Shuttle crew happy to stay aloft

Press, 5 September 1983, Page 10

Shuttle crew happy to stay aloft

NZPA-Reuter Miami

The Challenger astronauts, in a live news conference from 222 km above the Earth, yesterday called their space shuttle mission a success but said that it should be extended because it was so much fun. In the first news conference from space during the shuttle programme the five crewmen appeared on television as they answered questions from American television and news agency reporters. Similar news conferences were held daring the Apollo and Skylab missions.

Asked whether they would prefer to come home as scheduled tomorrow or stay in space, all five “voted” to stay. But a mission specialist, Lieutenant-Commander Dale Gardner, 34, qualified that by adding, “as long as the food holds out.”

During the half-hour news conference the astronauts looked relaxed and healthy, and talked enthusiastically about the Challenger’s

night-time blast-off on Tuesday. The pilot, Commander Daniel Brandenstein, aged 40, said that the launch was “mighty exciting," and added: “I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited as I was on that ascent. It was a thrilling ride.” The mission commander, Captain Richard Truly, aged 45, said that the flight, third for the Challenger and eighth in the shuttle programme, had so far been extremely successful, starting with the “fireworks of the night launch.”

The astronauts have successfully deployed an Indian communications and weather satellite and tested the orbiter’s mechanical arm.

Testing of the new satellite link, considered vital to the shuttle programme and the European Spacelab project scheduled for October, is continuing. The satellite is functioning well now but there have been periodic ground equipment problems during the flight. Captain Truly, who was

pilot on the second shuttle flight in November, 1981, which had to be cut from five days to two days, said: “If you remember those days we were worried about the safety of the vehicle ... We really have made great strides I think, and I think it’s a great future for America in space.” Anotifer mission specialist, w Lieutenant-Colonel

Guion Bluford, the first black American to fly in space, said: “The flight is just going to be one of many flights in which black Americans fly in space.” Colonel Bluford, aged 40, also said that “flying in space is fun, working in zero gravity is a piece of cake, and the view isJwectacular.”

The third mission specialist, Dr William Thornton, at 54 the oldest American to fly in space, was asked about space adaption syndrome, a type of motion sickness that afflicts about half the shuttle travellers.

Dr Thornton, a physician, is studying the ailment but the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has a policy not to reveal which astronauts suffer its symptoms. “I would say that I learned more in the first hour and a half on orbit here than I had by all of the literature and research that I had done and all the active work in the past year.” Asked about the six rats put on board to assess how animals react to shuttle flight, he said: “Let’s just say the first day they were obviously having a new experience, like the rest of us. Now they’ve settled in quite nicely.”

The shuttle is due to make its first night landing tomorrow at Edwards Air Force Base, California. .