The National Aeronautics and Space Administration had predicted the mission would need to be shortened by "a few hours" because the broken motor would oblige the Endeavor to use up more fuel than had been planned.

But NASA officials said Wednesday it appeared there would be enough fuel for the mission to run its full, scheduled length: nine days and nine hours.

The six astronauts aboard the shuttle have been using its radar equipment to create a detailed, three-dimensional map of the Earth's surface.

Already, 67.2 percent of the mapping that was planned has been accomplished, the officials said, noting that the land covered so far corresponded in size to an area as large as the Americas, Africa and Australia combined.

Propellant conservation measures have paid off and Endeavour�s crew was notified this morning that the mapping operations will continue for the full nine days as planned prior to launch. "That�s great news," replied Pilot Dom Gorie. "They�re getting some fantastic data on this mission."

As of noon today, 81 percent, or more than 39 million square miles of the target area had been mapped once. That exceeds the land area of the Americas, Africa and Australia combined.

More than 47 percent of the target area � over 22 million square miles � has been mapped with two or more passes. Endeavour images 40,000 square miles of land every minute.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield in Mission Control transmitted the good news to the crew aboard Endeavour while all six astronauts were awake conducting a shift change. The crew is working around the clock on two shifts conducting the detailed mapping operations.

Several fuel-saving steps have been implemented, including a change in the way excess water is dumped overboard, and allowing more flexibility in holding Endeavour and the 200-foot mast in the proper attitude.

The final conservation measure will be the deletion of the eighth trim burn, which controllers believe can safely be deleted by adjusting the sixth and seventh burns without a disruption to data collection.

Exuberant scientists today released new radar images of the San Andreas Fault in California, the Los Angeles basin, Southern California�s San Gabriel Mountains, and the island of Hokkaido, Japan, birthplace of Mission Specialist Mamoru Mohri.

"We�re well on the way to making the best topographic map of the world ever," said Dr. Diane Evans, chief scientist in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory�s Earth Science Office.

"We are ecstatic about this data set." She said the level of detail in maps resulting from this Shuttle Radar Topography Mission should help scientists better understand earthquakes and mudflows.

Science operations continued through the seventh day of the mission, with trouble-shooting a problem with one of six high data-rate recorders on board being the only issue of significance. The recorders are used to capture the masses of data collected during the SRTM mission on 270 tapes.

Earlier today, Mohri spoke about the mission with Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and the Minister of State for Science and Technology. Later, he joined Dom Gorie and Janice Voss for interviews with The Weather Channel and two television stations. Janet Kavandi briefly joined them to send greetings to her hometown of Springfield, MO.

Meanwhile, EarthKam continues its record-breaking production of images, having processed 1,355 images. The project allows school students to remotely take pictures of the Earth using a camera mounted in one of Endeavour�s windows.

The orbiter continues to perform smoothly and provide a solid platform for the most accurate and unified topographical mapping of the Earth ever produced. The next status report will be issued at 6 a.m. Friday, or as mission events warrant.
AFP Paris correspondents contributed to this report

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Satellite Launch To Boost DTH In India
Calcutta, India (SPX) Dec 28, 2005
The successful launch Thursday of India's heaviest satellite from spaceport of Kourou in French Guyana may have boosted the country's space research efforts to yet another level, but it has also lifted the spirits of at least three Direct-To-Home televisions broadcasters, one of which has been waiting for years to launch its services in India.