Shuttle lands safely after 16-day mission

March 9, 1996
Web posted at: 9:05 a.m. EST

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (CNN) -- Twin sonic booms heralded the shuttle's arrival Saturday morning, and Columbia touched down in Florida minutes later in a picture-perfect landing. (1.3M QuickTime movie)

Shuttle commander Andrew Allen guided NASA's oldest craft onto the runway at Kennedy Space Center, steering the shuttle down at an angle seven times steeper than the approach of a commercial airliner.

The astronauts stayed in orbit after high winds and clouds forced NASA to scuttle Friday's landing. Low clouds also caused officials to scrap an earlier landing Saturday morning.

NASA rejected diverting the shuttle to California's Edwards Air Force Base, because of the high cost of returning the craft to Florida.

NASA earlier decided against an extra day in space when a computer used to land the shuttle failed. Columbia has three backup systems, but NASA rules require that a flight end as soon as possible after a computer failure.

The 16-day mission had its ups and downs. Among them: A $154 million Italian satellite broke its shoestring-width tether and sped away from the shuttle.

But the seven-member crew successfully conducted several near-zero gravity experiments, including those studying how fire spreads under those conditions.

Related Stories:

• Shuttle landing delayed until Saturday
• Shuttle computer problem not considered serious
• STS-75 Columbia Mission Page

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