MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-67 Status Report # 24

Tuesday, March 14, 8 a.m. CST

For the first time in human spaceflight history, eight Americans are
in space following the launch shortly after midnight of astronaut Norm
Thagard aboard a Soyuz rocket. The seven astronauts aboard Endeavour
have been in space for 11 days gathering data in support of the second
astronomy mission called Astro-2.

Thagard and his cosmonaut crewmates -- Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennadiy
Strekalov -- began the Mir-18 mission at 12:11 a.m. central time, from
the Baikonur launch site 1,300 miles from Moscow, and are scheduled to
rendezvous with the Russian Space Station Mir on Thursday.  Their
three-month stay will conclude with the first Shuttle/Mir docking
mission scheduled for June which will carry a cosmonaut replacement
crew and bring those three home.

Endeavour's crew was notified of the Mir-18 launch shortly after the
Soyuz capsule reached orbit.  STS-67 Commander Steve Oswald responded,
"Okay, great news, thank you very much....Bet you Normie's glad to be
there."  Oswald and Thagard flew together on Discovery's STS-42
mission in January 1992.

Science data collection continues around the clock as the spaceborne
astronomical observatory performs as flawlessly as its Space Shuttle
platform.  The crew will work around the clock on two shifts for the
remainder of the flight viewing celestial objects using the three
telescopes in the payload bay.

Mission managers may decide today whether or not to extend the
mission, which is already scheduled to become the longest Shuttle
mission to date lasting 15 and a half days.  Presently, the mission is
scheduled to end with a landing Friday afternoon at the Kennedy Space
Center in Florida.

Endeavour's systems are in excellent condition as it circles the Earth
every 91 minutes at an average altitude of about 185 nautical miles.

The JSC Newsroom is open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, and from 9
a.m.-1 p.m.  weekends throughout the mission.  NASA's MSFC Newsroom is
open from 6 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays, and from 6 a.m.-2 p.m. weekends.
MSFC's Code-A-Phone is updated twice daily and can be reached by
calling 205-544-6397.