CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. March 4 -- Columbia's launch on NASA's 61st shuttle mission marks the 36th post-Challenger flight and the second of eight missions planned for 1994. Here are the mission details at a glance:
-Space shuttle: Columbia, making its 16th flight.
Columbia last flew in October 1993 on a 14-day Spacelab Life Sciences research mission.
-Mission highlights: Third extended duration orbiter flight; second flights of United States Microgravity Payload and Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology payloads.
-Launch site: Pad 39-B at the Kennedy Space Center.
-Launch time: 8:53 a.m. EST, March 4, 1994.
-Propulsion: Three hydrogen-fueled main engines built by Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif., serial numbers 2031 (No. 1), 2109 (No. 2), and 2029 (No. 3), and two solid-fuel boosters, serial number BI-064, built by Thiokol Corp. of Ogden, Utah. Discovery is bolted to a Martin Marietta-built external fuel tank, serial No. 62.
-Orbital altitude: 184 statute miles
-Inclination to equator: 39 degrees.
-Payload: United States Microgravity Payload, Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology payload; Dexterous End Effector; Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Experiment, various science experiments.
-Landing: about 8 a.m. EST March 18 at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
-Shuttle crew: Five.
-Commander: John Casper, 50, Gainesville, Ga.; third flight.
-Co-pilot: Andrew Allen, 38, Philadelphia; second flight.
-Flight engineer: Charles 'Sam' Gemar, 38, Scotland, S.D.; third flight.
-Mission specialist: Pierre Thuot, 38, Fairfax, Va., and New Bedford, Mass.; third flight.
-Mission specialist: Marsha Ivins, 42, Baltimore; third flight.
-Crew seating: Casper, Allen, Gemar and Thuot on Columbia's flight deck for launch, 81700 :NNNNNNN //ab--p/
