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Space Shuttle Columbia, Space Shuttle Projects
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Five NASA astronauts and two scientists comprised the crew for the STS-83 mission in support of the first Microgravity Sciences Laboratory 1 (MSL-1). Pictured on the front row (left to right) are Janice E. Voss, payload commander; James D. Halsell, commander; Susan L. Still, pilot; and Donald A. Thomas, mission specialist. On the back row (left to right) are payload specialists Roger K. Crouch, and Gregory T. Linteris; and Michael L. Gernhardt, mission specialist. Dr. Crouch and Dr. Linteris are experts in several disciplines treated on MSL-1. STS-83 launched aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on April 4, 1997. The five launched again in July 1997 for the STS-94 mission.
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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