MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-71 Status Report #10

Sunday, July 2, 1995 6:00 a.m. CDT

  Flight Day 6 on board Atlantis/Mir began with a Caribbean flair as the
astronauts and cosmonauts awoke to Jimmy Buffet's "Changes in
Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes."  Crew members are already hard at
work as another busy day of scientific and medical investigations in
the Spacelab module gets under way. Today’s investigations focus
primarily on understanding how the cardiovascular system responds to
microgravity.

  The Mir 18 crew members -- Commander Vladimir Dezhurov, Engineer
Gennady Strekalov and Cosmonaut Researcher Norm Thagard -- are using a
neck collar of sorts to mimic increasing and decreasing arterial
pressure on the baroceptor sensors located in the arteries of the
neck. These sensors constantly monitor blood pressure and send
messages to the brain to increase or decrease heart rate to compensate
for rising or dropping blood pressure. This investigation may help
researchers understand and reduce the phenomenom of orthostatic
intolerance, or lightheadedness, sometimes experienced by astronauts
upon return to Earth.

  The cosmonauts also are continuing their scheduled exercise sessions
designed to help minimize their readapation to Earth’s one-gravity
environment. Dezhurov, Strekalov and Thagard will walk or run on the
treadmill, ride the bicycle ergometer, or perform resistive exercise
for 1-2 hours every day as part of this countermeasures program.

  In parallel with the joint medical investigations, remaining crew
members continue the transfer, package and storing of equipment to be
returned to Earth on board Atlantis.  Transfer of excess water from
Atlantis to the Mir space station will continue throughout the day.

  Mir 18 Commander Vladimir Dezhurov spent several minutes discussing
his flight plan with flight controllers at the Russian Mission Control
Center in Kaliningrad. Dezhurov raised questions earlier today about
the volume of work he was being asked to accomplish and was reassured
that, as a member of the Atlantis crew, his flight plan was being
coordinated properly between flight controllers in Houston and flight
controllers in Russia.

  Atlantis' Pilot Charlie Precourt tested a pair of VHF radio systems
which enable Shuttle crewmembers to converse with the Mir Space
Station or the Soyuz capsule. One of the systems has apparently
experienced a malfunction but the backup system is functioning
properly and will be used on Tuesday when Atlantis undocks from the
Mir.

  Mir 19 Commander Anatoly Solovyev and Flight Engineer Nikolai
Budarin conducted leak checks to the launch and entry suits they will
wear Tuesday for Atlantis' departure from the Mir. Current plans
call for Solovyev and Budarin to undock the Soyuz 15 minutes before
Atlantis' undocking to capture still photos and video images of the
event from a stationkeeping position several hundred feet away from
Mir. Shuttle crewmembers also plan to photograph and record the
redocking of the Soyuz to the Mir after an hour and a half of
proximity operations by Atlantis, the Soyuz and the Mir.

  Several crew members took a break from morning activities to speak
with National Public Radio at 6 a.m. central time today. Commander
Hoot Gibson, Pilot Charlie Precourt, Thagard, Dezhurov and Strekalov
shared their feelings about their historic flight and docking, and
discussed the many scientific and medical investigations ongoing
aboard Atlantis.

  The 225 ton Atlantis/Mir spacecraft is circling the Earth every 92
minutes at an altitude of 217 nautical miles.  The spacecraft have
been docked for more than 70 hours, following Thursday's historic
meeting in space.