KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- With sunrise just minutes away, the orbiter Columbia swoops down on KSC’s Shuttle Landing Facility, Runway 33. The 33rd KSC landing in Shuttle program history is set to occur on the first opportunity Dec. 7 at 6:49 a.m. EST. Prior landing attempts Dec. 5 and 6 were scrubbed due to weather conditions. The extended time aloft allowed the five- member crew of Mission STS-80 to set a new record for long-duration Shuttle flight. At main gear touchdown, mission duration will be about 17 days, 16 hours, surpassing the 16-day, 21-hour set by the STS-78 crew earlier this year. Guiding Columbia onto the runway is STS-80 Commander Kenneth D. Cockrell; the pilot is Kent V. Rominger. The three mission specialists are Tamara E. Jernigan, Thomas D. Jones and Story Musgrave KSC-96pc1332
Summary
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- With sunrise just minutes away, the orbiter Columbia swoops down on KSC’s Shuttle Landing Facility, Runway 33. The 33rd KSC landing in Shuttle program history is set to occur on the first opportunity Dec. 7 at 6:49 a.m. EST. Prior landing attempts Dec. 5 and 6 were scrubbed due to weather conditions. The extended time aloft allowed the five- member crew of Mission STS-80 to set a new record for long-duration Shuttle flight. At main gear touchdown, mission duration will be about 17 days, 16 hours, surpassing the 16-day, 21-hour set by the STS-78 crew earlier this year. Guiding Columbia onto the runway is STS-80 Commander Kenneth D. Cockrell; the pilot is Kent V. Rominger. The three mission specialists are Tamara E. Jernigan, Thomas D. Jones and Story Musgrave
The Space Shuttle program was the United States government's manned launch vehicle program from 1981 to 2011, administered by NASA and officially beginning in 1972. The Space Shuttle system—composed of an orbiter launched with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank— carried up to eight astronauts and up to 50,000 lb (23,000 kg) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and lands as a glider. Although the concept had been explored since the late 1960s, the program formally commenced in 1972 and was the focus of NASA's manned operations after the final Apollo and Skylab flights in the mid-1970s. It started with the launch of the first shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981, on STS-1. and finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011.
- STS-80 - NASA
- STS-80 Fact Sheet - Spaceline Org
- Space Shuttle Almanac on X: "Dec. 7, 1996 - X.com
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