MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-71 Status Report #5

Thursday, June 29, 1995, 5:30 p.m. CDT

Following a successful docking at 8 a.m. today with the Russian Mir
Space Station, Atlantis' crew completed a transfer of responsibilities
for the station from the three Mir-18 crew members to the two Mir-19
crewmen.

Following a transfer of personal gear and a changeout of the
individual, custom-made foam seat liners in the Soyuz capsule also
docked to Mir, Mir-19 Commander Anatoly Solovyev and Flight Engineer
Nikolai Budarin officially assumed duties on the station.  Solovyev
and Budarin will sleep aboard the Mir tonight while astronaut Norm
Thagard and cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennady Strekalov, aboard
Mir for the past 105 days, will sleep aboard Atlantis.

Commander Hoot Gibson of Atlantis flew the shuttle to a flawless
docking with the Mir station today exactly on schedule while the two
spacecraft were 216 nautical miles above the Lake Baykal region of the
Russian Federation. Mission Specialist Greg Harbaugh then engaged the
docking mechanism to firmly latch the spacecraft together.  Later, the
Spacelab module in Atlantis cargo bay was reactivated by Mission
Specialist Bonnie Dunbar in preparation for a variety of medical
experiments that will be performed during the next four days.

Atlantis and Mir, now the single largest spacecraft ever in orbit with
a total mass of almost one-half million pounds, have performed as
expected in the nine and a half hours they have so far been
attached. No significant problems or surprises have been observed by
Mission Control. The crew will begin an eight-hour sleep period at
5:32 p.m. today and awaken at 1:32 a.m. Friday.

The spacecraft are in an orbit with a high point of 218 nautical miles
and a low point of 209 nautical miles, circling Earth every 92
minutes, 35 seconds.


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