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STS-77 Space Shuttle Status Report
May 18, 1996    9 a.m. EDT

George H. Diller
Kennedy Space Center


     The countdown for the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-77
continues on schedule this morning.  Activities to stow the time-critical 
experiment samples into the Spacehab module went well overnight and work to 
stow the mid-deck experiments is beginning.  Activation of the orbiter's 
communications systems is now underway.  The retraction of the gantry-like 
rotating service structure which provides the Space Shuttle's primary access 
and weather protection remains scheduled to occur at 12 noon.

     Other activities scheduled for today include filling the pad's sound 
suppression system water tank, activation and calibration of the orbiter's 
inertial measurement units on the flight deck,  setting the switches in the 
cockpit for launch, activating the orbiter's fuel cells and stowing the 
astronauts' personal effects onboard.

     Fueling of the Space Shuttle's  with liquid hydrogen and 
liquid oxygen is scheduled to begin at 9:40 p.m.  The fueling activities 
take about three hours to complete.  The astronauts will be awakened in the 
crew quarters at 1:30 a.m., have breakfast at 2 a.m. and after a weather 
briefing and donning of their launch and entry suits depart for Pad 39-B at 
3:10 a.m.

     There remains only a 10 percent chance of not meeting the launch 
weather criteria due to the slight chance of some isolated morning showers 
over the Atlantic Ocean moving onshore.