A Swimmer in Space

By Seth P. Bretscher

SUMTER, S.C., Dec. 7. Heads-up (and I mean “waaay up”). Astronaut Joe Tanner, who competed at the U.S. Masters Swimming championships last summer along with his identical twin brother, Dave, is up at the International Space Station right now working on the solar panels.

Both Dave and Joe swam in the 2000 Long Course USMS national championships, representing DOC, the Masters team formed in tribute to Doc Counsilman and composed primarily of former Indiana University swimmers.

Dave won both the 100 and 200m butterfly (setting the 50-54 world record in the 200 at 2:26.11), while Joe finished third in the 50 fly and fifth in the 100 fly. Dave trains and coaches a high school swim
team in Bloomington Indiana. Joe on the other hand, prefers “high altitude” training. Hey Joe, can you do flip turns up there??

Far-Out Housekeeping on the Space Station
We focus on the daring accomplishments of our astronauts on the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle. But in space as at home, somebody still has to cook dinner and take out the trash. Learn about the day-to-day routine of life in orbit at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast29nov_1.htm from two veteran astronauts who helped build the space station.

Meanwhile, the five Endeavour astronauts currently visiting the space station are preparing for the third
space walk of the mission, scheduled to begin Thursday at 11:51 a.m. EST.

Follow the space walk live on NASA TV http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/breaking.html or NASA TV on the
Web. http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/ntvweb.html

In addition to installing a probe on the
International Space Station to measure the electrical potential of plasma, space walkers Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega will adjust tension on the solar
blankets of the starboard solar array that was deployed Sunday night.

(Full Story http://spaceflight.nasa.gov)
(12/6/00)

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