WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

The Space Shuttle orbiter Endeavour's drag chute deploys after STS-72 Mission Commander Brian Duffy makes a smooth touchdown on KSC's Runway 15. Main gear touchdown was at 2:41:41 a.m. EST. STS-72 was the third night landing at KSC and the eighth since Shuttle flights began in 1981. Highlights of the nine-day mission, the first flight of 1996, were the retrieval of the Japanese Space Flyer Unit (SFU), the deployment and retrieval of NASA's Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology-Flyer (OAST- Flyer), and two Extravehicular Activities (EVAs) or spacewalks. Crew members were Commander Brian Duffy, Pilot Brent W. Jett Jr., and Mission Specialists Leroy Chiao, Winston E. Scott, Dr. Daniel T. Barry and Koichi Wakata, representing the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA).