MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-71 Status Report #2

Wednesday, June 28, 1995, 5 a.m. CDT

The seven astronauts on board Atlantis awoke to the sounds of Sonny &
Cher's "I Got You Babe," as they began their first full day on orbit
preparing for Thursday's planned docking with the Mir Space Station.

At 5:48 a.m. CDT, Commander Hoot Gibson will fire Atlantis' Orbital
Maneuvering Systems engines for 14 seconds, slowing Atlantis' closing
rate on the Mir and precisely aligning the orbiter's ground track with
that of the Mir. That burn will place Atlantis in a 211 x 162 nautical
mile orbit, closing on Mir at a rate of 250 nautical miles each orbit.
At 5 a.m., Atlantis was trailing the Russian Space Station by about
3200 nautical miles, closing the distance between the two spacecraft
at a rate of 275 nautical miles with each orbit of the Earth.

Gibson, Pilot Charlie Precourt, and Mission Specialist Bonnie Dunbar
also began activating the Spacelab module located in the aft section
of Atlantis' payload bay. During the five days of docked Shuttle/Mir
operations, that module will be used to support the joint scientific
and medical investigations designed to increase our knowledge of the
human body and the microgravity environment of space.

Atlantis is flying virtually trouble-free with no problems currently
being monitored by Mission Control. Atlantis is circling the Earth
every 91 minutes at an altitude of about 210 nautical miles.


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