STS-79 Day 7 Highlights

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On Sunday, September 22, 1996, 6:00 a.m. CDT, STS-79 MCC Status Report # 13 reports:

STS-79 Commander Bill Readdy and Mission Specialist Jay Apt shared a brief video tour of the Mir Space Station with flight controllers this morning, taking a break from the transfer activities that have occupied much of the astronauts' time during three days of docked operations.

Readdy and Apt floated through several of Mir's modules and back into Atlantis' double SPACEHAB module during the tour pointing out the numerous transfer items stowed on both spacecraft. Transfer of equipment and supplies continues to go smoothly on board Atlantis/Mir with close to 90 percent of the transfer activity complete.

The final powered transfer item, the Material in Devices as Supercondctors (MIDAS), which will gather data on superconductor materials over the next four months, was transferred to Mir early this morning. MIDAS is just one of the investigations that Mir 22 Flight Engineer 2 John Blaha will support during his on-orbit stay.

Shortly after 4:30 this morning Readdy and Mir Commander Valery Korzun again pulsed small maneuvering jets on their spacecraft to test the capability of the Active Rack Isolation System to damp out any vibrations caused by those firings. ARIS is designed to isolate micro gravity payloads from disturbances caused by crew activity or jet firings. With that test complete, Mission Specialists Carl Walz and Jay Apt will once again perform some troubleshooting on ARIS to inspect and possibly repair a bent pushrod.

Shortly after 6 a.m. central time today, Readdy, Pilot Terry Wilcutt, Lucid and Blaha discussed their mission so far in an interview with CNN's John Holliman.

On Sunday, September 22, 1996, 5:00 p.m. CDT, STS-79 MCC Status Report # 14 reports:

The crews of Atlantis and Mir will begin the final full day of docked operations tonight, wrapping up the transfer of experiment data, equipment and supplies between the two spacecraft in preparation for closing the hatch between the shuttle and station at the end of the day.

The shuttle crew will awaken at 8:54 p.m. CDT today for the eighth day of the flight. Highlighting the final day of personal interaction with the Mir crew will be a joint crew press conference and a farewell ceremony. The press conference will begin at 2:44 a.m. CDT Monday and feature all six shuttle crew members, now including homeward-bound astronaut Shannon Lucid, as well as Mir 22 crew members Commander Valery Korzun, Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri and astronaut John Blaha, starting out on four months aboard the Russian station. The astronauts and cosmonauts will field questions from reporters both in the U.S and in Russia during the 50-minute session.

Following the press conference, the crews will have a formal farewell ceremony starting at 4:44 a.m. CDT Monday. The hatch between the two spacecraft will then be sealed shut at 7:09 a.m. CDT Monday, although the shuttle and station will spend another crew night attached to one another before Atlantis undocks from Mir at 8:33 p.m. CDT Monday.

The transfer of equipment and supplies back and forth between the shuttle and Mir has gone well and 94 percent of the planned work already has been completed. The transferred items include more than 1,800 pounds of water, created as a byproduct of electrical generation aboard Atlantis and left with the Mir for use by the station. Still more water will be transferred to the Mir tomorrow, with almost a ton of water in total having been moved to the Mir by the time Atlantis leaves.

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