WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

STS-78 Mission Commander Terence T. "Tom" Henricks (third from left) displays an Olympic torch that was presented to the flight crew and their alternates after they arrived at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility. With Henricks are (from left) Payload Specialist Jean-Jacques Favier (French Space Agency); Alternate Payload Specialist Luca Urbani (Italian Space Agency); Henricks; Mission Specialist Charles E. Brady Jr.; Payload Commander Susan J. Helms; Pilot Kevin R. Kregel; Mission Specialist Richard M. Linnehan; Alternate Payload Specialist Pedro Duque (European Space Agency); and Payload Specialist Robert Brenton Thirsk (Canadian Space Agency). The crew will take the torch with them on their upcoming spaceflight and then present it upon their return to a representative of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic games (ACOG). The countdown clock began ticking earlier today toward the June 20 launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia on Mission STS-78, the fifth Shuttle flight of 1996.