STS-76 Mission Control Center 
Status Report # 5

Sunday, March 24, 1996 11 a.m. CST

The Johnson Space Center Newsroom closed at 11 a.m. Sunday and will
reopen at 2 a.m.  CST Monday.

A long-term, continuous U.S. presence on Russia's Mir space station
was inaugurated early Sunday with the transfer of astronaut Shannon
Lucid to the Mir 21 crew.  The two spacecraft linked up in orbit at
8:34 p.m. CST Saturday for five days of joint operations.

Lucid is embarking on a 4 1/2 month stay in space, joining Mir 21
Commander Yuri Onufrienko and Flight Engineer Yuri Usachev.  Lucid is
the second U.S. astronaut to make an extended visit to Mir as part of
Phase 1 of the International Space Station Program.

The point of her transfer to the Mir crew occurred when the seat liner
she would use in the event of a return to Earth in the Soyuz capsule
was moved to the Mir.  Official assignment of Lucid to the Mir 21 crew
came at 7:30 a.m. central time today after Flight Director Bill Reeves
in Houston and Nikolai Nikiforov in Mission Control, Moscow, gave a
joint 'go' statement.

The astronauts and cosmonauts have begun transferring more than a ton
of water, Russian supplies, science equipment and other gear from the
shuttle to Mir. The transfer of equipment will continue through much
of the five days Atlantis is docked with the Mir.

The crew is now asleep, having begun a 10-hour sleep period at 8:43
a.m. central time today.  Astronauts will wake at 6:43 p.m. to begin
Flight Day 4.

Early Wednesday morning, while Atlantis is still docked to the Mir,
astronauts Rich Clifford and Linda Godwin will perform a six-hour
spacewalk outside Atlantis to attach four experiment packages to the
exterior of the Mir docking module.

The Shuttle and its now five person crew is expected to return to
Earth March 31 with a 6:03 a.m. CST landing at Kennedy Space Center,
Florida.

The 230-ton Atlantis-Mir complex is orbiting the Earth every 90
minutes at an altitude of about 240 statute miles with systems on both
craft operating normally.