STS-73

Ken Bowersox

• Birthday: 11/14/1956
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 06/25/1992
• Last Flight: 11/23/2002

Kenneth Dwane “Sox” Bowersox is a United States Navy officer, and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of five Space Shuttle launches and an extended stay aboard the International Space Station. When he launched on STS-73 at the age of 38 years and 11 months, he became the youngest person ever to command a Space Shuttle vehicle.

Kent Rominger

• Birthday: 08/07/1956
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 10/20/1995
• Last Flight: 04/19/2001

Kent Vernon “Rommel” Rominger is an American former astronaut, former NASA Chief of the Astronaut Office at Johnson Space Center, and a Captain in the United States Navy. Rominger holds the Space Shuttle Orbiter flight time record with 1610 hours on type. He joined ATK Launch Systems Group in 2006 as Vice President of Advanced Programs.

Albert Sacco

• Birthday: 05/03/1949
• Role: Payload Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 10/20/1995
• Last Flight: 10/20/1995

Albert Sacco Jr. (born May 3, 1949) is an American chemical engineer who flew as a Payload Specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia on shuttle mission STS-73 in 1995.

Frederick W. Leslie

• Birthday: 12/19/1951
• Role: Payload Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 10/20/1995
• Last Flight: 10/20/1995

Fred Weldon Leslie is an American scientist who flew on the NASA STS-73 Space Shuttle mission as a payload specialist.

Catherine Coleman

• Birthday: 12/14/1960
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 10/20/1995
• Last Flight: 12/15/2010

Catherine Grace “Cady” Coleman is an American chemist, a former United States Air Force officer, and a former NASA astronaut. She is a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions, and departed the International Space Station on May 23, 2011, as a crew member of Expedition 27 after logging 159 days in space.

Kathryn C. Thornton

• Birthday: 08/17/1952
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 11/23/1989
• Last Flight: 10/20/1995

Kathryn Ryan Cordell Thornton is an American scientist and a former NASA astronaut with over 975 hours in space, including 21 hours of extravehicular activity. She was the associate dean for graduate programs at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science, currently a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

Michael López-Alegría

• Birthday: 05/30/1958
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 10/20/1995
• Last Flight: 01/18/2024

Michael López-Alegría is a Spanish-American astronaut; a veteran of three Space Shuttle missions and one International Space Station mission. He is known for having performed ten spacewalks so far in his career, presently holding the second longest all-time EVA duration record and having the third longest spaceflight of any American at the length of 215 days; this time was spent on board the ISS from September 18, 2006 to April 21, 2007.

STS-73

• Orbit: Low Earth Orbit
• Launch Cost: $450,000,000

STS-73 was a Space Shuttle program mission, during October–November 1995, on board the space shuttle Columbia. The mission was the second mission for the United States Microgravity Laboratory. The crew, who spent 16 days in space, were broken up into 2 teams, the red team and the blue team. The mission also included several Detailed Test Objectives or DTO’s.

Launch Complex 39B

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Launch Complex 39B has witnessed the launch of 58 rockets, including 57 orbital launch attempts, while Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA, has been the site for 232 rocket launches.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS). Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011.