STS-65

STS-65 was Columbia's July 1994 Spacelab mission carrying the second International Microgravity Laboratory, known as IML-2. Robert Cabana commanded the flight, with James Halsell as pilot, Richard Hieb as payload commander, Carl Walz, Leroy Chiao, and Donald Thomas as mission specialists, and Chiaki Mukai representing Japan's NASDA as payload specialist. The crew launched from Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A on July 8, 1994, and landed back at Kennedy on July 23 after 14 days, 17 hours, and 55 minutes in orbit. The mission was built around continuous laboratory operations inside the pressurized Spacelab module. Working in shifts, the crew supported more than 80 investigations for an international science team of more than 200 researchers from six space agencies. The payload emphasized life sciences, human physiology, radiation biology, materials processing, protein crystal growth, fluid physics, and microgravity environment measurements, with researchers on the ground increasingly monitoring and commanding experiments in near real time. STS-65 also carried several smaller payloads and operational demonstrations, including acceleration research, protein-crystal work, ship-track observations, amateur-radio contacts, and optical observations from Maui. Mukai became the first Japanese woman to fly in space, and NASA notes that her flight set a then-record for the longest mission by a woman astronaut. The mission extended Columbia's role as a long-duration Shuttle research platform and became one of the major Spacelab science flights before the International Space Station era.