MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-63 Status Report #1

Friday, February 3, 1995, 6:30 a.m. CST

The first shuttle mission of the year is well underway as the STS-63 crew
prepares for the first jet firing in a sequence of maneuvers that enable
Discovery to rendezvous with the Russian Space Station Mir on Monday. 

Discovery began its 20th flight at 11:22 p.m. Central, with an on-time
launch from the Kennedy Space Center. The trip to orbit went smoothly, but
shortly after reaching space, a leak was detected in one of the reaction
control system jets. 

Though thruster leaks are a common occurrence, the leaky jet is slightly
more of a concern for STS-63 because of the Mir rendezvous.  Flight rules
for mission dictate that Discovery must have all its aft firing thrusters
operational before it moves within 1,000 feet of Mir.  In past missions,
leaks frequently cleared themselves once the jets were warmed by either
thruster firings or the sun. Subsequently, flight controllers asked
Commander Jim Wetherbee to position the orbiter so that sun would shine on
the top side of the vehicle for several hours to help warm up the leaking
jet. 

Currently, controllers are proceeding with the rendezvous as planned but
will continue to watch the leak. The rendezvous sequence will begin later
this morning when crew members will fire the orbiters steering jets to
adjust its altitude and slowly close in on Mir. Discovery is currently
about 7,000 miles behind the Russian space station. 

Earlier today, crew members completed the activation of the Spacehab
module and began working with the experiments housed inside. Twenty
different experiments ranging from protein crystal growth to a robotics
demonstration comprise the STS-63 Spacehab payload complement. 

Checkouts of the robot arm also went smoothly.  The arm will be used later
in the mission to position and deploy the Spartan-204 payload for its far
ultraviolet measurements of the space phenomena. 

The crew will conclude its first day in orbit at 11:22 a.m. Central.