Almost 100 hours into their flight, Columbia’s astronauts continue their around-the-clock science efforts while a Russian resupply vehicle is making its way towards the Mir space station.

Red team crew members Commander Jim Halsell, Pilot Susan Still, Mission Specialist Don Thomas and Payload Specialist Greg Linteris have been busy with another day of in-flight activities since being awakened just before midnight.

Like their previous duty day, Halsell has been performing status checks and video documentation of some experiments while Still has been overseeing orbiter systems. Later today Halsell is scheduled to have two communication sessions with school children using the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) system. Thomas’ efforts today have been with the Large Isothermal Furnace facility and the Glovebox unit while Linteris has continued his work with the Droplet Combustion Experiment.

About the same time as the Red team was waking up, a Russian Progress resupply vehicle was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 11:11 p.m. CDT last evening. A few minutes later, flight controllers in the Russian mission control center confirmed the vehicle had achieved orbit insertion. The Progress vehicle is scheduled to dock with the Mir space station on Monday, July 7, at 12:58 a.m. CDT. A Mir status briefing from the Johnson Space Center is scheduled today at 9 a.m. CDT.

The Red team will begin an eight-hour sleep period just after 3 p.m. today and will be awakened just after 11 p.m. central time to once again assume responsibility for orbiter and science operations.

Columbia’s systems continue to operate properly, providing a stable platform for microgravity science operations as the Shuttle circles the Earth every 90 minutes

The next STS-94 status report will be issued about 6 p.m. central time.

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