ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, May 3, 1993                   TAG: 9305030118
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA.                                LENGTH: Short

NASA ADDS DAY TO SPACE SHUTTLE FLIGHT

NASA rewarded the Columbia astronauts' energy-conservation efforts by adding a day to their mission, and a shuttle robot scored a space first Sunday, catching a floating object on command.

The German-sponsored laboratory research mission is now scheduled to end with a Kennedy Space Center landing on Thursday.

German researchers said their 2 1/2-foot-long robot arm pulled an aluminum die not quite an inch in size from its holder and let it float inside the enclosure around the arm. After knocking it away once, grippers on the end of the jointed arm succeeded in clamping onto the die, holding it fast.

- Associated Press 


 by CNB