A French Astronaut in Space

Biographies
Students papers onboard
Photos
www.nasa.gov
www.cnes.fr

Space Shuttle Columbia and its five astronaut crew members lifted off from KSC's Launch Pad 39B at 12:31 a.m. on Friday, July 23. The launch team had no significant technical issues and weather conditions were favorable throughout the countdown.

NASA Shuttle Columbia will launch for its 26th flight on Tuesday, July 20, at 12:36 a.m.(EST). Columbia's mission, STS-93, marks a turning point in the history of NASA. Indeed, for the first time ever a woman will be in command of the space flight. French Astronaut Michel Tognini will also be onboard.

STS-93’s primary mission is the deployment seven hours after liftoff of the new NASA telescope, Chandra X-ray. The 1.5 billion dollars telescope, named after the physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, was created to conduct comprehensive studies of the universe. Its principle objectives are to study X-ray emissions of stars and planets and to resolve images of extended supernova remnants.

French astronaut Michel Tognini will back up crew member Cady Coleman during the deployment of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and would be the lead space walker in the event an unplanned space walk is required. In addition, Tognini will conduct a number of secondary experiments, including the operation of the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System and the shuttle's ham radio, an experiment which allows amateur radio operators to participate in shuttle missions and gives schools direct access to astronauts in space.

Among his personal belongings, Tognini will bring aboard four newspapers entirely designed and written by 10 to 12 years old students from French-speaking schools across the United States. The newspapers are the product of a nation-wide contest entitled, Space Research, What is it For? sponsored by North American Milan Presse, the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. and CNES (the French national space program). The 1998 contest invited students to create newspapers on science and space research.

Tognini has been training as a NASA mission specialist in Houston since 1995. While STS-93 is his first mission aboard the space shuttle, the French astronaut already spent two weeks aboard the space station Mir in 1992

US Air Force Lieutenant-Colonel Eileen Collins at 42 will be the first woman in command of the shuttle. She has been shuttle pilot for two previous flights. Other members of the crew are Pilot Jeffrey D. Ashby who will be experiencing his first space flight, Mission Specialist Steven A. Hawley, flying for the fifth time aboard the shuttle, and Mission Specialist Catherine G.« Cady » Coleman, a US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel flying for the second time aboard the space shuttle.

The shuttle crew will conduct beside the deployment of Chandra X-ray a series of experiments in different fields of study: astronomy; behavior of gel in 0-gravity; trial of a new type of hinge for solar panels fabricated from shape memory alloys; study of cardio vascular systems by Doppler effects during atmoshperic re-entry.

Columbia's planned five-day mission is scheduled to end with a night landing at the Kennedy Space Center at approximately 11:30 p.m. EDT on July 24./.