Space Shuttle Columbia pilot Susan Still and Mission Specialist Don Thomas wave to the media following the shuttle landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida Thursday morning.MICHAEL HOLAHAN/STAFF

Columbia lands after flight `as good as it gets'

Web posted July 18, 1997

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By Amy Joyner
Staff Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - After snapping photographs of the majesty of outer space for 16 days, there was only one picture that really mattered to Lt. Cmdr. Susan Still while she was in space.

It was the photograph of the astronaut's beloved 14-year old cocker spaniel, Bozo, emailed to space by a friend.

The space shuttle Columbia touched down at the Kennedy Space Center at 6: 46 a.m. EDT Thursday morning. Michael Holahan/Staff

``I'm going to pet my dog,'' the Augusta shuttle pilot proclaimed Thursday about 51/2 hours after landing.

The shuttle Columbia glided to a perfect landing at 6:46 a.m. Thursday at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Lt. Cmdr. Still was pilot, photographer and crew medical officer for the 16-day STS-94 microgravity science laboratory mission. She also piloted Columbia in April for STS-83, the mission that was cut short when one of the shuttle's three power-generating fuel cells failed.

As pilot. Lt. Cmdr. Still lowered the shuttle's landing gear and deployed a huge parachute to halt the spacecraft at the end of the 15,000-foot landing strip.

The shuttle, which requires so much power to propel it into space, is powerless at landing because no engines are running.

NASA technicians inspect the front landing gear following touchdown of the space shuttle Columbia at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida Thursday morning. Michael Holahan/Staff

``The shuttle is in fact a glider because ... there are no engines, but it doesn't handle anything like a glider,'' said Lt. Cmdr. Still, who learned to fly small planes as a teen-ager at Augusta's Daniel Field. ``A comparison to any of the older, heavy commercial airplanes would be the best liking I could give it.''

With Columbia resting on the runway, Sue Still, the astronaut's stepmother said, ``It seems like everything was perfect.''

And indeed Columbia, the oldest shuttle that gave the crew such trouble in April, had a near-flawless flight with few technical or problems the second time around.

``It's about as good as it gets,'' shuttle program manager Tommy Holloway said in a briefing shortly after landing Thursday. ``Columbia performed in an exemplary fashion.

NASA technicians attend to the space shuttle Columbia following its landing at the Kennedy Space Center Thursday morning. Michael Holahan/Staff

``I don't think we can expect any more from her.''

Lt. Cmdr. Still, who has flown to space only twice, said this mission was much smoother than her first.

``The first mission, (when) we got up there I didn't have my space legs and we were having problems and we were packing our bags and coming home,'' she said. ``It was like a whirlwind trip for me where the main focus was the problem at hand.''

For STS-94, though, the astronauts quickly established a routine and finished all 33 planned science experiments, even exceeding the expectations of scientists on Earth.

``It was the way it should be,'' Lt. Cmdr. Still said. ``It was very satisfying to me to complete the mission.''

Once in space, Lt. Cmdr. Still spent much of her time cleaning the orbiter and taking photographs for NASA's Earth observation program.

The space shuttle Columbia heads in for a landing on runway 33 at Cape Canaveral as seen through this view through the co-pilot's heads-up display in this image from NASA Television Thursday, July 17, 1997. AP Photo/NASA TV

``I don't think I would ever get tired of looking out the window in space. Every day I saw something that I had never seen before,'' she said. ``We have a beautiful world.''

Lt. Cmdr. Still and several other astronauts even saw their home states from the outer space vantage.

``I got to see Georgia several days in a row. I saw Atlanta, Savannah, Augusta,'' she said.

``Whenever we flew by Louisiana, (mission commander) Jim Halsell had his eyes in the window,'' Lt. Cmdr. Still said. ``Whenver we flew by Georgia, I had my eyes in the window. And (mission specialist Don Thomas) swears he saw Cleveland out the windows.''

The crew, the first in America ever to return to space together, made history with their quick second mission. And their experience may be a preview of NASA's future of quick shuttle turnarounds and crews flying frequently as a team, Mr. Holloway said.

``We would all raise our hands and volunteer to fly together in a heartbeat,'' said mission commander Lt. Col. Halsell.

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