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January 18, 1996
Web posted at: 11:13 a.m. EST
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Houston (CNN) -- The six astronauts aboard the shuttle Endeavour are enjoying some well-deserved time off on Thursday as their mission winds down toward Saturday's scheduled landing.
After five busy days that included retrieving a Japanese satellite, deploying and recapturing a NASA satellite, and conducting two spacewalks, the crew was allowed four hours of free time. To put them in the mood, astronauts were awakened by mission control in Houston with the Sheryl Crow song "All I Wanna Do (Is Have Some Fun)." (459K AIFF sound or 459K WAV sound)
Japanese crew member Koichi Wakata and mission specialist Daniel Barry spent the morning playing a Japanese game.
Three of the astronauts also talked with students from Johannesburg, South Africa. Mission specialist Winston Scott told them he "never once felt uncomfortable" during a 35-minute float in the frigid shadow of Endeavour. The experiment tested the new warming devices installed in his spacesuit.
The down time provided plenty of time for gazing out of the orbiter's windows at the magnificent views of earth.
All that's left for the astronauts to do is to complete several experiments, including monitoring 66 rats from the National Institutes of Health.
Endeavour is scheduled to land at 2:42 EST (0742 GMT) on Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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