Space Shuttle Project

Framed by the Vehicle Assembly Building at right and the Mate-Demate Device at left, the Space Shuttle orbiter Columbia (STS-94) glided onto Runway 33 of Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. On board for the reflight of STS-83 were a crew of seven and the Microgravity Science Laboratory-1 (MSL-1)which was managed by scientists and engineers from the Marshall Space Flight Center. Mission STS-94 marked the 23rd flight of Columbia and the 85th mission flown since the start of the Space Shuttle program in 1981. During the mission, the Spacelab module was used to test some of the hardware, facilities and procedures that are planned for use on the International Space Station while the flight crew conducted combustion, protein crystal growth and materials processing experiments.