MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-71 Status Report #14


Tuesday, July 4, 1995, 5 a.m. CDT

Atlantis was scheduled to separate from Russia's Mir space station at
6:10 this morning, concluding the historic mission that saw an
American and Russian spacecraft commander shake hands in orbit for the
first time in 20 years.

As the Atlantis crew was awakened to a celebration of America's 219th
birthday and the sounds of "America the Beautiful," their colleagues
on board the Mir space station were well into procedures to deactivate
some of the station's systems. Mir will be temporarily uninhabited
following the undocking of the Soyuz capsule from the station.  With
Mir 19 Commander Anatoly Solovyev at the controls, the Soyuz was to
undock from Mir at 5:55 AM, and move to a stationkeeping position to
photograph the linked Atlantis/Mir space complex.

Mir 19 Commander Anatoly Solovyev will redock his Soyuz capsule to the
Mir space station about 6:43 a.m. to begin a two-month stay. Before
leaving the area, the STS-71 and Mir 18 crews on board Atlantis, will
fly around Mir conducting a photo survey of the space station.

With the five-days of docked operations behind them, the STS-71 and
Mir 18 crew members will settle into a routine of continuing medical
and scientific investigations on board Atlantis.  The joint
U.S./Russian investigations are studying how the human body responds
to an extended stay in microgravity.  The Mir 18 crew members --
Commander Vladimir Dezhurov, Flight Engineer Gennady Strekalov and
Cosmonaut Researcher Norm Thagard -- are beginning their 112th day in
orbit.

Flying free of Mir for the first time in five days, Atlantis is
functioning virtually trouble- free on its 14th journey in space.

end