WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

The Space Shuttle orbiter Endeavour and its crew of six glide in to Runway 15 at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility after spending nine days in space on the STS-72 mission, the first Shuttle flight of 1996. It will be the eighth night landing of the Shuttle since the program began in 1981, but only the third night landing at KSC. Highlights of the mission were the retrieval of the Japanese Space Flyer Unit (SFU), the deployment and retrieval of NASA's Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology-Flyer (OAST- Flyer), and two Extravehicular Activities (EVAs) or spacewalks. Crew members were Commander Brian Duffy, Pilot Brent W. Jett Jr., and Mission Specialists Leroy Chiao, Winston E. Scott, Dr. Daniel T. Barry and Koichi Wakata, representing the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA).