STS-79 Mission Control Center
Status Report #8


Thursday, September 19, 1996, 6 p.m. CDT

The combined Atlantis and Mir Space Station crews will begin their
first full day of docked operations this evening following yesterday's
successful on-time docking and exchange of crew members Shannon Lucid
and John Blaha.

Overnight, scientists on the ground continued work with the Active
Rack Isolation System in the Spacehab module, completing several
successful tests. The system is a prototype of a device that will be
used to dampen crew motion and engine firings to protect the
microgravity environment on the International Space Station.

All nine astronauts and cosmonauts will begin their day with a joint
planning session.

Atlantis Commander Bill Readdy and Mir Commander Valery Korzun will
oversee the continuing transfer of water bags and supplies from the
shuttle's Spacehab module into Mir. More than 4,000 pounds of
equipment and logistical supplies will be transferred to Mir, and some
2,000 pounds of experiment samples and equipment will be moved from
Mir to Atlantis for return to Earth.

Mission Specialist Carl Walz will activate the Mechanics of Granular
Materials (MGM) experiment, which seeks to study what happens to
granular materials under low stress. The MGM research could lead to
improved selection and preparation of building sites in
earthquake-prone areas, and in the study of erosion, mining and
offshore engineering.

Walz and Mission Specialist Jay Apt will remove the Biotechnology
Engineering Development Unit, a biotechnology sampling device, from
Spacehab and transfer it to Mir's Priroda module for use by Blaha
during his four-months of research aboard Mir. Later, Blaha and Mir
Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri will set up the experiment in
Priroda. Blaha and Kaleri also will transfer a Commercial Generic
Bioprocessing Apparatus to Priroda.

At 5:14 a.m. CDT, Lucid and Blaha will participate in a 15-minute
interview with Good Morning America's Elizabeth Vargas. Throughout the
day, Lucid will continue the hand-over of her Mir responsibilities to
Blaha, who will serve as Mir 22 Flight Engineer 2 for four months.

Walz and Kaleri will transfer an IMAX large-format camera from
Atlantis to Mir and set it up on the Spektr module. Film shot with the
IMAX camera will be used in an upcoming feature about the Phase 1
Program of shuttle-Mir dockings.

Also today, during routine post-retrieval disassembly and inspection
of Atlantis' solid rocket boosters, a 5- inch long 7/16ths combination
wrench was found loose inside the forward skirt of the right SRB. A
contractor-led anomaly investigation team with NASA participation is
gathering further information regarding processing and close-out of
the forward skirt as well as additional inspection and analysis of the
flight hardware. However, the initial visual inspection did not reveal
any sign of physical damage, and the operation of the SRB was normal.

Atlantis' astronauts began an extended 10-hour sleep period at 10:54
a.m. CDT and will be awakened tonight at 8:54 p.m. The next STS-79
status report will be issued at 7 a.m. CDT Friday.

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