Ask Byron Lichtenbergwho flew aboard the first Shuttle/Spacelab mission back in 1983, and ona shuttle trip in 1992. Having off-duty fun during space travel is important."Its part of human nature," Lichtenberg said.

A little creativity allowedLichtenberg and fellow crew mates on his second voyage to take part ina bit of golf.The club was fashioned from an inspection mirror. A golf ball consistedof a rolled up sock, held together by Velcro tape.

"Our golf hole, so to speak,was a roll of duct tape with a U.S. government pen stuck in there, toppedoff by a little flag," Lichtenberg told SPACE.com.

Then theres weightless gymnastics.The Spacelab module took up most of a shuttles cargo bay, similar in sizeto a space station segment. Containing racks and racks of equipment andgear, the module offers considerable open volume, Lichtenberg said.

"I would come down the connectingtunnel and into the Spacelab, thinking ahead of time, I want to do threesomersaults and land with my feet down on the floor in front of rack number7. Within a couple of days you could learn just how much spin, tuck andenergy it took to turn yourself into a rotating ball, fly right down themiddle of Spacelab, and wind up just where you wanted to be," he said.

Over a six-year period, MikeMullane made three shuttle sojourns. "In space, theres all sorts of funthings," he said. "Playing around in space with your food, with fluidslike water and Kool Aid. Its all human nature. On one of the missionswe played peanut M&M baseball. We had a football on another mission.All that falls, definitely, into the fun and humorous category.

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Mind games

Kathryn Thorntonchalked up four shuttle flights before departing NASA. For Thornton, flippingaround her reference point in microgravitymade all the difference in the world.

"Making the ceiling the floorin your mind is hard to do, especially the first time you are up there.But if everybody else starts walking around on the ceiling, all of a sudden,your brain instantly makes that the floor. I remember times when we wouldsit around the overhead in the orbiters flight deck. Our feet were sortof dangling in the overhead windows. We could pretend that we were allin a glass bottom boat, watching the world go by between our toes," Thorntonsaid.

You can never get tired ofplaying in microgravity, said Tom Henricks. He flew four shuttle missions,two of which he commanded.

During a 1996 trek, Henricksand his crew all sat around the hatch opening between the mid deck of theshuttle, down the tunnel into the Spacelab.

"We all got in position aroundthis circular hole. It was just like sitting around a hot tub or a well.We convinced everybody that their rear end was facing down. Then we gentlylet loose a pen that looked like it just dropped down this dark tunnel.It made everyones brain become convinced that gravity was pulling thepen down through the tunnel. Seconds later, Kevin, the pilot, leaned overand went down the hole, making a noise like he was falling down the tunnel.It was very convincing. You were sure he had just fallen down this deep,dark hole," Henricks said.

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Close encounters

There are many humorous momentswhen things dont go as scripted.

On his 1984 shuttle hop,pilot Jon McBride recalls he and fellow space travelers at the ready fora worldwide press conference. They had just finished a conversation withPresident Reagan. Next on the schedule were calls from around the globeasking questions of the astronauts.

"The first call was comingin from Indonesia or Malaysia," McBride said. "We said, Go ahead withyour question. We were ready for this big question, only to get an operatoron the line asking us to please hang up and try our call again becauseweve been disconnected."

Close encounters with theuniverse is something that John Blaha fondly remembers. "I loved puttingthe Walkman on, listening to music that I liked, and getting ready to viewthe universe on what I call a night pass," he said.

On two shuttle flights thatBlaha commanded, he built into the mission special maneuvers for the shuttle-- pointing the ships nose away from the center of Earth, with the tailpointed at its the center. During the night pass, the overhead windowsare aimed to the north, and on the succeeding pass, aimed to the south.

"In those two passes yousee the entire universe, literally, in the space of 45 minutes times two,"Blaha said. "To watch the stars moving like that...listening to your favoritemusic...is absolutely breathtaking."

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Radio play

For Owen Garriott, retiredshuttle astronaut, and one of the elite corps of men that flew on the Skylabspace station in the 1970s, little pranks made a big difference in crewmorale.

"Theres more to that oldtrite phrase: 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,'" Garriott said."Most studies show that some degree of humor and play is essential towardkeeping an organization working smoothly. And we did it because it wasfun."

"We were always thinkingup tricks to play on the ground and vice versa. In Skylab, we did push-upswith two arms, then one arm and then no arms. We also did the barbell,the heavy lifting routine and moving things easily around in space. Eventually,we turned those type of onboard activities into short movies for kids,to demonstrate physical principles," Garriott said.

Garriott also pulled offa classic comedy spoof during his stint on Skylab. In on the lark was groundcontroller, Robert Crippen.

Garriott had brought alonga hand-held tape recorder, including a cassette that featured the voiceof his wife at the time. At a moment preset with Crippen, the Skylab astronautplayed the tape over the radio link.

"So as we came into voicecontact, this female voice came on and said, Hello Houston, this is Skylab.Crippen then asked who was talking. The voice comes back, Hello thereBob, this is Helen. Bob asked what she was doing up there. I wanted tobring up to the boys some fresh food...so we thought this would be a goodtime to get up here and visit for awhile."