Columbia Astronauts Leisurely Day

Columbia Houston for taco. We have the data on the starts you're go for the align on the Alaricin Protein. Columbia Houston looks like we have a good align. You have a go to maneuver back to the 40 degree bias attitude. Roger, we're on the way to that. Board Columbia, the astronauts are in the midst of a leisurely day following the decision earlier this afternoon by mission managers to terminate further troubleshooting activities on the Air Lock hatch for Columbia, thus resulting in a cancellation of the two spacewalks planned for Tammy, Jernigan, and Tom Jones during the course of the mission. Down to the Kennedy Space Center, a pair of astronauts are currently examining flight hardware on the orbiters at the Cape that are undergoing processing for upcoming missions. Veteran astronaut Don McMonigle, who is currently the manager of the EVA or Spacewalk Project Office here at the Johnson Space Center. And astronaut Greg Harbaugh, who is one of the four astronauts who will conduct spacewalks during the upcoming Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission in February, were dispatched this afternoon by the mission management team to the Cape to take a look at the air lock hatches of Atlantis and Discovery. In Devere, of course currently undergoing major modifications at Palmdale, California, for its return to flight on the first international space station assembly mission a year from now. McMonigle and Harbaugh are not expected to uncover any revelation in their examination of those air lock hatches, which would alter the decision made by the mission managers earlier today to cancel the spacewalks. But they are engaged in a data collection effort to take a look at the gear boxes on the hatches themselves to which the hatch handles are attached. The gear boxes are actually the gear box on Columbia is considered to be a possible suspect in preventing that hatch handle from rotating to the full unlocked position, which canceled the spacewalk by journeying in Jones on Thursday night. And ultimately resulted in a decision by the mission managers to scrub the spacewalks for the rest of the mission. So with the spacewalk activity and further troubleshooting activity terminated by the mission management team, the astronauts are enjoying a bit of relaxation time aboard the orbiter. They are taking a number of pictures for Earth observation purposes, also conducting a few experiments down in the middeck area with a secondary experiment being carried aboard Columbia. Each of the five crew members will engage in an hour-long exercise period throughout the course of the...