STS-71/Atlantis
The first docking of a Shuttle with Mir
****UNDER CONSTRUCTION****
Prime Crew: Robert L. "Hoot" Gibson (Commander)
Charles J. Precourt (Pilot)
Dr. Ellen S. Baker (Mission Specialist)
Bonnie J. Dunbar (Mission Specialist)
Gregory J. Harbaugh (Mission Specialist)
MIR-19 Upload Crew: Anatoly Y. Solovyev (Cosmonaut; Commander)
Nikolai M. Budarin (Cosmonaut; Soyuz Flight Engineer)
MIR-18 Download Crew: Vladimir N. Dezhurov (Cosmonaut; Commander)
Gennadiy M. Strekalov (Cosmonaut; Soyuz Flight Engineer)
Dr. Norman E. "Norm" Thagard (NASA; Researcher)
MIR-19 Backup Crew: Yuri I. Onufrienko (Cosmonaut; Commander)
Yuri V. Usachyov (Cosmonaut; Soyuz Flight Engineer)
Shuttle Orbiter: Atlantis (OV-104)
June 27, 1995
MIR Docking: 9:00 AM EDT, June 29, 1995
MIR Undocking: 7:10 AM EDT, July 4, 1995
Mission Duration: 9 days 19 hours 22 minutes 17 seconds
153 Orbits
Landing: July 7, 1995-Runway 15 (Shuttle Landing Facility), John F. Kennedy Space Center, FL
On May 4, 1995-before the launch of MIR-18-crew members for the STS-71 mission and the related MIR missions assemble for a crew portrait at the Johnson Space Center. This mission is historic in more ways than one; in addition to being the first docking between American and Russian spacecraft in orbit since ASTP in 1975, this is also the 100th American manned space mission. In front are, l-r, Vladimir N. Dezhurov, Robert L. "Hoot" Gibson and Anatoliy Y. Solovyev, Mission Commanders for MIR-18, STS-71 and MIR-19, respectively. On the back row are, l-r, Norman E. Thagard, Gennadiy M. Strekalov, Gregory J. Harbaugh, Ellen S. Baker, Charles J. Precourt, Bonnie J. Dunbar and Nikolai M. Budarin. In a precedent-setting flight, Thagard later this month will be launched as a guest researcher along with Dezhurov, Commander, and Strekalov, Soyuz Flight Engineer, to Mir on MIR-18. Then in late spring, on STS-71, the Space Shuttle Atlantis will rendezvous with the Russian Mir Space Station to pick up the MIR-18 crew and transfer Cosmonauts Solovyev and Budarin to the station for the MIR-19 mission. Robert "Hoot" Gibson was born Oct. 30, 1946, in Cooperstown, NY, but considers Lakewood, CA, to be his hometown. His wife is veteran astronaut Margaret Rhea Seddon, and they have 4 children. He got his Private Pilot ticket at 17. After obtaining a degree in aeronautical engineering from California Polytechnic State University, he joined the Navy in 1969,and flew combat missions over Vietnam in F-4s. Later transitioning to F-14s, he graduated from TOP GUN, and later, the Navy Test Pilot School at Pax River. He had, by this time, over 6,000 hr in over 50 types of military and civilian aircraft, several altitude and time-to-climb records, and over 300 carrier landings. Selected by NASA as one of the TFNGs (Thirty-Five New Guys) in Jan. 1978, Hoot was a veteran of four Shuttle missions, (STS-41-B, -61-C, -27, and -47), the last 3 of which he had commanded. In addition to flying, Hoot enjoys running and surfing. Charlie Precourt was on his second mission, having also flown as a Mission Specialist on STS-55 in Spring 1993. Born Jun. 29, 1955, in Waltham, Mass., Charlie was a 1977 Air Force Academy graduate. During his time there, he had also attended the French Air Force Academy in 1976, and was fluent in French and Russian. He and wife Lynne had 4 daughters. After completing flight training, he flew F-15s out of Bitburg, West Germany. He graduated from the USAF Test Pilot School in 1985, and flew as a test pilot at Edwards until 1989, when he attended the Naval War College. He was selcted for astronaut training in 1990 and became a full-fledged astronaut in July, 1991. Dr. Ellen Baker, MD, on her third flight, was born Apr. 27, 1953, in Fayetteville, NC, but considers New York her hometown. She had a degree in geology from the State University of New York, and then got her Doctorate in medicine from Cornell in 1978. After her residency, she became a NASA medical officer at Johnson Space Center in 1981. She became an astronaut in June of 1985, and had flown on STS-34 and STS-50. A mother of 2, she enjoyed swimming and skiing. Bonnie Dunbar, Ph.D (University of Washington, 1975), was born in Sunnyside, WA, on Mar. 3, 1949. She was a Private Pilot and former NASA flight controller, who helped monitor the re-entry of Skylab in 1979, and later worked on Shuttle payloads before becoming an astronaut in 1981. A veteran of STS-61-A, -32, and -50 (on which she had been Payload Commander), Bonnie was flying her fourth mission. Gregory Harbaugh was born in Cleveland on Apr. 15, 1956. A father of 3, he was one of a growing number of astronauts who had built his own airplane. He had degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Purdue, and a MS in physical science from Houston-Clear Lake. He had worked on the Shuttle program since graduating from Purdue in 1978, and became an astronaut in Aug. 1988 after years as a support technician and flight controller. He was on his third mission, after STS-39 and -54. On that last one, he performed a 4-hr. 28-min. spacewalk. Anatoly Yakovlevich Solovyev was born in Riga on Jan. 16, 1948. He and wife Natalya had 2 sons. The former Soviet Air Force pilot and group commander had completed his Cosmonaut training in 1979, and made his first flight in 1988. Then he spent 179 days on Mir from Feb. 11 to Aug. 9, 1990. He had recienved many honors, including the Order of Lenin. Nikolai Budarin was born Apr. 29, 1953, in Kirya, Chuvashia, Russia. He and wife Marina had 2 sons. He had worked at Energia since 1976, and graduated from the S.Ordzhonikidze Moscow Aviation Institute in 1979 with a mechanical engineering diploma. He had been a Cosmonaut since 1991. This would be his first mission. NASA Photo.
March 13, 1995. Workers in Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 3 are installing the Orbiter Docking System (ODS) in the payload bay of Atlantis. The ODS includes an airlock, a supporting truss structure, a docking base, and a Russian-built docking mechanism (uppermost). The ODS is nearly 15 ft wide, 6.5 ft long, 13.5 ft high, and weighs more than 3,500 lbs. It is being installed near the forward end of the Orbiter's payload bay and will be connected by a short tunnel to the existing airlock inside the Orbiter's middeck.The installation will take about two hours to complete. Later this week, the Spacelab module also will be installed in Atlantis' payload bay; it will connect to the ODS via a tunnel. During the first docking between the Shuttle and Mir, the Russian-built docking mechanism on the ODS will be mated to a similar interface on the Krystall module docking port on Mir, allowing crew members to pass back and forth between the two spacecraft. NASA Photo.
The STS-71 mission payload is in its final flight configuration after integration into the payload bay of Atlantis and prior to payload bay door closing and rollover of the spaceplane from Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 3 to the Vehicle Assembly Building. In the foreground is the Orbiter Docking System (ODS) that is topped with the red Russian-built Androgynous Peripheral Docking System (APDS). NASA Photo.
April 26, 1995: a Crawler hauls Atlantis out to Pad 39A under overcast skies. The Shuttle stack is mounted on Mobile Launch Platform 3, which was built in the mid-1960s and used to launch Apollo 10, Apollo 13, Apollo 15, Apollo 16, Apollo 17, and a number of Shuttle missions. NASA Photo.
June 27, 1995: Hoot Gibson leads his crew out of the Crew Quarters to the Astrovan, which will take them out to the pad-again.There had been two tries to launch the mission already-one on June 23 which was scrubbed prior to propellant loading, and one on the 24th, which was scrubbed while the crew was already strapped in at T-minus 9 min. Both scrubs were due to weather. NASA Photo.
Video: Hoot Gibson walks us through the first Shuttle-Mir docking (MPEG)
Video: Anatoliy Solovyev undocks the Soyuz & Atlantis undocks from Mir (MPEG)
