STS-81
Report # 12 
Friday, January 17, 1997 6 p.m. CST 
 
  Astronauts and cosmonauts on board the Atlantis-Mir space station
complex so far have completed 86 percent of the planned transfer of
items, moving almost 6,000 pounds of supplies, experiment equipment
and samples between the two vehicles, and another 1,100 pounds of
water for use on the Mir space station after Atlantis undocks.

  The joint crew will continue the transfer efforts when it awakens at
7:27 p.m. CST today to begin the third full day of docked operations.

   Commander Mike Baker and Pilot Brent Jett today will power down a
number of non-essential electrical systems aboard Atlantis in an
effort to reduce consumption of the liquid hydrogen and oxygen stores
and allow for the possibility of a one-day extension of the
flight. Mission managers will meet in Houston on Saturday to consider
the option of adding another day of post-undocking operations for the
Atlantis crew.

  The possibility of an extension began being discussed Friday after
scientists associated with the Treadmill Vibration Isolation and
Stabilization System (TVIS) discovered that the data collected Jan. 13
had not been stored on its laptop computer. The treadmill is designed
for use in the Russian Service Module of the International Space
Station. The tests are designed to evaluate the restraint system,
motorization, running surface stability, and effectiveness in reducing
disturbances to the microgravity environment during exercise.

  Early Friday, one of three inertial measurement units which provide
navigation information to the shuttles general purpose computers was
placed in standby mode after its readings showed significant
drifting. The IMU will be brought out of standby for use during
Atlantis' landing.

  In addition to continuing the transfer of items to and from the
Russian space station, the joint crew will continue work with
experiments on Mir and in the double Spacehab module in Atlantis
payload bay.

  The Atlantis-Mir space complex is orbiting the Earth at an altitude
of 240 statute miles.


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