 From the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, this is Space Shuttle Columbia Launch Control. The countdown for launch of Space Shuttle Columbia on mission STS-78 is continuing on schedule this morning. The window for launch of Columbia opens at 10.49 a.m. eastern time and extends for two and a half hours. Earlier this morning the external tank was filled with about 500,000 gallons of liquid propellants and those tanking operations are just now complete. No technical issues or problems are being worked at this time and we anticipate an on-time liftoff of the Shuttle Columbia and the seven-member crew from the Kennedy Space Center again on time at 10.49 a.m. eastern today. Situated in Columbia's payload bay is the Life and Microgravity Space Lab. LMS is housing about 43 various experiments involving life sciences and material sciences. The LMS mission will seek answers to questions about our ability to sustain life for prolonged periods of time and space and about the subtle mechanisms involved in materials processing that are obscured by Earth's gravity. LMS will continue to expand the foundation of scientific research by studying the effects of microgravity on the physiology, development, and behavior of living systems. It will also study the processes of materials, study fluid physics, and grow protein crystals in the reduced gravity environment. Columbia's seven-member crew consists of three Shuttle veterans and four rookie astronauts who have not flown in space before. This is an international mission with four different space agencies represented. NASA, the French Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, and the European Space Agency which contributed by supplying the space lab itself. The STS-78 crew are Commander Tom Henricks, Pilot Kevin Kregel, Mission Specialist Richard Linnahan, Susan Helms, and Charles Brady, and payload specialist Jean-Jacques Favier from the French Space Agency and Robert Brent Thursk from the Canadian Space Agency. Physiological data gathered from each astronaut during the three months before flight will provide a baseline with which flight data will be compared. At this time, all systems are reported to be in good shape and we are on track for launch today at 10.49 a.m. And we have a good thumbs up from all seven crew members. It appears they are all ready to fly on Mission STS-78 today. At this point, the final inspection team has reported back periodically to the firing room and they are reporting that there is nothing out of order. Everything continues, everything looks smooth, everything on the vehicle looks good. No debris concerns, no ice concerns, and they are expected to wrap up their operations in the next half hour. The crew members are being assisted with their launch and entry suits by suit technicians from both the KSC and from the Johnson Space Center. This is a good view of Commander Tom Henricks, who was on his fourth space flight. Our pilot, Kevin Kregel, is on his second flight. Jean-Jacques Favier is a member of the French Space Agency. He is one of our payload specialists and will be making his first trip into space today. Susan Helms is the only female aboard the vehicle that will be flying today and she, of course, is a veteran flyer. She has flown in 30 different types of aircraft being named an astronaut in 1990. She has already flown two missions, STS-54 and STS-64. Mission specialist one, Richard Lenahan, is on his first flight and he looks like he is relaxed and prepared to fly today. And another mission specialist, Charles Brady, again on his first flight as well is giving a thumbs up that he too is ready and anxious to go. And the final member of our seven person crew is Robert Brent Thursk representing the Canadian Space Agency. He is a medical doctor. He was an alternate payload specialist for STS-41G and in 1993 and 1994 he was the Canadian Space Agency's chief astronaut. And here we have them, our Commander Tom Henricks, Mission Specialist Susan Helms, followed by Pilot Kevin Kregel, Richard Lenahan, Charles Brady, John Jacques Favier and Robert Brent Thursk. NASA test director John Guidi has given an approval for the crew to begin entry into the vehicle once they make their way up the elevator to the 195-foot level. And we have views of the crew as they are exiting the elevator on the 195-foot level. In the background, of course, is the swing arm that the crew will walk across, the orbiter access arm that will gain them entry into the crew module. As the crew is preparing to enter the orbiter, astronaut support personnel have mounted in their crew module a small camera that will allow us to see live pictures of the crew being seated in Columbia. This is the first time NASA TV has shown live pictures of this event. And to assist with the commentary of these new views, astronaut Marsha Ivins is joining us to describe the events as they occur. Welcome, Marsha. Thanks. Marsha, can you describe to us what we're looking at? Sure. The scene you're seeing now is the commander's seat up on the flight deck of Columbia, that big white piece is the headrest, where his helmet will go, and the orange piece is the parachute that's in the seat. You're looking at it as it is on the pad, so when the crew gets in, of course, they'll be lying on their back. Okay. The astronaut support person, Jim Halsell, is assisting as Tom Hendricks comes in, holding his head so it doesn't bump into anything. Tom's now standing on the MS2 seat. He's holding on to a handhold above the forward window, and now he'll pull himself up after he gets himself unstuck here, pull himself up into the seat as they hold the parachute down. You see the big bottles on the back of his harness. You need to get those centered exactly right on the parachute so that it's comfortable when you're sitting in there, headrest back down on the seat now. Now the suit tech, Al Rochford, will start to adjust the straps on his harness so that he's pulled down and comfortable in the seat. And then they'll start connecting the parachute and the shoulder harnesses too. You can see Al's got Kevin's helmet, kicked the headrest back, and Kevin will lift his head up. You can see the little calm pigtail hanging out of the back, and Al will fish his hand in there to get it. Marsha, can you tell us what we're looking at at this point? We're in the mid-deck now, and Max Candler, who's the suit tech, and he is strapping in Chuck Brady, who's sitting in the MS3 seat, sitting in front of Chuck, and the rest of the guys on the mid-deck is the whole row of, or wall of, lockers that has all the stuff in it that were taken to space. Max has got his parachute on, the harness, and looks like he's got the seatbelt on. MS3, come check. MS3 is OTC. I got you loud and clear. How many? OTC, MS3, got you loud and clear. Good morning, Roberta. Good morning, Chuck. Looking good on that camera. Waiting in the white room is the final astronaut who will be boarding the vehicle today, Jean-Jacques Favier of the French Space Agency. And Columbia, you guys have a good mission, and we'll see you back here in about a little over two weeks and have fun on your mission, Tom. Thank you, Jim. We've got a crew here that's ready to go. Thanks to all the professionals here at the Cape. We're ready to work with the JSC Drain Launch, and then the rest of the day, we're ready to put our fellow crew to work with the folks at the Marshall Space Flight Center. And indeed, you're clear to launch. All right, Copy. Thank you. A final test of the flight control services is now being conducted. This is a program pattern of movements designed to verify the readiness to launch of the engines and other flight control services. And final aerosurface checks of the orbiter's aerosurfaces are being completed. This is verifying the orbiter's hydraulic systems. And the main engines are being gibbled for a final test before launch. Flight crew, OTC, close and lock your visors and initiate O2 flow. Have a great flight and have more fun than a barrel of monkeys. All right, Lieutenant, we got the visors down to O2 on them, and we are going to have a good one. Do you have a statement, OTC? Ten, nine, eight. We have a go for main engine start. Five, four, three, two, one. And we have liftoff of the Spatial Columbia on an international-wide science and microgravity mission. Houston now controlling the flight of Columbia. Houston's Columbia is in the roll program. Roger, roll, Columbia. Columbia completes the roll to place the shuttle in a head-down wings-level position for the eight-and-a-half-minute ride to orbit. Twenty-three seconds into the flight, Columbia's three liquid-fuel main engines will soon begin to throttle back in a three-step fashion to 67% of rated performance that will dampen the stress on the shuttle's aero-services as it breaks through the sound barrier. Forty-five seconds into the flight, Columbia already traveling at 711 miles per hour, two-and-a-half miles downrange from the Kennedy Space Center. The three engines now beginning to rev up to full throttle, 104% of rated performance. Those main engines, along with Columbia's three fuel cells and three hydraulic power units, all functioning normally. Booster officer here in mission control standing by for solid rocket booster shutdown in separation about five seconds from now. Booster officer confirms a normal solid rocket booster separation standing by for the performance call. Columbia, performance nominal. Now on the performance.