KSC-95EC-1705 - STS-74 landing (Main Gear Touchdown closeup) 


The highly successful Mission STS-74 comes to a smooth conclusion as
the orbiter Atlantis returns to Kennedy Space Center.  Atlantis
touched down on Runway 33 of the Shuttle Landing Facility at 12:01:27
p.m. EST, November 20.  The final Space Shuttle flight of 1995 marked
the second docking of the U.S. Space Shuttle to the Russian Space
Station Mir.  To simplify the remaining five Shuttle-Mir docking
currently scheduled, the five astronauts on Atlantis attached a
Russian-built Docking Module to Mir during the eight-day mission.  Two
solar arrays were stowed on the module, which will serve as a
permanent extension to the Kristall docking port on the station.
Atlantis' crew and the three cosmonauts on Mir also transferred
materials to and from the station.  Leading the STS-74 crew is
Commander Kenneth D. Cameron; James D. Halsell Jr. is the pilot; the
three mission specialists are Jerry L. Ross, William S. "Bill"
McArthur Jr. and Chris A. Hadfield, who represents the Canadian Space
Agency.  This was the 27th end-of-mission landing at KSC in Shuttle
program history.  The Shuttle-Mir dockings are one aspect of Phase 1
activities leading the way toward the international space station; the
United States, Russian, Canada, Japan and a group of European nations
have joined together to build the orbiting outpost in space later this
decade.

 
                                               11/20/95