MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-71 Status Report #1

Tuesday, June 27, 1995, 7 p.m. CDT

The Florida skies cleared to allow a flawless, on-time launch of
Atlantis at 2:32 p.m.  central on the historic 100th U.S. human space
flight, a flight that will begin a new era of international
cooperation in space by docking with the Russian Mir Space Station.

Atlantis first achieved an orbit with a high point of 158 nautical
miles by 85 nautical miles, the lowest orbital altitude ever flown by
a Space Shuttle, allowing the spacecraft to close the more than 7,000
nautical miles to Mir rapidly at first, at a rate of about 880
nautical miles per orbit. Three hours and thirty-nine minutes after
launch, Atlantis fired both Orbital Maneuvering System engines for a
little over two minutes to raise its orbit to an altitude of 210
nautical miles by 158 nautical miles, an engine firing called the NC-1
burn that has now slowed Atlantis' closing rate on the Mir.

The shuttle is now about 5,400 nautical miles from Mir, closing on the
station by about 280 nautical miles with each one and a half-hour
orbit of Earth. The next engine firing by Atlantis is not scheduled
until early Wednesday morning, and all activities remain on target for
a docking with Mir at about 8 a.m. Thursday.

Atlantis' crew -- Commander Hoot Gibson, Pilot Charlie Precourt,
Mission Specialists Ellen Baker, Greg Harbaugh and Bonnie Dunbar, and
Cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Nikolai Budarin -- are now winding
down their first day in orbit. They will begin a sleep period at 7:32
p.m. and awaken at 3:32 a.m. to begin their second day in orbit.

Atlantis is in excellent condition with no problems currently being
monitored by Mission Control.