Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-94) Poster

Space Shuttle Columbia's rollout to Pad 39-A. The primary focus for mission STS-94 is the same as it was for STS-83 -- to conduct experiments and evaluate facilities associated with the Microgravity Science Laboratory-1 (MSL-1) payload. The MSL flight serves as a bridge to America's future in space with a mission that spans the gap between the relatively short duration work done on today's Shuttle Spacelab flights to the long duration research that will be performed on the International Space Station. The reflight of the MSL payload will involve the same vehicle, crew and experiment activities as originally planned earlier this year. Columbia's crew will continue NASA's efforts to understand the subtle and complex phenomena associated with the influence of gravity in many aspects of daily life. The flight will involve the STS-94 crew spending more than two weeks in orbit as they conduct a variety of experiments to examine how various materials and liquids change and behave in the weightless environment of space.