Stock Photo - 08/07/1997 __ Blasting through the hazy late morning sky, the Space Shuttle Discovery soars from Launch Pad 39A at 10:41 a.m. EDT Aug. 7 on the 11_day STS_85 mission. Aboard Discovery are Commander Curtis L. Brown, Jr., Pilot Kent V. Rominger, Payload Commander N. Jan Davis, Mission Specialist Robert L. Curbeam, Jr., Mission Specialist Stephen K. Robinson and Payload Specialist Bjarni V. Tryggvason, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut . The primary payload aboard the Space Shuttle orbiter Discovery is the Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere_Shuttle Pallet Satellite_2 CRISTA_SPAS_2 free_flyer. The CRISTA_SPAS_2 will be deployed on flight day 1 to study trace gases in the Earth’s atmosphere as a part of NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth program. Also aboard the free_flying research platform will be the Middle Atmosphere High Resolution Spectrograph Instrument MAHRSI. Other payloads on the 11_day mission include the Manipulator Flight Demonstration MFD, a Japanese Space Agency_sponsored experiment. Also in Discovery’s payload bay are the Technology Applications and Science_1 TAS_1 and International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker_2 IEH_2 experiments