STS-81
Report # 07 
Wednesday, January 15, 1997, 6 a.m. CST 
 
Astronaut Jerry Linenger became the fourth American to occupy a
position on the Russian Space Station Mir early this morning following
the docking of Atlantis to the Russian outpost late Tuesday.  Linenger
officially traded places with Astronaut John Blaha at 3:45 this
morning when their form-fitted Soyuz seat liners were swapped in the
small spacecraft that is used for return to Earth.

Commander Mike Baker and Pilot Brent Jett guided Atlantis to the fifth
linkup with Mir at 9:55 p.m. Tuesday at a point 210 nautical miles
above the Earth southeast of Moscow, culminating a three-day
rendezvous which began with the shuttle's launch early Sunday morning.

Two hours after docking, the hatches between Atlantis and Mir were
opened at 11:57 p.m. CST, and Baker and Mir 22 Commander Valery Korzun
shared a hug to mark the start of five days of joint operations
between the two crews.  During the docked phase of the mission, nearly
three tons of food, water and supplies will be transferred between the
two spacecraft.

After an informal welcoming ceremony in the Mir's core module, the
crewmembers conducted a safety briefing and went right to work,
hauling top priority resupply items into the Russian station.

The nine crewmembers were upbeat as they began their joint work, Blaha
saying."we're truly in the space station business." He completed 118
days as a Mir crewmember, which began with his arrival on the Russian
station on September 19th as part of Atlantis' STS-79 crew.

The astronauts and cosmonauts will begin a nine hour sleep period
later this morning at 10:27 a.m. and will be awakened at 7:27
p.m. tonight to begin their first full day of joint docked operations
and transfer work.

The next STS-81 status report will be issued later this afternoon.




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