KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Space Shuttle orbiter Atlantis
makes a smooth touchdown on Runway 15 of the Shuttle Landing
Facility, bringing an end to the historic STS-71 mission which
featured the first docking between the Space Shuttle and the
Russian Mir space station. Main gear touchdown of Atlantis was
at 10:54:34 a.m. EDT, on July 7, 1995. This was the first of seven
scheduled Shuttle/Mir docking missions. The 10-day mission also
set the record for having the most people who have flown in an
orbiter during a mission: the five U.S. astronauts and two
cosmonauts who were launched on Atlantis on June 27, and three
space flyers who have been aboard Mir since March 16 and were returned
to Earth in Atlantis. The STS-71 crew included Mission Commander
Robert L. "Hoot" Gibson, Pilot Charles J. Precourt, Payload Commander
Dr. Ellen S. Baker, and Mission Specialists Bonnie J. Dunbar and Gregory
J. Harbaugh. Also part of the STS-71 crew were two cosmonauts who comprise
the Mir 19 crew -- Mission Commander Anatoly Y. Solovyev and Flight
Engineer Nikolai M. Budarin. They transfered to Mir during the four
days of docking operations, and remain there. They replaced the Mir 18
crew of U.S. astronaut and cosmonaut researcher Dr. Norman E. Thagard,
and cosmonauts Vladimir N. Dezhurov, who served as mission commander,
and Gennadiy M. Strekalov, who served as flight engineer. The Mir crew
joined the American STS-71 crew members for the return to Earth on
Atlantis.
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STS-71 KSC Photo Index
