Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 2, 1993 TAG: 9311020190
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium
After 14 days in orbit, the crew was carried off Columbia on stretchers to preserve the effects of weightlessness for tests that will be conducted on some of them for up to 45 days.
Except for some experiments to measure reactions when they stand up, the crew remained prone much of the time after landing and during a 2 1/2-hour flight to Johnson Space Center in Houston.
"Our best model for simulating weightlessness is putting people to bed," said project scientist Frank Sulzman.
Columbia floated through a clear morning sky over the Mojave Desert before 35,000 spectators cheered its 7:05 a.m. touchdown.
At 14 days, 13 minutes, the mission exceeded by nearly five hours the previous shuttle flight record, set by a crew aboard Columbia last year.
It was the fourth-longest U.S. space flight of any kind.
Columbia logged 5.8 million miles and circled Earth 225 times after its Oct. 18 launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Touchdown meant the end of the line for all but five of 42 rats that survived the flight. A team of 100 scientists waited to quickly dissect them after being unloaded from Columbia. Six other rats were dissected in space.
Tom Utsman, shuttle director, said Columbia sustained some damage to its protective heat tiles and to a shield in the engine area, but the damage wasn't major.
"I don't think it's a show-stopper by any means," he said.
The crew, which included two physicians, a biochemist and a veterinarian, focused on medical research to better understand how the body changes in weightlessness.
by CNB