KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Space Shuttle Columbia touches
down on Runway 33 at KSCþs Shuttle Landing Facility at 2:33:11 p.m.
EDT, April 8, to conclude the Microgravity Science Laboratory-1
(MSL-1) mission. At main gear touchdown, the STS-83 mission
duration was 3 days, 23 hours, 12 minutes. The planned 16-day
mission was cut short by a faulty fuel cell. This is only the
third time in Shuttle program history that an orbiter was brought
home early due to mechanical problems. This was also the 36th KSC
landing since the program began in 1981. Mission Commander James
D. Halsell, Jr. flew Columbia to a perfect landing with help from
Pilot Susan L. Still. Other crew members are Payload Commander
Janice E. Voss; Mission Specialists Michael L. Gernhardt and Donald
A. Thomas; and Payload Specialists Roger K. Crouch and Gregory T.
Linteris. In spite of the abbreviated flight, the crew was able to
perform MSL-1 experiments. The Spacelab-module-based experiments
were used to test some of the hardware, facilities and procedures
that are planned for use on the International Space Station and to
conduct combustion, protein crystal growth and materials processing
investigations.
KSC-97EC-0608 - Raw ASCII Text Caption file
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STS-83 KSC Photo Index
