WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

With an international payload and crew aboard, the Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off from Launch Pad 39B, at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Possibly expected to be NASA's longest duration Shuttle flight to date, the mission officially began at 10:49:00 a.m. (EDT), June 20, 1996. Onboard for Columbia’s 20th flight were astronauts Terence T. (Tom) Henricks, mission commander; Kevin R. Kregel, pilot; Susan J. Helms, payload commander; and Richard M. Linnehan and Charles E. Brady, Jr., both mission specialists, along with payload specialists Jean-Jacques Favier of the French Space Agency (CNES) and Robert B. Thirsk of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Flying in Columbia’s payload bay is the Life and Microgravity Spacelab (LMS), carrying a complement of United States and international experiments