BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The space shuttle Discovery crew completed another flawless day in orbit Tuesday with the successful recapture of the Spartan-201 satellite.
The Spartan, one of the flight's key science missions, will keep astronomers busy for months analyzing 43 1/2 hours of solar observations including about 900 images of the solar corona.
Meanwhile, space hero John Glenn continued his duties as a human guinea pig and experiment tender. Among his tasks, Mr. Glenn has spent time working with a little-known part of the mission, its commercial payloads.
Private pharmaceutical, industrial and agricultural companies provided about $1.5 million in cash, equipment and services for experiments. Since the shuttle program began in 1981, the orbiters have carried more than 120 commercial payloads.
While satellite communications already can be counted as a space-based industry, the "Holy Grail" of NASA's commercial program is to find a medicine or material that requires testing or production in space, said Steve Lambing, project manager for the commercial space program.
So far, no "space drugs" developed or tested on the shuttle have reached market, Mr. Lambing said. But they are getting closer. Two months ago, Johnson & Johnson acquired the final human testing and marketing rights to an influenza treatment developed by a NASA spinoff company called BioCryst. Other drugs in earlier testing stages eventually could improve care for cancer, diabetes, heart disease and many other conditions.
The commercial projects aboard Discovery are precursors to much larger, longer-term product development studies to be conducted aboard the new International Space Station, to be built by 2004. If the shuttle or space station work reveals a promising product, companies will first try to produce it on Earth. If they cannot, orbiting space factories may be the wave of the future, Mr. Lambing said.
Some commercial projects
These are among the commercial projects carried on Discovery: Commercial ITA Biomedical Experiment: This project will test privately made modules equipped with several devices to culture and process about 800 biomedical and protein crystal growth samples. Advanced Separation Payload: This project involves three commercial experiments, including one to test a genetically engineered hemoglobin to replace blood transfusions.
Commercial BioDyn Payload: This project will test four medical products, including growing bone implants and heart tissue patches in space and a geneticallyvengineered protein that may lead to an anti-rejection drug for transplant patients.
Commercial Generic Bioprocessing: This project involves eight experiments including protein crystal growth studies, growing a new antibiotic, water purification, fruit production and a fish-egg growth study
