STS-71 Day 4 Highlights

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On Friday, June 30, 1995, 6:30 a.m. CDT, STS-71 MCC Status Report # 06 reports:

The eight astronauts on board Atlantis received a wakeup call from Mission Control at 1:32 a.m. CDT today, ready to begin the first full day of joint operations on board the linked shuttle and Russian Mir Space Station. The musical wake-up call was "Wildest Dreams" by the Moody Blues.

About one hour before receiving that formal wakeup call, Commander Hoot Gibson awoke when General Purpose Computer 4 experienced a brief "hiccup"causing a warning alarm to sound on board. Spacecraft Communicator Dan Bursch then called up to Atlantis advising Gibson to turn off GPC 4 and load the system manager software on GPC 3. There are five general purpose computers on board Atlantis, with one designated as the system manager to monitor various orbiter systems. GPC 3 is now designated as the system manager. Flight controllers will look at the possible causes of the GPC 4 alarm once the crew officially begins its fourth flight day on orbit.

Atlantis is now home to the five STS-71 crew members -- Gibson, Pilot Charlie Precourt, Payload Commander Ellen Baker, and Mission Specialists Greg Harbaugh and Bonnie Dunbar -- and the Mir 18 crew members -- Commander Vladimir Dezhurov, Engineer Gennady Strekalov, and Cosmonaut Researcher Norm Thagard. For the next four days, in cooperation with their counterparts on board Mir -- Commander Anatoly Solovyev and Engineer Nikolai Budarin -- the astronauts will support 15 separate biomedical investigations into how the human body functions in a microgravity environment.

Those investigations will be conducted in the Spacelab module tucked in the aft section of Atlantis' payload bay. Seven different disciplines are represented including cardiovascular and pulmonary functions in weightlessnessness, human metabolism, neuroscience, hygiene, sanitation and radiation, and behavioral performance and biology. The studies begun during the Mir 18/STS-71 mission will continue for several years as part of the continuing Shuttle-Mir Science Program.

In addition to supporting the medical and scientific investigations, crew members will transfer equipment, hardware and experiment specimens from the Mir module to Atlantis for return to Earth.

Earlier in the morning, the two crews met in the Spacelab for a ceremonial gift exchange commemorating this flight. During the ceremony the crew members joined a halved pewter medallion bearing the impression of a docked shuttle and Mir, and a scale model of Atlantis and Mir.

On Friday, June 30, 1995, 6 p.m. CDT, STS-71 MCC Status Report # 07 reports:

Having dropped off two crew members and picked up three new crew members yesterday, the crew spent the day loading and unloading gear aboard Atlantis and the Mir Space Station.

Medical samples and other materials associated with the Mir-18 crew members -- U.S. Astronaut Norm Thagard and Cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennady Strekalov - - were loaded into Atlantis for the trip home. Equipment for the Mir 19 and future missions was transferred from the shuttle to the station. Thagard and crew were officially relieved Thursday from their responsibilities for the station by Mir 19's Anatoly Solovyev and Nikolai Budarin. Along with the Mir 19 equipment, Atlantis' crew also filled four Russian space agency tanks with excess water from the shuttle and transported it to Mir. More such water transfers are planned during upcoming days of the flight.

The crew completed all their work on schedule with no problems. Flight controllers did ask Commander Hoot Gibson to reset one of Atlantis' flight control computers, general purpose computer number 4, which had experienced a problem early this morning, to evaluate the computer problem. Gibson successfully reloaded computer, and it was run for about an hour in an idle mode to evaluate its performance. Later, flight control software was loaded into the computer while it was not attached functionally to the shuttle and it was put in a standby mode for the night. Further evaluations of its performance are planned tomorrow.

In any event, Atlantis' four other identical flight control computers are operating well and can perform all needed functions for the spacecraft. In addition, a spare computer is onboard that could be used to replace the GPC-4 machine if that is deemed necessary. The crew began an eight-hour sleep period at 5:32 p.m. and will awaken at 1:32 a.m. central to begin their fifth day in orbit. Atlantis has been docked with the Mir station for more than 34 hours and the spacecraft are in an orbit with a high point of 219 nautical miles and low point of 208 nautical miles, circling Earth every 92 minutes, 34 seconds.

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