Shuttle Crew Beams Home Independence Day Greetings

The space shuttle Columbia’s astronauts took time out from their high-flying laboratory work Thursday to wish fellow Americans--both in orbit and on Earth--a happy Independence Day.

“Happy Birthday, America!” the seven crew members shouted in a videotaped message.

“We recognize just how lucky we are to be Americans,” said shuttle commander James Halsell Jr. “Maybe even more so because we’re not in the country right now. We’re orbiting 185 miles above the surface of the Earth.”

Halsell, an Air Force lieutenant colonel, noted that he and his crew aren’t the only Americans away from home this Fourth of July. He cited military and foreign service employees, as well as NASA astronaut Michael Foale, who is aboard Russia’s crippled space station Mir.

“Our hearts are with him,” Halsell said.

As their taped message was beamed to Earth, the shuttle crew members completed activation of their $86-million space laboratory, NASA officials said.

“Things are progressing well, and the team is looking forward to another two weeks of science,” Jeff Bantle, NASA’s mission operations director, told a news conference.

Columbia’s astronauts, working in the bus-sized laboratory, started up the last of their 33 major scientific experiments Wednesday night.

The shuttle’s 16-day mission will investigate fire in space, the manufacture of new alloys and the growth of protein crystals to aid medical research.

Scientists hope the shuttle’s combustion experiments will lead to cleaner and more efficient ways to burn fuel.

The crew also spent part of the day wrestling with a stuck wrench.

The astronauts were trying to mount a miniature greenhouse in an experiment rack when their long-handled wrench got stuck on a bolt. They had to use pliers and a crowbar to free the wrench, although the cap on the bolt came off. It was no big deal, though.

Inside the mini-greenhouse are about 50 spinach, clover, sage and periwinkle plants and pine seedlings. The experiment is intended to benefit future space travelers, who will need to grow their own food on the moon or Mars.

The 16-day mission, which began Tuesday, is a repeat of a flight that was cut short in April because of defective equipment.

The reusable solid rocket boosters that helped Columbia soar into space were returned to Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday. Initial inspections revealed no unusual damage, NASA spokesman Joel Wells said.