Super Bowl XXXVII

Astronauts make Super Bowl picks

CAPE CANAVERAL -- Space shuttle Columbia's astronauts hunted for plumes of dust over the Mediterranean on Saturday and tried to further reduce the warm temperatures in their orbiting laboratory. They also began taking sides for today's Super Bowl.

Shuttle pilot William McCool, who was born in San Diego, said he was rooting for the Oakland Raiders because he watched them play while growing up. Crewmate David Brown favored the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"Having been launched out of Florida, there are a heck of a lot of people who worked really hard from that state to get us up here and so I'm going to go for Tampa," Brown said with a smile.

Columbia's lab began heating up almost a week ago, after the breakdown of a pair of dehumidifiers. On Saturday, Mission Control asked whether the astronauts would mind if their sleeping bunks got a little warmer in order to get more cool air flowing into the lab. Commander Rick Husband said that would be fine.

As for Columbia's research work, Husband reported seeing "a hazy tinge to the atmosphere" -- hopefully, dust. The astronauts aimed a pair of Israeli cameras at the area. Scientists at Tel Aviv University have been trying, ever since Columbia's Jan. 16 launch, to monitor plumes of desert dust drifting over the Mediterranean. But there have been no dust storms, only plumes of pollution and lots of obscuring clouds.