STS-81
Report # 02 
Sunday, January 12, 1997 6:30 p.m. CST 
 
Atlantis' six astronauts began their first full day on orbit, waking
at 4:27 p.m. CST today after an eight-hour sleep period following
Sunday's on-time launch at 3:27 a.m.

Over the next few days, a series of maneuvering burns will be
performed to allow Atlantis to catch up with the orbiting Russian
space station on this fifth Shuttle-Mir docking flight.  Atlantis
currently trails Mir by 6,000 nautical miles, closing at the rate of
about 600 miles with every orbit. Shortly after 7 p.m. today,
Commander Mike Baker and Pilot Brent Jett will fire the right orbital
maneuvering system engine in an 8 foot per second burn, slowing
Atlantis' closure rate to about 580 miles per orbit. Docking of
Atlantis and Mir is scheduled for Flight Day 4, Tuesday, January 14th
at 9:53 p.m. CST.

Baker and Jett also will calibrate the Shuttle's on-board navigation
systems and check out the tools they will use during the rendezvous
and docking. Mission Specialists Jeff Wisoff, John Grunsfeld, Marsha
Ivins and Jerry Linenger will continue their work activating all
systems and experiments aboard Atlantis and the double Spacehab
module.  The crew members also will exercise on a stationary bicycle
and begin filling the water containers with drinking water that will
be transferred to Mir.

Atlantis is in a 214 by 345 mile orbit, circling the planet every 90
minutes, with all systems working well.

The next Shuttle status report will be filed at 5 a.m. CST Monday.




NASA Johnson Space Center Mission Status Reports and other information
are available automatically by sending an Internet electronic mail
message to jscnews-request@listserver.jsc.nasa.gov. In the body of the
message (not the subject line) users should type "subscribe" or
"unsubscribe"(no quotes). This will add or remove the email address
that sent the subscibe message to the news release distribution
list. The system will reply with a confirmation via E-mail of each
subscription.  Once you have subscribed you will receive future news
releases via e-mail.