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- On Saturday, January 20, 1996, 3 a.m. CST, STS-72 MCC Status Report # 12 reports:
- Endeavour wrapped up the first Shuttle mission of the year in the predawn hours this morning, swooping to an ontime landing at 1:42 a.m. central time at the Kennedy Space Center.completing a 3.7 million mile flight. It was the sixth straight Shuttle landing at the Florida spaceport.
- Commander Brian Duffy and Pilot Brent Jett guided Endeavour to its landing in perfect weather after firing the Shuttle's braking rockets an hour earlier over the Indian Ocean. During the mission, Endeavour's six astronauts retrieved the Japanese Space Flyer Unit, which had been launched on a Japanese rocket 10 months ago, deployed and retrieved a NASA science satellite called the OAST-Flyer, and conducted a pair of spacewalks to test tools and refine techniques for the assembly of the International Space Station.
- About an hour after landing, Endeavour's crewmembers left the Shuttle, inspecting the vehicle in the cool Florida nighttime air. The astronauts will return to Ellington Field in Houston later today, with arrival expected sometime about Noon.
Return to STS-72 Mission Summary - On Saturday, January 20, 1996, 3 a.m. CST, STS-72 MCC Status Report # 12 reports: