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The STS-75 mission comes to a close as the orbiter Columbia swoops down on Runway 33 of Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. Main gear touchdown occured at 8:58:21 a.m. EST, March 9, 1996. During their 15 day, 17 hour, flight the seven-member crew conducted microgravity research with the U.S. Microgravity Payload (USMP-3), flying for the third time on the Shuttle. The other primary payload was the Tethered Satellite System (TSS-1R), flying as a reflight from an earlier mission, but the satellite was lost when the tether broke just short of its fully deployed length of nearly 13 miles. Leading the STS-75 crew is Mission Commander Andrew M. Allen. The pilot Scott J. "Doc" Horowitz. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz is the payload commander, while Italian citizen Maurizio Cheli and Swiss citizen Claude Nicollier, both representing the European Space Agency (ESA), and U.S. astronaut Jeffrey A. Hoffman are assigned as mission specialists on the flight. Umberto Guidoni, also of Italy, is a payload specialist representing the Italian Space Agency (ASI).