Space at the Colorado School of<br />Mines, Golden, Colo., the experiment will investigate how water mist<br />inhibits the spread of flames. Scientists hope to apply what they learn to<br />designs for improved, lighter-weight fire suppression systems on Earth, as<br />well as for spacecraft-based systems that won't require ozone-damaging<br />chemicals such as Halons.<br /><br />Husband, Chawla and Red team colleagues Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon enjoyed<br />some time off for the first half of their day, then moved ahead with other<br />experiments in the Spacehab Research Double Module. Clark retrieved samples<br />associated with the Bioreactor Demonstration System, which Project Scientist<br />Tom Goodwin reported today has grown a bone and prostate cancer tumor tissue<br />sample as large as a golf ball, the largest grown in space to date. She also<br />collected blood and urine samples from her crewmates for the Physiology and<br />Biochemistry (PhAB4) suite of experiments. Ramon also conducted observations<br />of dust off the African coast for the Mediterranean Israeli Dust Experiment<br />(MEIDEX).<br /><br />After a 2:39 p.m. CST wake-up to the Beach Boys singing "I Get Around," the<br />Blue team of Anderson, Pilot Willie McCool and Mission Specialist Dave Brown<br />resumed work with the tests of their breathing, hearts and muscle associated<br />with Advanced Respiratory Monitoring System. Anderson was scheduled to check<br />on the condition of the animals on board, which has continued to be good.<br /><br />The next STS-107 status report will be issued Wednesday, or as events<br />warrant.<br /><br /><br />###