STS-78

Terence Henricks

• Birthday: 07/05/1952
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 11/24/1991
• Last Flight: 06/20/1996

Terence Thomas “Tom” Henricks is a retired colonel in the United States Air Force and a former NASA astronaut. Selected by NASA in June 1985, Henricks became an astronaut in July 1986 and served on four Space Shuttle missions.

Kevin R. Kregel

• Birthday: 09/16/1956
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 07/13/1995
• Last Flight: 02/11/2000

Kevin Richard Kregel is an American former astronaut, and former member of the Space Launch Initiative Project at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.

Charles E. Brady Jr.

• Birthday: 08/12/1951
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 06/20/1996
• Last Flight: 06/20/1996

Charles Eldon Brady Jr. was an American physician, a Captain in the United States Navy and a NASA astronaut. He spent 16 days in space on the STS-78 flight in 1996.

Brady specialized in sports medicine and worked as team physician at several universities before joining the US Navy in 1986. There he became a flight surgeon, serving with the Blue Angels from 1988-1990. In 1992 he was selected for NASA’s astronaut program and completed training to prepare for space flight. After serving in the astronaut program, he returned full-time to the Navy and served as flight surgeon at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in the San Juan Islands before retiring in the Pacific Northwest.

Jean-Jacques Favier

• Birthday: 04/13/1949
• Role: Payload Specialist
• Nationality: French
• First Flight: 06/20/1996
• Last Flight: 06/20/1996

Jean-Jacques Favier (Born April 13, 1949) was a French engineer and CNES astronaut who flew aboard the STS-78 NASA Space Shuttle mission. Favier was due to fly aboard the Columbia mission in 2003, but later signed out of the mission. Jean-Jacques Favier has been Deputy Director for Space Technology and Deputy Director for Advanced Concepts and Strategy at CNES, Director of the Solidification Laboratory at the French Atomic Energy Commission and Research Program Director at the International Space University.

Robert Thirsk

• Birthday: 08/17/1953
• Role: Payload Specialist
• Nationality: Canadian
• First Flight: 06/20/1996
• Last Flight: 05/27/2009

Robert Brent Thirsk, OC OBC (born August 17, 1953) is a Canadian engineer and physician, and a former Canadian Space Agency astronaut. He holds the Canadian records for the longest space flight (187 days 20 hours) and the most time spent in space (204 days 18 hours).

Richard M. Linnehan

• Birthday: 09/19/1957
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 06/20/1996
• Last Flight: 03/11/2008

Richard Michael Linnehan is an American veterinarian and a former NASA astronaut.

Susan Helms

• Birthday: 02/26/1958
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 01/13/1993
• Last Flight: 03/08/2001

Susan Jane Helms is a retired lieutenant general in the United States Air Force and a former NASA astronaut. Helms was a crew member on five Space Shuttle missions and was a resident of the International Space Station (ISS) for over five months in 2001. While participating in ISS Expedition 2, she and Jim Voss conducted an 8-hour and 56 minute spacewalk, the world record.

STS-78

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

STS-78 was the fifth dedicated Life and Microgravity Spacelab mission for the Space Shuttle program, flown partly in preparation for the International Space Station project. The mission used the Space Shuttle Columbia, which lifted off successfully from Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39-B on 20 June 1996.

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.