STS-84
Report # 05 
 Saturday, May 17, 1997 - 5 a.m. CDT 
 
 Space Shuttle Atlantis and Space Station Mir joined together for the
sixth time last night with a flawless docking which occurred at 9:33
p.m. Central time over the Adriatic Sea.  Ten astronauts and
cosmonauts greeted one another and then began the business of
transferring about 7,000 pounds of food, water, experiments and other
supplies to each other's spacecraft..

  Commander Charlie Precourt guided Atlantis to its docking with the
Mir to cap off a 42-hour chase which began with the Shuttle's launch,
and less than two hours later, at 11:25 p.m., the hatches between the
two space vehicles swung open. Precourt greeted Mir 23 Commander
Vasily Tsibliev and, after embraces and handshakes, the crew members
made their way into the Mir Core Module for a brief welcoming
ceremony. During the ceremony, the Shuttle crew gave Tsibliev and
Flight Engineer Alexander Lazutkin baseball caps emblazoned with the
STS-84 crew insignia as well as the traditional Russian offering of
bread, tea and salt. Then, the ten astronauts and cosmonauts got down
to business, first conducting a joint safety briefing to familiarize
themselves with each other's craft.

  Among the first 'items' to be transferred to the station was
U.S. astronaut Mike Foale, who swapped places with Jerry Linenger to
maintain a permanent American presence in space which now has
stretched to 14 months.  The transfer of Foale's custom-made Soyuz
capsule seatliner marked the official start of Foale's tour of
duty. At the same time, Linenger became a Shuttle crew member once
again, having spent 123 days as a Mir crew member following his
arrival on the Russian outpost in January.  Linenger will have spent
just over 132 days in space if Atlantis lands next Saturday as is
currently scheduled.

  Foale will be a member of both the Mir-23 and Mir-24 crews until he
is relieved by astronaut Wendy Lawrence on Atlantis' next visit to the
Mir in late September.

  Running ahead of schedule, the astronauts also reported the
successful transfer of a new."Elektron" oxygen-generating unit from
Atlantis' Spacehab module to the Kvant-1 module on the Mir. That unit
is being installed as a backup to the operational Elektron in the
Kvant-2 module to augment the Mir's oxygen generation capability.

  Atlantis' astronauts will begin an extended 10-hour sleep period at
10:08 a.m. Central time this morning.  They will be awakened at 8:08
p.m. to continue their joint work with their Russian counterparts and
Foale, highlighted by the transfer of a new Elektron oxygen generating
unit from Atlantis' Spacehab module to the Mir, where it will be
installed by Tsibliev and Flight Engineer Alexander Lazutkin early
Sunday morning. The new unit, which will reside in the Kvant-1 module
to be used as a backup to the Elektron unit operating in the Kvant-2
module, will be activated for a few minutes Sunday evening.
Meanwhile, Foale and Linenger will continue a series of handover
briefings to acquaint Foale with his home for the next four months.

  The Atlantis-Mir space complex is orbiting the Earth every 90
minutes at an altitude of 213 nautical miles with all systems on both
craft operating in excellent condition.

  The next STS-84 status report will be issued at 5 p.m. on Saturday.


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