Fifteen years ago today — June 20, 1996 — Space Shuttle Columbia launched from Kennedy Space Center on an international mission to perform a series of scientific experiments in microgravity.
(STS-78 launch. NASA image.)
Mission STS-78 carried U.S. astronauts Terence T. Henricks, Kevin R. Kregel, Susan J. Helms, Richard M. Linnehan, and Charles E. Brady, Jr., along with French astronaut Jean-Jacques Favier and Canadian astronaut Robert Brent Thirsk. The crew carried out experiments in the Spacelab module, designated LMS-1 as the Life and Microgravity Spacelab.
In addition to the U.S., French, and Canadian participation, the European Space Agency and Italian Space Agency also provided some of the experiments that made up the LMS-1 payload. The experiments ranged from the effects of microgravity on the astronauts themselves to studying the formation and behavior of metals, crystals, and fluids in low-gravity conditions.
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