Day: January 11, 1996

Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off on the 74th flight of the shuttle program. Over nine days, Endeavour’s crew retrieves a Japanese satellite for return to Earth while deploying a NASA experiment which flies as far as 45 miles away from the shuttle for two days before it, too, is retrieved. More spacewalk techniques and technologies are tried out for future space station construction. Aboard Endeavour for her tenth flight are Commander Brian Duffy, Pilot Brent Jett, and mission specialists Leroy Chiao, Daniel Barry, Winston Scott and Koichi Wakata.