Columbia Crew Celebrates Holiday in Space

Space shuttle Columbia’s astronauts spent their Independence Day holiday toiling in their flag-draped laboratory and musing about a trip to Mars.

“I’ll sign up for the [Mars] program any day they pass that sign-up sheet around,” shuttle commander James Halsell Jr. said Friday as NASA’s Pathfinder spacecraft was about to land on the Red Planet.

“You bet,” added astronaut Janice Voss.

Mission Control kept the seven-member crew abreast of Pathfinder news.

To mark the holiday, Mission Control radioed up a recording of Kate Smith singing “God Bless America.”

“We figured if you’ve got to work on the Fourth of July, this is absolutely the best thing to be involved with,” Mission Control told the crew.

On their fourth day in space, the astronauts worked through computer problems with one of the combustion experiments and set more small fires so researchers could observe the behavior of flames in weightlessness. They also conducted more metal experiments.

Later in the day, the shuttle developed strange readings from one of its three electricity-generating fuel cells, but Mission Control said they were probably caused by a bad transistor in the monitoring system.

NASA’s first attempt to fly the current science mission was cut short in April after only five days because of a faulty fuel cell. Mission Control assured the crew that there would not be a repeat of that incident.

“We’re 100% positive that it’s just a [monitoring] problem,” spacecraft communicator Bill McArthur told Halsell.

Flight controllers told the crew that they might get a chance to chat with fellow NASA astronaut Mike Foale aboard the troubled Mir space station.

A linkup by amateur radio--both Columbia and Mir are carrying radio ham-style devices--should be possible when the two craft pass within 70 miles of each other shortly before 6 a.m. today.

Columbia blasted off from Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday. The crew of seven is working on a $86-million research program in a laboratory mounted in the shuttle’s cargo bay.

The 16-day mission is due to end July 17.