PARENTS: GODWIN BUSY WITH GROUND DUTIES

OAK RIDGE -- Astronaut Linda Godwin has her feet planted firmly on the ground following the Atlantis shuttle mission that took her into orbit, said her parents Maxine and James Morrell Godwin of Oak Ridge.

The Godwins returned home Tuesday evening after watching their daughter blast into space April 5 and then safely return to Earth six days later.

"We had a grand time," said Maxine Godwin. "But the most important thing is that everything went off okay. For us, it was all very exciting."

After the launch, the Godwins traveled to Houston, Texas, where their daughter lives.

About seven hours after the shuttle landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California, the crew arrived back in Houston.

"We stayed with her until Monday," said James Godwin. "She's awful busy right now. She was almost too busy for us. She had to go in to the space center every day, even Sunday.

"We hope she will be able to come home fairly soon. But she doesn't know what her schedule is," he said. "They usually expect them to go on several PR tours after the flight. But she doesn't know what the schedule is."

Godwin said the astronauts spent a lot of time this week preparing materials for a Friday press conference. Each astronaut also had a physical examination. They are also in the process of debriefing.

"I'm not saying we didn't see her, but she didn't have a lot of time to talk," he said.

"I think she really enjoyed the flight. I think what she really liked was the view looking out and seeing the Earth below. Some of the other astronauts said the same thing."

The Godwins had an opportunity to view some of the thousands of photographs taken during the mission.

"It was just amazing the detail in some of those pictures," he said. "While we were there looking, a couple of fellows who work with NASA, whose field is geography, were there also. They could tell us what the photographs were, like a certain spot in Africa."

While Linda Godwin was orbiting, her parents watched much of the mission on cable television. "We were able to follow it pretty closely," he said.

"But we went to mission control at Johnson Space Center the morning they came in," he said. "I wouldn't say we saw it any better than we could have on television. But we got to watch the landing at the space center."

"I was relieved when they did set down on Edwards, naturally," he said. "The flight was over and they were back safely."

Godwin said he wasn't worried when the landing was delayed one day.

"What I thought about was what would happen if the weather continued to be bad. How many days could they go?" he said.

"There would be a limit. They would run out of what NASA calls `consumables' stuff the astronauts need and the shuttle itself needs."

But he said officials at the space center didn't seem worried, so he didn't worry.

Godwin said his daughter mentioned sleeping as one of her biggest adjustments back on Earth.

"I think that sleeping in space takes some time get adjusted to," he said. "Certain positions are more comfortable. She said she slept on the ceiling. It doesn't make any difference the ceiling, the floor, the wall. You still have to fasten yourself down."

The Godwins led a contingent of Linda Godwin's friends and family who witnessed the launch at Cape Canaveral.

"When we were in Florida," Mrs. Godwin said, "NASA had a barbecue for the crew and their families. We got to go and so did our other daughter, Judy. We had to take a physical before we could go. It was just a precaution.

"We had a wonderful time. We got to meet the other astronauts we knew some of them already their parents and wives."

She said the night before the launch, NASA officials took family members on a tour near the shuttle launch pad. "That was the closest we got to the shuttle. It was so pretty. Lit up like it was, it looked like a big castle. It's much larger than it looks."

James Godwin said many people from this area were in Florida for the launch. "Really there were more people from this area than I ever thought there would be," he said.

Judy Godwin Green, Linda Godwin's twin sister, was also on hand for the launch.

"The trip was very enjoyable," she said. "Of course, the launch was the highlight, and I did get to see Linda at a barbecue.

"At a reception the night before the launch, I got to see a lot of relatives I don't see very often and a lot of friends from high school. I even saw my high school chemistry teacher. That was nice."

Since the shuttle flight landed, Green has talked with her sister "a couple times," she said. "She's been pretty busy."

Green works part time as a chemist in Bartlesville, Okla., and has three children, Laura, 8, Patrick, 6 and Kristin, 2.

"My oldest one is the one who has been really excited," Green said. "She's been taking things to school and talking about it."

Green said that as a child she fleetingly considered becoming an astronaut, too, but never pursued it.

"It's something Linda really wanted," she said. "NASA was one of the first places she applied after graduate school."