 This is shuttle launch control at T-minus three hours and holding. Our countdown is proceeding without any technical problems and our activities are on schedule. Final inspection team continuing their activities which have gone well with no reported problems. And here we are in the crew dining room. We see the STS-87 mission emblem cake. Mission specialist Winston Scott will be doing the EVA on this flight. Mission specialist Takao Doi also will be doing an EVA on this mission. Our commander Kevin Kriegel for the STS-87 flight. Our payload specialist Leonid Kadynyuk from the Ukraine. Mission specialist Kultner Chavla who will be operating the RMS for the Spartan deployment. And finally our pilot Steve Lindsey who will be working the sprint camera during the mission among other things. We are in the suit up room with our STS-87 astronauts. Looking at our commander Kevin Kriegel and here is pilot Steve Lindsey. He will be operating from the flight deck, the small basketball sized camera. And mission specialist Kultner Chavla who will operate the remote manipulator system and deploy and retrieve the Spartan payload. Mission specialist Takao Doi who will be participating in the EVA on this mission along with Winston Scott. And next to him here is Winston Scott who will be also doing the EVA during the flight along with Takao Doi. And our payload specialist Leonid Kadynyuk from the Ukraine who will be investigating plant growth biology in space. This is shuttle launch control at T-minus two hours, 56 minutes, 55 seconds in counting. Where we see the STS-87 astronauts now are entering the elevator for the ride down two floors from the astronaut quarters to the astronaut van which will transport them the approximately seven mile distance out to launch pad 39B, a ride which will take approximately 20 minutes or so. We're going to see some ASC employees behind the chain. The astro van now approaching the pad perimeter where they'll then leave the van and go up the elevator to the orbiter access harm and meet the closeout crew ready to assist them in boarding Columbia and into their seats. Here we see our commander Kevin Kriegel preparing to board Columbia. And there Takao Doi is the mission specialist who will be boarding next here very shortly as soon as Kevin Kriegel boards the orbiter. This is actually a view from the flight deck and now he's climbing up into the commander's seat. Keep in mind that everything is in the vertical here. He's getting assistance from another astronaut, astronaut Joe Tanner. Right now he's just positioning himself in the seat. It's very important that they get in the seat straight. They've got some emergency oxygen bottles strapped to their back on the harness and then they'll be laying on top of the parachute. And they could be in there for upwards of three plus hours today. And it's very important that he's in a position where nothing is in his back. There'll be two people working on him. There's several connections. Here you see Takao Doi getting into the mid-deck. And what we try and do here is strap one person at a time in both the flight deck and mid-deck. So this Takao is MS3 and he'll be assisted by another strap-in personnel on the mid-deck. Now once Kevin is strapped in and has his cooling and oxygen hooked up, they'll begin to put on his helmet. And that cord there will be hooked up for his communications. Following his strap-in, they'll do some communications checks just to make sure that everything's in line before they move on to the next crew member. Here's a shot of Leonid in the white room. Looks like he's got his harness on and he'll be waiting to be the second person on the mid-deck. There's the pilot, Steve Lindsey, climbing into the flight deck. He'll ask Steve to reach up and grab two handholds. And this particular maneuver here is very similar to just doing a pull-up. He's pulling himself up into the seat, getting his feet in position. Joe, you see, is holding onto his emergency oxygen bottles to keep them on each side of the parachute. And then they'll begin the process all over again of getting Steve positioned correctly on the parachute for comfort. Here's a great shot of Leonid. He's in the seat now, the second crew member on the mid-deck. They'll be hooking up his cooling at this time. This is our first flight of a Ukrainian on the shuttle. TLS, what do you see? TLS, go. Yeah, 534, pick up at a clock. Okay, TLS copies. We need a CMT-C on channel 162, and we need to read step 535 on the LIS. MS-D, MS-1, contact. MS-1, it's NT-D. Good morning, I've got you out on clear, KC. Good morning, Doug. I also have you loud and clear. Attention all stations, this is an NT-D performing a launch status check for if I'm ready to resume count and go for launch. Say go, no go. OTC, go. TBC, I can boost you for go. CCC, LPS, go. Houston Flight. Houston Flight's go. Mila. Mila's go. SCM, SCM, go. Safety console. Safety console, go. SCE, SCE, go. LRD, LRD's go. SRO. SRO's go, you have a range, clear to launch. And CDR. Columbia's a go. And I copy all, launch director, NT-D, launch team is ready to proceed. Copy that, I'll do a poll. Payload director? Payload to go. Thank you, Dan, director. Safety and mission is go. Safety and mission is go. Range, weather? Roger, sir, no constraints, launch. Copy that, office matter. CMT is go for launch. Copy that, and Kalalia looks like we're ready to go, so we're going to proceed. NT-D, you're clear to launch. Have a great mission. LPS is go, over to access army track. Columbia, LDC, closing, lock your livers. Initiate O2 flow. Have an international thanksgiving and may the roll go your way. Thank you very much. Fireman's chain is now armed. T minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6. Engine start, 5, 3, 2, 1. And liftoff of Space Shuttle Columbia on a mission combining science and the practical aspects of space. Houston now controlling. Roll maneuver complete. Columbia now in a heads down wings level position headed to a 115 nautical mile orbit inclined 20 and a half degrees to either side of the equator. Three engines on board Columbia now throttling back to 67% of rated thrust as the orbiter passes through the area of maximum aerodynamic pressure in the lower part of Earth's atmosphere. Three engines now ramping back up to 104%. What throttle up? Columbia's three liquid fuel engines are now back at full throttle. 104% of rated thrust altitude now 11 miles down range distance 8 miles. One minute 30 seconds into flight with more than two and a quarter million pounds of propellant having already been consumed. Columbia now weighs half of what it did at liftoff. Stand by for the next major event which will be the burnout and separation of the twin solid rocket boosters that coming up in a little more than two minutes into the flight. Altitude now 20 miles down range distance to KSC 19 miles. Booster officer confirms good separation of the solid rocket boosters. Performance is nominal. Commander Kevin Kreegel now rolling video tape shot from a camera mounted on the forward flight deck of Columbia looking back aft. On the right side is Commander Kreegel. Left side Steve Lindsey in the foreground. Flight engineer Winston Scott directly in the middle behind them and to his right mission specialist Kulna Chavla. This video of the launch there's main engine start and liftoff. That was the roll the heads up. We were kind of looking for that. We saw it. It was really pretty smooth.