Mission Control Status Report #3
STS-74
Monday, November 12, 1995  5 a.m. CST

The five member crew aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis spent the bulk of
its second day in space readying the orbiter and its payloads for
Tuesday's mating of the Russian Docking Module to the Orbiter Docking
System in advance of Wednesday's docking to Russia's Space Station Mir.
Both the module and the docking system are located in Atlantis' payload
bay. 

Mission specialists Jerry Ross and Bill McArthur early Monday inspected
the space suits they would don should a space walk become necessary during
Tuesday's mating operation or the actual linkup of Atlantis to Mir at
12:28 a.m. Wednesday.

Following the space suit inspection, Mission Specialist Chris Hadfield
powered up the orbiter's robot arm which he will use Tuesday to move the
docking module over to the docking system.  All systems affiliated with
the robot arm operated as expected and are ready to support Tuesday's
activities.

Crew members also checked out the Orbiter Space Vision System, a precise
alignment system for the robot arm that is being tested on STS-74.  The
OSVS, which will be used during Tuesday's mating operation, consists of a
series of large dots placed on the exterior of the docking module and the 
docking system.

Today's schedule also included the installation and alignment of the
centerline camera in the center of the Orbiter Docking System.  The camera
will assist Commander Ken Cameron in final piloting tasks as Atlantis
moves into and docks with Russia's Space Station Mir.  Additionally, 
Atlantis' jets will be fired to further refine the closing rate between
the orbiter and Mir.  At 5 a.m. CST, Atlantis was about 4,000 statute miles
behind Mir, and was closing in to the space station at a rate of about 380
statute miles per orbit.

This morning, Cameron, Hadfield and other available crew members answered
questions posed by Canadian reporters who are in Montreal and Toronto.  
Hadfield is a Canadian Space Agency astronaut and the fourth Canadian
astronaut to fly on the shuttle.

NASA Television programming today includes the mission status briefing at
9 a.m. CST and Mission Update at 11 a.m.  Crew members will begin their
sleep period at 12:31 p.m.   They will awaken at 8:31 p.m. today to begin
a  busy day of mating operations between the docking module and the Orbiter
Docking System.

The JSC Newsroom will be open until 5 p.m. CST today.  It will reopen at
11:30pm CST today and will remain open until 5 p.m. Tuesday