CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Feb. 22 -- Columbia's launch on the 75th shuttle mission marks the 50th post-Challenger flight and the second of eight missions planned for 1996. Here are the mission details at-a- glance: --Space shuttle: Columbia, making its 19th spaceflight. Columbia last flew in October 1995 on a 16-day microgravity research flight. --Mission highlights: Reflight of the Italian Tethered Satellite System to try and generate a 5,000-volt electrical circuit; round-the- clock operation of experiments on the United States Microgravity Payload. --Launch site: Pad 39-B at the Kennedy Space Center. --Launch time: 3:18 p.m. EST (2018 GMT) Feb. 22, 1996. --Propulsion: Three hydrogen-fueled main engines built by Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif., serial numbers 2029 (No. 1), 2034 (No. 2), and 2017 (No. 3), and two solid-fuel boosters, serial number BI-078, built by Thiokol Corp. of Ogden, Utah. Columbia is bolted to a Lockheed Martin-built external fuel tank, serial No. 76. --Orbital altitude: 184 statute miles. --Inclination to equator: 28.5 degrees. --Payloads: Tethered Satellite System, United States Microgravity Payload. --Landing: 7:32 a.m. EST March 7 at the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility. --Shuttle crew: Seven. --Commander: Andrew Allen, 40, of Philadelphia, Pa.; third flight. --Co-pilot: Scott Horowitz, 38, of Thousand Oaks, Calif.; first flight. --Flight engineer: European Space Agency astronaut Maurizio Cheli, 36, of Modena, Italy; first flight. --Payload commander: Franklin Chang-Diaz, 45, of San Jose, Costa Rica; fifth flight. --Mission specialist: Jeffrey Hoffman, 51, of Scarsdale, N.Y.; fifth flight. --Mission specialist: European Space Agency astronaut Claude Nicollier, 51, of Vevey, Switzerland; third flight.
--Payload specialist: Italian Space Agency scientist Umberto Guidoni, 41, of Rome, Italy; first flight. --Crew seating: Allen, Horowitz, Cheli and Hoffman on the flight deck, with Chang-Diaz, Nicollier and Guidoni seated on the middeck. For landing, Hoffman and Chang-Diaz will switch places. --Contingency spacewalk personnel: Chang-Diaz and Nicollier.
