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STS-87 crew members regard the tiles underneath the orbiter Columbia shortly after its return to Runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. Pointing to the tiles is the president of the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan, Isao Uchida, who is standing next to NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin. STS-87 Commander Kevin Kregel, at right, looks on as Pilot Steve Lindsey follows behind him to continue inspecting the orbiter. STS-87 concluded its mission with a main gear touchdown at 7:20:04 a.m. EST Dec. 5, drawing the 15-day, 16-hour and 34-minute-long mission of 6.5 million miles to a close. Also onboard the orbiter were Mission Specialists Winston Scott; Kalpana Chawla, Ph.D.; and Takao Doi, Ph.D., of NASDA; along with Payload Specialist Leonid Kadenyuk of the National Space Agency of Ukraine. During the 88th Space Shuttle mission, the crew performed experiments on the United States Microgravity Payload-4 and pollinated plants as part of the Collaborative Ukrainian Experiment. This was the 12th landing for Columbia at KSC and the 41st KSC landing in the history of the Space Shuttle program KSC-97PC1746
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STS-87 crew members regard the tiles underneath the orbiter Columbia shortly after its return to Runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. Pointing to the tiles is the president of the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan, Isao Uchida, who is standing next to NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin. STS-87 Commander Kevin Kregel, at right, looks on as Pilot Steve Lindsey follows behind him to continue inspecting the orbiter. STS-87 concluded its mission with a main gear touchdown at 7:20:04 a.m. EST Dec. 5, drawing the 15-day, 16-hour and 34-minute-long mission of 6.5 million miles to a close. Also onboard the orbiter were Mission Specialists Winston Scott; Kalpana Chawla, Ph.D.; and Takao Doi, Ph.D., of NASDA; along with Payload Specialist Leonid Kadenyuk of the National Space Agency of Ukraine. During the 88th Space Shuttle mission, the crew performed experiments on the United States Microgravity Payload-4 and pollinated plants as part of the Collaborative Ukrainian Experiment. This was the 12th landing for Columbia at KSC and the 41st KSC landing in the history of the Space Shuttle program
The Space Shuttle program was the United States government's manned launch vehicle program from 1981 to 2011, administered by NASA and officially beginning in 1972. The Space Shuttle system—composed of an orbiter launched with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank— carried up to eight astronauts and up to 50,000 lb (23,000 kg) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and lands as a glider. Although the concept had been explored since the late 1960s, the program formally commenced in 1972 and was the focus of NASA's manned operations after the final Apollo and Skylab flights in the mid-1970s. It started with the launch of the first shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981, on STS-1. and finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011.
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