MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-71 Status Report #9

Saturday, July 1, 1995, 3 p.m. CDT

The astronauts and cosmonauts aboard Atlantis and the Mir Space
Station maintained a rhythm of packing and unpacking today, as well as
entering into a steady pace of medical investigations in the Shuttle's
cargo bay laboratory module.

On his 109th day in orbit, Astronaut Norm Thagard went through a
series of medical tests ranging from analysis of his lung function to
electrocardiographs and studies of his cardiovascular system, along
with his Mir 18 mission crew mates.  Mission Specialists Ellen Baker
and Bonnie Dunbar oversaw the medical testing aboard Atlantis.

Simultaneously, the transfer of equipment to and from Mir continued,
including providing specially designed spacewalking tools to the Mir
from Atlantis that will be used by the Mir 19 cosmonauts in mid-July
to free a jammed solar array on the station.  Other transfers included
loading a broken Salyut-5 computer onto Atlantis for the trip home and
providing excess water from the Shuttle to Mir.  So far, about 580
pounds of excess Shuttle water has been provided to Mir.

Also today, Commander Hoot Gibson and Pilot Charlie Precourt fired
Atlantis' large steering jets in a planned test to check the integrity
of the Atlantis-Mir attachment points, finding the docking mechanism
to be very secure.  A flight control computer aboard Atlantis that
experienced a problem early yesterday has been operating 
 throughout
the day today without trouble, and flight controllers believe the
computer is healthy and that the earlier problem was an isolated
incident.

Flight controllers changed the orientation of Atlantis and Mir
slightly for the sleep period today so the Shuttle's autopilot will
have to fire steering jets a bit more often, thus keeping the jets
warmer during the crew's night.

The astronauts and cosmonauts will begin an eight-hour sleep period at
5:32 p.m.  Central and awaken at 1:32 a.m. Central to begin day six of
STS-71.

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