 The orbiter was backed out of the processing facility in early July, just after the Fourth of July holiday. The boosters and external tank were stacked in parallel in the vehicle assembly building while the work was going on in the orbiter processing facility. The countdown demonstration test with the flight crew was conducted just a few weeks ago and the flight crew was certified in emergency escape procedures. This is the orbiter access arm as it was attached to the vehicle. Once discovery rolled to the pad last month and the rotating service structure was then moved into position around the orbiter to allow the installation of the payloads and also access to various parts of the vehicle for the Kennedy launch team. Payloads were installed into the payload bay out at the launch pad in the vertical position and the payload bay doors were closed for flight early Tuesday morning during our countdown. Countdown began on time at the T-minus 43 hour mark at about 3 p.m. on Monday. Countdown has been going very smoothly which leads us up to this morning. It's traditional for the crew to arrive several days before the launch. They go through flight data file reviews and the commander and pilot practice approaches and landings to the shuttle landing facility to hone their skills. They practice in the shuttle training aircraft. Crew also has medical exams while here at KSC prior to launch and they perform fit checks of their flight crew equipment. All continuing to go well out at the launch pad. The final inspection team is making their way up and down the launch tower looking for any loose items or any ice or frost formation. They do wear the bright orange suits so that we can keep track of the crew as they wander around the launch pad. And we have live pictures of the flight crew in the crew quarters. We've got commander Kirk Brown who's just walked into the suit up room following the weather briefing. This is his fourth flight and he has overall responsibility for commanding the flight. This will be his first flight as commander. He served as pilot of three previous missions on STS-92 in 1992, 94, 96. Kent Roeminger as pilot. He will assist Brown at the flight controls. This will be his third flight and his birthday today. He's 41 years old. He will also be assisting commander during the rendezvous and retrieval of the Krista Spas payload and will also be involved in several payloads including the solid surface combustion experiment. We have Canadian astronaut Bjarne Trigvison making his first flight on the shuttle today. Across the room we have the mission specialist. We've got Jan Davis. She's making her third flight today. She's the payload commander with overall responsibility of servicing tasks. She will operate the robot arm to deploy and retrieve the German Krista Spas payload. And we have mission specialist Robert Kirby making his first flight today on the shuttle. He serves as flight engineer and will assist the commander and pilot with ascent and reentry checklists and in monitoring all vehicle systems. And we have mission specialist Steven Robinson. This will be his first flight. He is the prime mission specialist for the Krista Spas payload and he will work with Jan Davis with the robot arm activity and will operate several experiments. There is some fog in the KSC area and that is expected to burn away as the sun continues to rise here in Florida and looking for favorable weather conditions for our launch of Discovery today. All countdown events are going well. We expect the crew to arrive at the launch pad's white room at about 8 a.m. Got a lot of well-wishers standing by ready to wish the crew well before their journey into space. Crew is getting ready for a 10-day mission. We have views now in the crew cabin and we have guest commentator Marcia Ivins here to help explain what's going on. What you see here is the commander. Kurt Brown getting into the commander's seat on the left. Joe Tanner, who is the astronaut support person, he asked helping him. It's a little difficult to climb up in the vertical position and to get in the seat so Joe is holding on to his parachute while Kurt gets into the seat. I was going to ask him to, as he holds the parachute, pull himself all the way down into the seat to get a good fit in there so they can get the harnesses on him. The same time the commander is being strapped in, we have MS3, Steve Robinson being strapped in by Carlos, who is our awesome suit tech on the mid-deck. This goes on in parallel so that all the crew can get in in a timely fashion. The same as Joe was helping on the flight deck, Carlos holds onto the parachute. Steve's got a strap connected to the locker. You can see him holding on to now like a chinning strap that allows him to position himself correctly on the parachute as he gets in. Now we see the birthday boy getting into his seat, the pilot. He's only gone to two handrails, one in the center of the, near the windows and one on his right side. And then as they hold his parachute, he pulls himself down into the seat. Jarni is now in the PS1 seat. You can see his chinning strap that he's got to get himself positioned in the seat. And Carlos will be connecting his cooling water. Last crew member in, Bob Kirby in the MS2 seat. I've got you here. I'll give you a step 570 to work for the clock if you want. For this perform they feel felt purge on channel 153. Okay, we'll put the end of work as well. Do you see that? We heard that a poll by NASA test director Doug Lyons of the launch team indicating that they are ready to continue on with launch today. Standing by now for Jim Harrington, the launch director to conduct his poll of the management team. I'll see you in 12, I'll run a poll at this time. Copy. payload director. Copy that, engineering director. Copy that, safety and mission assurance. Safety and mission assurance is good, Jim. Copy that, range weather. Roger sir, we have low constraint to launch. And how's the manager? The manager, we're not, the MFT is not tracking anything. And looks like we're going for launch. You're clear to proceed with launch count. Copy that, looks like. Everything is ready to go. You guys have a great mission and we'll see you back here. It's a good color, it's another mission. And NPD, you are clear to launch. Copy that sir, thank you. Attention all stations, the countdown clock will pick up a team in 9 minutes and 2 minutes and 20 seconds. Team on is 5 minutes. The vent hood is situated at the top of the external tank. That will be retracted away in the next few seconds. And the external tank is being pressurized for flight. CLT, morning memory cleared. No land flight permit, close and lock your visors, initiate 02-12. On behalf of the launching, good luck with your mission. And Ramo, happy birthday, we're about to light your candle. Thanks for that birthday wish. We'll give you the two best candles I ever had. I discovered copy visors and set 02s. CLS is done for ET-LH2 presentation. Water will be dumped onto the launch platform in a few seconds to help suppress the sound and shock produced by the shuttle at launch. Team on is 15 seconds. 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8. We have a go for maintaining start. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Booster ignition and liftoff of discovery on a mission to study planet Earth. Houston is now controlling. The roll maneuver is complete and discovery is now in a heads down wings level position. All three main engines now throttling down to 67% of rated thrust as the orbiter passes through the area of maximum aerodynamic pressure on the vehicle in the lower regions of the Earth's atmosphere. Telemetry indicates all three auxiliary power units and fuel cells continuing to perform well. One minute 22 seconds into the flight, Discovery's three liquid fueled engines are now back at full throttle. 104% of rated thrust discovery now traveling at a speed of 1,900 miles per hour. Again, telemetry currently indicating all three main engines, auxiliary power units and fuel cells continuing to perform well. Discovery now at a speed of 2,800 miles per hour. Downrange from the Kennedy Space Center, 27 miles. Discovery now at an altitude of 367. Downrange from the Kennedy Space Center, 370 miles. Discovery, single engine zero go so 104. Single engine go so 104. Now 8 minutes 43 seconds into the flight, the booster officer here in mission control has confirmed an on-time main engine cutoff. Discovery Houston, we show a nominal MECO. Homes one is not required. You have a go for the ET photo DTO. Nominal MECO, Homes one not required. Houston Discovery, we're in the low hover position and would like to maneuver to the spouse release position. To maneuver to release. So we're about a minute to the ZOE. We'll be back with you at seven hours, nine minutes. Copy Allen, seven hours, nine minutes. Hold on, zero, zero. These are all the ice-cut brems and a good chunk of the way through the Brownian motion stuff. But one hour's run, you can think, mid to one point I got the SCP calm lost error. And now when I try to do cold reboot on the system, I get as far as starting on track. Hieroglyphics and that's where I've been ending for the last bit of a while. I'm not able to get that by that point. We copy and we'll look into it, Bjarnie. BDS data when you're ready to copy. Play plan, Allen. DP Flex troubleshooting part B. Would you like to get into that? This is the workstation where we operated the robotic arm, which is a Japanese robotic arm, which will be part of the Japanese arm on the space station. These are the two hand controllers. We have a computer here which also controls the arm as well as some switches. We're on the wastewater dome. Happy with that. Do you want me to dump that last percent out? Now you're just fine where you are. I have a good picture. And Houston Discovery, good handheld laser mark and it agrees with rarer radar. Houston Discovery with IRFICOL status check. Discovery Houston, we're two minutes from the VOE. We'll be back with you at zero hours, one seven minutes. Copy, Houston. Talk to you at 17 minutes. And before you go, just, you probably see this, but we're about 125 feet closing at point 25. And Houston Discovery DTO complete. We're backing out now. Houston Discovery, we show a good grapple. Good discovery. Congratulations on a very smooth rendezvous and grapple. And, Jan, you can go ahead and put D-Act in work. Discovery Houston, we've up-linked orbit and target state. Okay, we copy that. MET, nine days, one hour, five, six minutes, four zero seconds. Discovery, energy ground track in Navargo. Latest touchdown prediction is 2,600 feet at 195. The energy ground track in Navargo and 2,600 at 195. Long-range cameras capturing discovery at 103,000 feet altitude, traveling 2,500 miles per hour. And Commander Kurt Brown, now flying Discovery as the twin sonic booms announce the arrival of the orbiter in the landing site area. Time to touchdown, three minutes and seconds. Discovery on energy at the 180. On at 180. Discovery's altitude is 2,400 feet, traveling 375 miles per hour. And the landing gear is down and locked. Main gear touchdown. And nose gear touchdown. Discovery's rolling out on runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center, completing 189 orbits of the Earth while traveling 4.7 million miles. STS-85 is the 23rd mission of Discovery and the 86th in the shuttle program's history. Copy, rumble, we're looking at the doors.