Safely in orbit aboard space shuttle Columbia, seven astronauts and their highflying menagerie begin scientific tests Saturday billed as a preview of the work that could be performed on a permanent space station.
“We’re touching virtually all the types of investigations that can be done in a space laboratory,” said mission manager Lanny Upton.
Columbia blasted into space on schedule at 12:43 p.m. EDT Friday. About eight minutes later, it was in orbit 185 miles above Earth.
The shuttle is carrying a bus-sized, $1 billion Spacelab module that contains 82 science experiments from 13 countries.
The crew, including Japan’s first female astronaut, Dr. Chiaki Mukai, will investigate how the absence of gravity affects their own bodies, the growth of plants and aquatic animals and the production of high-tech materials.
