Fifteen years ago today — July 1, 1997 — the Space Shuttle Columbia launched from the Kennedy Space Center carrying the Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL).
(STS-94 launch. NASA image.)
Mission STS-94 was a “reflight” of the original MSL mission, STS-83, which launched three months earlier but ended early because of a fuel cell problem aboard Columbia. STS-94 marked the first time a shuttle mission was reflown with the same payload, same orbiter, and even the same crew. On this MSL mission — the 2nd time around — astronauts James D. Halsell, Susan L. Still, Janice E. Voss, Donald A. Thomas, Michael L. Gernhardt, Roger K. Crouch, and Gregory T. Linteris conducted a wide variety of experiments (“25 primary experiments, four glovebox investigations and four accelerometer studies”) during their 15 days in space.
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