Astronauts Flex Robot Arm, Gather Data as Mission Ends

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — Columbia’s astronauts flexed a life-size robot arm one last time in space Wednesday and squeezed in as many laboratory experiments as possible before packing for their trip home.

The shuttle was scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center at 6:03 a.m. PDT today, 10 days after blasting off on the German-sponsored Spacelab mission. Low clouds and rain were forecast, which could hamper landing plans.

Wednesday was a bonus day. NASA officials extended the mission from nine to 10 days so the crew could repeat experiments that had been hampered earlier in the flight by equipment problems.

“Everyone in Germany is happy, and we are near the point of celebration,” said Walter Brungs, a German payload official at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The extra day enabled the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s shuttle program to pass the one-year mark in space Wednesday morning, counting the total time in orbit by all orbiters.

This was Columbia’s 14th voyage and the 55th shuttle flight overall.

“We think it’s appropriate that happened on Columbia, the first one to fly back in 1981, and we’re proud to be the crew that was on board when we did exceed that record,” shuttle commander Steven Nagel said.

Germany supplied two of the seven astronauts and two-thirds of the 88 Spacelab experiments, including the Rotex robot arm. All science was monitored from a German control center in Bavaria.

Before Rotex was stowed, German astronaut Hans Schlegel commanded the 2 1/2-foot-long jointed arm via remote control to pull a small aluminum die from its holder and then catch the floating object again and again.