MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-63 Status Report #11


Tuesday, February 7, 1995, 5 p.m. CST

Discovery's fifth day in space has come to a close as the STS-63 crew turns its attention  
from rendezvousing with a Russian space station to scientific investigations, satellites and  
spacewalks.

Today's on-orbit activities were highlighted by the deployment of the Spartan-204  
satellite. Russian Mission Specialist Vladimir Titov released the Spartan 204 satellite and  
its Far Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph instrument from the shuttle's mechanical arm on  
time today at 6:26 a.m. central.

The satellite, which is now moving out ahead of the shuttle, will spend about two days  
flying free of Discovery, studying the gas and dust that fills space between stars and  
planets. Spartan's observations will be recorded aboard the satellite for analysis by  
scientists after Discovery's return to Earth. The satellite will be retrieved by the orbiter's  
robot arm Thursday just prior to a spacewalk by Mission Specialists Bernard Harris and  
Mike Foale.

Also today, crew members continued working with the 20 experiments residing in the  
Spacehab module. The experiments -- which represent a diverse cross-section of  
technological, biological and other scientific disciplines -- include plant studies, crystal  
growth studies and a robotic experiment.

The crew began a nine-hour sleep period at 2:52 p.m. central. The flight control team  
decided to give the astronauts an extra hour of sleep tonight as a reward for their hard  
work over the last several days and to keep them fresh for the work remaining.  
Tomorrow's plans include continued work with the Spacehab experiments, and checks of  
the spacesuits to be used by Harris and Foale for Thursday's extravehicular activity.

Just before the crew turned in, flight controllers faxed several pictures taken from video  
sent by Mir during the rendezvous activities Monday. The pictures showed how Discovery  
looked to the Mir crew while it approached the Russian station.

Discovery is now more than 160 nautical miles from the Mir station and continually   
separating in an orbit with a high point of 214 n.m. and a low point of 207 n.m.

--end--