ASTRONAUT GODWIN VISITS SEMO, TELLS ABOUT SPACE ADVENTURES

Russia's Mir space station smells like it has been in space awhile, astronaut Linda Godwin said Friday.

"It definitely smells differently, not really bad but maybe a little stale," Godwin told an audience of about 80 people at a lecture Friday at Southeast Missouri State University.

Godwin lectured and showed slides of her space shuttle flights for more than an hour in Dempster Hall's Glenn Auditorium.

She grew up in Cape Girardeau County. She graduated from Jackson High School in 1970.

She attended Southeast Missouri State University, graduating in 1974 with a bachelor of science degree in mathematics and physics.

Godwin joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1980. Since then, she has made three space shuttle flights. She has logged more than 633 hours in space, including a six-hour space walk.

Godwin said she hopes to make another space voyage, possibly in a year or two. Her last space trip was in March 1996 when she was part of a NASA crew that docked with the Mir space station.

For now, she keeps busy with administrative duties as deputy chief of NASA's astronaut division at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

"There is a little bit too much paperwork and going to meetings right now," she said of her administrative duties.

NASA currently employs 144 astronauts.

Godwin considers herself lucky to have been in the right place at the right time.

"It is very exciting to lift off. It's a tremendous feeling of power," she said of her shuttle launches.

Eating food can be an adventure in space where everything floats. "Bread is not so good to take because it crumbles," she said.

Food crumbs tend to collect in the shuttle's filters, Godwin said.

She said there is nothing to compare with the views from space.

Space shuttles are equipped with numerous cameras. On one flight, cameras snapped over 14,000 pictures.

Zipping along at five miles a second, it takes about 90 minutes to orbit the Earth.

"We can cross the whole United States in less than 15 minutes," she said.

Godwin said she loves to watch the sunrises and sunsets. On a shuttle flights, astronauts see 16 sunrises and sunsets in a 24-hour period.

She said bed time isn't so noticeable in space.

"I found out I didn't have any good reference of when to go to bed," Godwin said. "You can't wait for the sunset. It keeps going down."

Godwin's longest space flight has been 11 days.

She said astronauts have to adjust to gravity when they return to Earth.

"You just forget how heavy things are. You have to get used to weight again."

The Russians are expected to launch the first module for the international space station later this year. The United States is expected to bring up a second module on a space flight either this year or early next year, Godwin said.

The space station is expected to be manned as early as next year. The entire station won't be completed until 2003.

No more than seven people are expected to live on the space station for any long periods of time.

"People take too many resources," Godwin said.