WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

STS-78 Payload Commander Susan J. Helms (center) holds up an Olympic torch that was presented to the crew after they arrived at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility. With Helms are (from left) Payload Specialist Robert Brenton Thirsk (Canadian Space Agency); Mission Specialist Charles E. Brady; Mission Commander Terence T. "Tom" Henricks; Helms; Mission Specialist Richard M. Linnehan; Pilot Keven R. Kregel; and Payload Specialist Jean-Jacques Favier (French 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.