Shuttle Crew Conducts Tour for TV, Pursues Medical Studies

The Columbia astronauts took Earth-bound viewers on a tour of their medical research lab Wednesday. They also worked to fix a balky freezer and began a final push to wrap up pioneering medical research on weightlessness before landing Friday.

On board are the commander, Bryan O’Connor, 44, co-pilot Sidney Gutierrez, 39, Tamara Jernigan, 32, James Bagian, 39, Margaret Rhea Seddon, 43, Millie Hughes-Fulford, 45, and cardiologist Andrew (Drew) Gaffney, 45.

Throughout the flight, the astronauts have had minor problems with two of three refrigerator-freezers used to chill blood, saliva and urine samples being stored for post-landing analyses. One unit was shut off earlier because of foul odors from a sealant material, and a second freezer began warming up Wednesday.

Mission manager Dan Womack said that only one refrigerator-freezer is needed to preserve the samples and, if worse comes to worse, the unit that was shut down earlier could be reactivated.

With a full day of data collection planned for Thursday, program scientist Ron White described the success of the 41st shuttle flight as “absolutely remarkable.”

Well rested after a light day in orbit Tuesday, the astronauts Wednesday took time out to beam down for television a recorded tour of Columbia.

Live TV later showed the shuttle researchers at work inside the 23-foot-long laboratory, making a final push to finish their research projects.

The shuttle is to land about 8:40 a.m. Friday at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

Physicians Bagian and Seddon, along with Dr. Gaffney and Hughes-Fulford, a biochemist, are to remain at Edwards for a full week, duplicating the experiments they carried out in orbit.