STS-80 was a Space Shuttle mission flown by Space Shuttle Columbia. The launch was originally scheduled for October 31, 1996, but was delayed to November 19 for several reasons. Likewise, the landing, which was originally scheduled for December 5, was pushed back to December 7 after bad weather prevented landing for two days.
It was the longest Shuttle mission ever flown at 17 days, 15 hours, and 53 minutes.
Crew
Crew seat assignments
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! Seat
! Launch
! Landing
|rowspan=8| 150px<br />Seats 1–4 are on the flight deck.<br />Seats 5–7 are on the mid-deck.
|-
! 1
|colspan=2| Cockrell
|-
! 2
|colspan=2| Rominger
|-
! 3
| Musgrave
| Jernigan
|-
! 4
|colspan=2| Jones
|-
! 5
| Jernigan
| Musgrave
|-
! 6
|colspan=2 style="background-color:lightgray"| Unused
|-
! 7
|colspan=2 style="background-color:lightgray"| Unused
|}
Musgrave was supposed to sit in Seat 5 during landing, however, he actually stood on the flight deck behind Cockrell in Seat 1 throughout re-entry and landing to film the spacecraft's reentry through the overhead windows. It was captured on flight day sixteen.
- The Wake Shield Facility-3 was deployed on flight day 4, and was recaptured three days later.
- On this mission, Story Musgrave became the only person to fly on all five Space Shuttles orbiter vehicles—Challenger, Atlantis, Discovery, Endeavour, and Columbia.
- Musgrave also tied a record for spaceflights, and set a record for being the oldest man in space.
- Two spacewalks were planned for the mission but were canceled after astronauts Tom Jones and Tammy Jernigan discovered the outer hatch of the airlock was jammed. The jam was attributed to a loose screw that may have fell during its installation.
Mission payload
right|thumb|300 px|The payload being prepared for launch in a transfer container. Visible is the WSF-3 (being lowered in), and ORFEUS-SPAS II (Already in place)
Columbia brought with it two free floating satellites, both of which were on repeat visits to space. Also, a variety of equipment to be tested on two planned spacewalks was part of the payload. These would have been used to prepare for construction of the International Space Station. Included in the Shuttle's payload were:
Another inclusion was a Space Experiment Module (SEM). This was the first flight of the program. Among the experiments conducted were analysis of bacteria growth on food in orbit, crystal growth in space, and microgravity's effect on a pendulum.
NIH.R4 was an experiment conducted for the National Institute of Health and Oregon Health Sciences University. Biological Research in Canister (BRIC) explored gravity's effects on tobacco and tomato seedlings. Visualization in an Experimental Water Capillary Pumped Loop (VIEW-CPL) was conducted to test a new idea in thermal spacecraft management. The Commercial MDA ITA Experiment were a variety of experiments submitted by high school and middle school students sponsored by Information Technology Associates.
Mission background
right|thumb|250 px|Columbia is rolled out to launch pad 39B
thumb|left|Launch of STS-80