STS-81
Report # 11 
Friday, January 17, 1997 -- 6 a.m. CST 
 
Atlantis' astronauts and the cosmonauts of the Mir Space Station
continued to transfer hundreds of pounds of food, water and supplies
between each other's spacecraft today in the third day of joint docked
operations for the nine crewmembers.

More than two days after Atlantis and the Mir linked together in
orbit, astronaut Marsha Ivins worked with Pilot Brent Jett and Mir 22
Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri to haul more bags of water to the
Russian complex and additional logistical supplies for U.S. astronaut
Jerry Linenger's four-month research flight aboard Mir.  Earlier this
morning, flight controllers reported that more than 1000 pounds of
water had been transferred to the Mir's water tanks.

Linenger spent several hours continuing to familiarize himself with
his new orbital home, unpacking experiment hardware and helping
astronaut John Blaha transfer biomedical samples and other experiment
results back to Atlantis for Blaha's trip back to Earth with his
shuttle crewmates next week. Blaha is wrapping up his own four-month
tour of duty in space.

Commander Mike Baker joined Jett this morning in firing Atlantis'
small vernier jet thrusters in an experiment to gather engineering
data for the International Space Station. The jet firings were part of
a structural dynamics test to collect information on the integrity of
the mate between two orbiting space vehicles and the effect of the
firings on the Mir's solar arrays.

Blaha and Linenger neared the end of their workday by stowing wheat
plants grown in the Mir's Greenhouse experiment for their return to
Earth. New seeds have been planted in the Greenhouse for cultivation
and harvesting during Linenger's stay aboard the Mir.

Several astronauts and cosmonauts will be interviewed by a pair of
Detroit radio stations shortly after 7:30 a.m. with the nine
crewmembers scheduled to begin their sleep period about four hours
later.  Crew wakeup is scheduled for 7:27 p.m.

The Atlantis-Mir space complex is orbiting the Earth at an altitude of
240 statute miles with no major systems problems reported.

###


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.