STS-76 Mission Control Center 
Status Report # 9

Tuesday, March 26, 1996, 5 p.m. CST

The Johnson Space Center Newsroom will reopen at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday in
preparation for the upcoming spacewalk activities.

At 5 p.m. Tuesday, Atlantis' astronauts were nearing the end of
their sleep period, due to awaken at 6:43 p.m.  Preparations for the
spacewalk by astronauts Rich Clifford and Linda Godwin begin at
approximately 8:45 p.m. CST.

The hatches between Atlantis and Mir were closed early Tuesday, as was
the hatch between Atlantis and the SpaceHab module. The astronauts
then depressurized the Shuttle's cabin from its standard 14.7
pounds per square inch to 10.2 psi, a standard pre- spacewalk
protocol.  At the same time, Godwin and Clifford breathed pure oxygen
to begin the process of purging nitrogen from their bodies for the
spacewalk. The SpaceHab and Shuttle-Mir hatches will remain closed
until the spacewalk is completed.

The two spacewalkers currently are scheduled to float out of
Atlantis' airlock just after midnight, marking the start of the
first extravehicular activity to be conducted around the Mir by
American astronauts.  During the spacewalk, four experiment containers
designed to characterize the environment around Mir will be attached
to handrails on the space station.  The packages will be retrieved in
a subsequent spacewalk in about 18 months and will provide information
on the quantity and type of orbital debris and contaminants found in
the same general altitude and orbital inclination planned for the
International Space Station.

Atlantis' astronauts viewed Comet Hyakutake early this morning as
it continued its close pass by Earth, and they told reporters the
comet was brilliant and could be seen almost from horizon to horizon.

The comments came during an in-flight press conference with the
Atlantis/Mir crews taking questions from reporters at NASA centers and
in Russia. The astronauts and cosmonauts also took time out from their
transfer and resupply activities to talk with Charlie Gibson of
"Good Morning America" shortly after 4 a.m. central time today.

The Atlantis-Mir complex continues to orbit the Earth every 90 minutes
at an altitude of about 240 statute miles with systems on both
spacecraft operating normally.