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7 understanding these payloads' requirements in more depth than the current PIP process affords needs to be developed so that integrated mission planning can be successfully carried out. Access. As on previous flights, the CFES was located in the middeck volume normally occupied by the galley, with control module and support lockers in the MF14 group. Unlike previous flights, the CFES was attended almost continuously by the PS for up to 12 hours every day. Daily routine and off-nominal maintenance procedures required frequent access to the CFES side panel with was immediately forward of the WCS and, in fact, served to anchor the privacy curtain. The PS's normal workstation between the CFES and its support lockers blocked crew access to the water dispenser, hygiene hose, and food lockers. Constant traffic in these areas due to a crew size of six meant constant interruption of, or at least interference with, PS operations. It is recommended that future middeck payloads which require frequent attention over an extended period of time during a mission be located, when feasible, out of the high traffic areas. Precision operations. Biological assays were scheduled preflight for twice a day. These procedures involved very meticulous operations with small volume syringes, fluid reservoirs, individually pocketed sample trays, etc. Only two assays total were performed during the entire flight for a variety of reasons. It was observed that preflight estimation of the duration of these activities was considerably low compared with actual performance time, even with a pad included. Doubling the time required in one-g to perform a delicate task in zero-g was the conclusion of this crew. Air-to-ground communication considerations. Preflight arrangements had been made to accommodate routine daily status reporting by having the PS record via intercom onto one of the operations recorders every evening, which could then be dumped and reviewed at leisure by the ground during the planning shift. This process worked well and freed air-to-ground time from being monopolized for a routine data dump, especially when TDRSS support ended. Further preflight coordination per PIP requirements made air-to-ground 2 available, if necessary, for direct communication between the PS and the CFES payload support team, similar to Spacelab 1 operations. This loop was activated only once during the flight at ground request, although the preflight agreement assumed that the request would normally come from on-board with the concurrence of the CDR. In this instance, the call was certainly warranted. If this process is used for other payloads on future missions, it is recommended that the loop be used with discrimination only in contingency situations, as on this mission, and not for routine operations. Deorbit prep. There was considerable discussion preflight about postponing deactivation of the CFES until entry morning in the event of a priority mission. Although such a situation did not arise on 41-D, early problems with stabilizing the CFES led to its operation later in the mission than expected. It was mutually agreed on-board that, in spite of less than 100 percent processing, the prudent action was to close out the CFES at the end of the day before entry rather than having to deal with an extra activity during deorbit prep. It is recommended that this philosophy be actively promoted on future missions.
