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Aalice.161 net.columbia utzoo!decvax!duke!chico!harpo!research!alice!sjb Sat Nov 14 09:43:41 1981 update and landing timetable The biggest loss from the shortened flight of the shuttle, says NASA, is that there was not enough time to collect information on the ship's durability. They are trying to get data on the thermal reaction of the ship to the environment in outer space. And officials are now talking of cutting the seven day mission in March to five days to gradually lengthen flight time. One Johnson Space Flight Center officials said though that neither that nor the mission in June would be significantly changed.

President Reagan meanwhile paid a visit to Houston and talked to the astronauts: ``This whole nation...has got its eyes and heart on you. I'm sure you know how proud everyone down here is.''

--------------------------- For those of you who want to follow the landing closely, here is a schedule of events that will happen if it lands on time, at 1622 EST:

1510 -- Shuttle turns to a tail-first position 1525 -- The two OMS engines fire for 2 minutes, 29 seconds and the Columbia begins its descent from 157 miles high 1550 -- Columbia enters the atmosphere on orbit 37 at 400,000 feet, north of Hawaii, and is protected from the friction by its tiles. 1552 -- Building ionization starts a 17 minute communications blackout. 1622 -- The ship lands and rolls to a stop 2 minutes later. Crews make sure there are no fumes or leaks around. 1652 (approx.) -- Engle and Truly leave the shuttle.

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