MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-71 Status Report #11

Sunday, July 2, 1995, 2 p.m. CDT

Atlantis and Mir crews spent a third day together working steadily at
medical experiments, cargo transfers, and some preparations for
Tuesday's departure, uninterrupted by any problems with the respective
spacecraft.

During the last half of today aboard the orbiting complex, medical
investigations using the lower body negative pressure device, called
LBNP, were performed in the Shuttle's laboratory module.  Mir 18
astronaut Norm Thagard and Flight Engineer cosmonaut Gennady
Strekalov, now on their 110th day in orbit, both underwent sessions in
the device, which decreases air pressure around the lower portion of
the body to imitate the effect of gravity in pulling fluids to the
legs.  Body fluids pool in the upper half of the body in
weightlessness.

Simultaneously, Atlantis' Commander Hoot Gibson, Pilot Charlie
Precourt, and Flight Engineer Greg Harbaugh continued stowing gear
retrieved from Mir aboard the Shuttle for the trip home.  Also, the
offloading of supplies for the Mir continued.  Those supplies include
about 860 pounds of water, almost 108 gallons, loaded into 14 Russian
portable water tanks and two Shuttle portable water bags.

By the time Atlantis departs Mir early Tuesday, consumable supplies
transferred to Mir are planned to include almost a half ton of water,
53 pounds of oxygen, and 80 pounds of nitrogen. The oxygen and
nitrogen are being transferred to Mir by using the Shuttle's
atmospheric system to raise the air pressure in the station.

Gibson, Precourt and the Mir-19 cosmonauts also checked out various
communications systems today that may be used on Mir, the Soyuz
capsule and Atlantis during the undocking and flyaround
Tuesday. Precourt also gave Strekalov a televised tour of Atlantis and
the laboratory module.

The crews will begin an eight-hour sleep period at 5:32 p.m. today and
awaken at 1:32 a.m. Monday.  Atlantis and Mir have now been docked for
almost 78 hours and are in a 218 by 209 nautical mile orbit.  Among
the highlights of Monday's activities for the crew will be a joint
press conference with reporters in the U.S. and in Russia at 9:07
a.m. Central and a farewell ceremony at 12:32 p.m. Central.


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