STS-71 Day 8 Highlights
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- On Tuesday, July 4, 1995, 5 a.m. CDT, STS-71 MCC Status Report # 14
reports:
- 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 redocked his Soyuz capsule to the
Mir space station about 6:43 a.m. to begin a two-month stay. 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 -- began their 112th day in orbit.
- On Tuesday, July 4, 1995, 2 p.m. CDT, STS-71 MCC Status Report # 15
reports:
- With a graceful orbital bow, Atlantis departed the Mir space station
on time this morning and is now flying solo once again while medical
examinations of the Shuttle's new, homeward-bound passengers continue.
- Atlantis Commander Hoot Gibson undocked from Mir at 6:10 a.m. Central
today, releasing hooks that held the docked spacecraft together and
allowing springs built into the docking system to gently push the
Shuttle away. Atlantis was preceded in undocking by a Soyuz
spacecraft flown by Mir 19 Commander Anatoly Solovyev and Engineer
Gennady Strekalov that unlatched from the station at 5:55
a.m. Central. As Atlantis slowly circled the station, the Soyuz
redocked, each spacecraft capturing final photographs and film of the
other. Aboard Atlantis, Gibson likened the session to a "cosmic
ballet."
- Atlantis and her crew of eight are enroute to a Friday landing. The
Mir 19 cosmonauts are embarking on a months-long stay aboard Mir.
After firing Atlantis' jets for a final separation from the vicinity
of Mir, medical investigations resumed in the Shuttle's laboratory
module, with each of the three Mir 18 crew members taking turns
exercising on a treadmill. The returning Mir 18 crewmen are on their
112th day of weightlessness, and such medical work will continue for
the next two days aboard the Shuttle.
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