STS-78

STS-78 was Columbia's June-July 1996 Life and Microgravity Spacelab mission, a long-duration Shuttle laboratory flight built around human life sciences and microgravity research. Terrence Henricks commanded the mission, Kevin Kregel served as pilot, Susan Helms flew as payload commander and flight engineer, Richard Linnehan and Charles Brady served as mission specialists, and Jean-Jacques Favier of CNES and Robert Thirsk of CSA flew as payload specialists. Columbia launched from Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39B on June 20, 1996, and landed at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility on July 7 after 16 days, 21 hours, 47 minutes, and 45 seconds in orbit. NASA describes the flight as the first mission to combine a full microgravity science program with a broad life-sciences investigation. More than 40 experiments from researchers in ten countries used the Spacelab module to study human physiology, space biology, sleep and circadian rhythms, bone and muscle changes, fluid physics, materials processing, protein crystal growth, and related questions for future long-duration spaceflight. The mission also expanded telescience operations, with ground researchers monitoring and commanding some payloads while the crew worked in shifts aboard Columbia. STS-78 included several notable operational and science demonstrations. The crew supported muscle-biopsy research before and after flight, repaired and operated the Bubble, Drop and Particle Unit after early hardware problems, and performed a reaction-control-system test connected to future Hubble Space Telescope orbit-raising planning. NASA reported no significant orbiter problems, and the mission became one of the clearest Spacelab bridges between Shuttle-era laboratory flights and the research model later used on the International Space Station.