STS-84
Report # 09 
Monday, May 19, 1997 
 
  The ten astronauts and cosmonauts of the Atlantis-Mir space complex
continued their work through the overnight hours, transferring water,
hardware and logistical supplies to and from each other's spacecraft
in the third day of joint operations between the Shuttle and the
Russian Space Station crewmembers.

  While that work continued, European Space Agency astronaut
Jean-Francois Clervoy and Russian Space Agency cosmonaut Elena
Kondakova, both Atlantis Mission Specialists, continued work in the
Spacehab module at the rear of the Shuttle's cargo bay, conducting
experiments in the Biorack facility. Kondakova also collected both
cold and hot water samples from the Mir's water system to return to
Earth to be analyzed for their purity.

  As planned, the newest member of the Mir 23 crew, Mike Foale, and
astronaut Jerry Linenger continued their handover activities to
prepare Foale for his 4 month stay on Mir.  Foale will serve aboard
the Russian outpost until he is replaced by astronaut Wendy Lawrence
during Atlantis' next visit to Mir in September.

  Atlantis' seven crew members were awakened Sunday night to begin
their fifth day of work on orbit by the French National Anthem,."La
Marseillaise," before starting the transfer activities, which are
already ahead of schedule with more than 50 percent of the total items
to be delivered to and from the Mir having been moved to their final
locations.

  Working in tandem, Commander Charlie Precourt and Pilot Eileen
Collins set up equipment to take environmental air samples and also
installed a radiation detection monitor Effects and Activation Monitor
at each of four locations in the Mir.

  While Clervoy and Kondakova conducted scientific work in the
Spacehab module, Carlos Noriega relocated a Protein Crystal Growth
dewar system from Mir to Atlantis for return to Earth while Ed Lu
conducted a photo survey of the Mir station

  Earlier today, Precourt downlinked a videotape of an international
meal conducted by the ten crew members of the Atlantis-Mir complex
shortly after their docking and sent a congratulatory message to the
Air Force's 4th Air Expeditionary Wing in celebration of the 50th
anniversary of the military service and the completion of wing's tour
of duty in Qatar in the Middle East.

  Several crew members took time out this morning to answer questions
from viewers of the C-SPAN cable television network, discussing the
progress of the mission and the condition of the Mir Space Station.

 Atlantis and Mir continue to orbit the Earth every 90 minutes at an
altitude of 213 nautical miles with all systems functioning normally.

  The crewmembers are scheduled to begin a sleep period at 12:08
p.m. Central time. Atlantis' crew will be awakened at 8:08 p.m. this
evening, with the Mir crewmembers receiving their wakeup call one hour
later.

The next STS-84 status report will be issued at 5 p.m. Central time.




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