Columbia's astronauts assisted by 'telescience'

March 5, 1996
Web posted at: 12:35 a.m. EST

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (CNN) -- The astronauts on board the space shuttle Columbia received some long-distance help with their experiments Monday -- thanks to new "telescience" techniques.

The shuttle is now expected to stay in space an extra day, landing Friday,. The crew continued its combustion experiments Monday, studying how fire spreads in near-zero gravity.

University scientists conducted experiments on the space shuttle Columbia from a lab in New York, pioneering the field of "telescience." The scientists and their students from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York grew crystals on the shuttle by remote control.

NASA said it was the first time, to its knowledge, a researcher has conducted an experiment on an orbiting shuttle from his or her university lab.

"Telescience," or the practice of conducting experiments by remote control, would allow future scientists to do prolonged research on the planned international space station from their university labs.

After the shuttle lands, a nine-member team will begin investigating why a tether towing a half-ton satellite severed -- sending the satellite careening into space.

The satellite is expected to fall from its orbit in about 20 days. Prior to that, it will be visible with the naked eye from various points around the earth including:

Auckland, New Zealand, at 1:25 GMT on Wednesday; Johannesburg, South Africa, at 00:32 GMT on Wednesday; Bombay, India, at 11:06 GMT on Thursday; and Tokyo, at 10:03 GMT on Friday

In the United States, the satellite and tether will be visible to the naked eye just before sunrise this week and next in parts of Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

NASA said Monday that hot rocket gas singed O-rings in Columbia's booster rockets during liftoff last month but did not put the space shuttle in any danger.

The problem was discovered during a routine examination of the booster rockets recovered from the Atlantic after takeoff.

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