sjb (06/23/82)
The Columbia was readied for its countdown today, which, if all went well, should have started about an hour ago. The countdown is 10 hours longer than previous shuttle countdowns, due to the need for loading a telescope in the DoD's "secret" package with liquid helium. Thursday is scheduled for the joint Soviet-French space flight to launch. If all goes according to plan, this will be the third time that U.S. and Russian astronauts have been in orbit at the same time.