GLENN HAVING A BLAST BACK IN OUTER SPACE.

Byline: Pauline Arrillaga Associated Press 

He hasn't performed somersaults - at least not for the public - but John Glenn has a child's enthusiasm and wide-eyed awe on his return trip to space.

From moving around to dining, just about everything is new for the man who last experienced weightlessness 36 years ago as the first American to orbit the Earth. He was even amused Friday by a speck of oatmeal that splashed onto his glasses at breakfast.

``You have a lot of problems, like eating food. If it gets away from you it gets on everybody,'' the 77-year-old said. ``I guess with old folks you normally think it goes down on an old man's necktie. But on this one it wound up on my glasses, and so you have to think of things like that.''

Despite his orbital eating troubles, Glenn reported no physical problems except a bloated face that is typical in spaceflight because of the upward shift of body fluids.

``There's been a track record in the past of a high percentage of the people getting sick sometime within the first day or two, but fortunately the crew has felt fine up here this time,'' he said. ``We've been doing real well.''

Glenn's adjustment to microgravity continued Saturday aboard the shuttle Discovery - a day packed with more science experiments and an educational event with students in his hometown of New Concord, Ohio.

On Friday, Glenn set up equipment for the geriatric studies he is participating in as the oldest man ever in orbit and watched his crew mates deploy a small experimental communication satellite for the Navy. His work as a test subject also got under way.

As part of a sleep study, Glenn swallowed a capsule that measures his internal body temperature and sends the data to a miniature recording device attached to his waist. The senator-turned-human transmitter estimated the capsule was ``about the size of the biggest vitamin pill you ever saw.''

Tests planned for Saturday may prove to be more unpleasant. Glenn was set to be stuck with needles for two blood draws, injected with amino acids and provide urine samples.

``I know there's been a lot of personal attention on this flight,'' he said. ``But the only reason we do these flights is for the science.''

Still, it's not all work on the nine-day mission. Glenn sneaks a peak out the shuttle windows as often as possible.

``The view is just something that is just so hard to describe,'' he said. ``It's moving. It's emotional when you can look out and see the curvature of the Earth like that and see the towns.''

Glenn admired the heartwarming glow of Perth, Australia - bigger and even more beautiful from orbit than he remembered - as the city repeated a 36-year-old tradition Friday and turned on all of its lights for the space pioneer.

``It's been a long time ago I looked at the same thing from a little lower altitude,'' the 77-year-old astronaut said as space shuttle Discovery soared 350 miles above the continent. ``But it looks beautiful up here, and you can pass that along to the people of Perth.''

Mission Control replied: ``Glad you're having a chance to take advantage of that sight again after all these years.''

Glenn promised to send pictures taken by the shuttle crew to Perth.

Australian officials knew Discovery's orbital course might not allow the astronauts to see Perth, but asked residents to turn on their lights anyway, just in case. Townspeople gathered in the streets for a glimpse of the shuttle; they didn't see it, but that didn't dampen the jubilant mood.

``It's been incredible,'' said Perth Mayor Peter Natrass. ``It's captured the imagination of everyone in Perth.''

An astronomer at the Perth observatory, Peter Birch, said it's not only nostalgia, it's ``the romance of having a senior citizen up there mixing it with the young fellers.''

``Going back 36 years when it was all done then, it put us on the map,'' Birch added.

The last time Glenn rocketed away, he was strapped inside a can that wasn't much bigger than he was. His capsule had eight buttons, 19 indicator lights and 56 switches.

Discovery is 65 times bigger in volume and has 219 buttons, 559 indicator lights and 2,325 switches, plus a toilet, galley, laboratory and individual cubbyholes for sleeping.

As for Discovery's missing drag-chute door, NASA found the shattered pieces on a launch pad ramp. Mission operations director Jeff Bantle said no one knows whether the chute is still inside the exposed cavity, but stressed that even if it's not there, it poses ``no significant risk'' for Discovery's return to Earth this Saturday.

Space shuttles were not equipped with drag chutes to slow and steady their touchdowns until 1992, 11 years into the program.

How serious was the flying door at liftoff?

``Let's put it this way - it will not be acceptable to have pieces of gear falling off this vehicle in the future,'' Bantle said.